When Interpretations of Merit Thresholds Vary and Reproduce Inequality: Entering the Tech Industry Without Computer Science Credentials

The author is deeply grateful to Michel Anteby, Mark Zbaracki, and Can Guven for their unwavering support and invaluable feedback in the making of this paper. The author also extends gratitude to Andrew Nelson and three anonymous reviewers for their excellent and generous feedback and guidance throughout the review process. Audrey Holm, Yun Ha Cho, Julie Yen, Camellia Bryan, Barnini Bhattacharyya, and the members of Boston University Precarity Lab, Northeastern University Labor Cluster, and Ivey Strategy Group also shared valuable comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. The author owes a sincere debt of gratitude to all the research participants for their help, time, and the most inspiring conversations! Finally, a special thanks to the Snails, with many of whom the author has been writing since the very first drafts of this paper. All errors and omissions are the author’s own.