Tech recruiting firm apologizes for job ad seeking 'preferably Caucasian' employee
(FOX NEWS) - A tech recruiting company apologized on Sunday after a job opportunity posted online said white people were preferred for the position.
Cynet Systems acknowledged the "offensive job post," which picked up steam by someone who posted it to Twitter.
"Uh, hey @cynetjobs - what's with this?" Helena McCabe tweeted. "Your job listing for a mid-senior level business development position's top qualification is 'Preferably Caucasian' How could you POSSIBLY think that's okay?"
The job description said that a "preferably caucasian" candidate with technical background knowledge of Robotics Process Automation with eight to 10 years of experience should apply for the mid-senior level, full-time position.
The firm, based in Sterling, Virginia, issued an apology for the ad and the "anger & frustration caused."
Co-CEO Ashwani Mayur said in a statement that the employees involved in the job posting had been fired, adding that the way the posting was written was against company policy.
"We understand why some may have been upset seeing this listing, because we were too. It is a long-standing policy for our company to refuse any request to list jobs only seeking candidates of any specific ethnicity, gender, or other inappropriate restrictions, and we will turn clients down if they demand requirements of this type be included," he continued.
Cynet Systems "is proud to be an immensely diverse company," according to Mayur, who added that the company is co-owned by Indian-Americans. He said more than 60 percent of their workforce includes minorities.
Screenshots posted online show the company had posted an ad for an account manager in Herndon, Virginia, with a notation including "female candidate only." The listing appears to have been deleted or modified; the company did not respond to a question about that job posting.
A LinkedIn spokeswoman told The Associated Press the "preferably Caucasian" ad was taken down as soon as it was discovered and that such postings are highly unusual.
"Discrimination of any kind is against our policies and we have no tolerance for it on our platform," the company said in a statement. "We have dedicated teams and technical measures in place to identify content that violates our policies; they took quick action to remove the job posting."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.