Recruiting is tricky and generally everyone wants the best candidate
I have to employ a lot of people and there is unconscious bias in any interview situation. I also see it in some of my managers - if the don’t have a university education they will often favour candidates with similar background and be more dismissive of qualifications - they genuinely don’t see it as so important not that they are actively prejudiced.
I would love to have more female representation in my teams and would almost certainly favour a female over male candidate if they were close.
Regarding BAME - The western interview sales pitch approach to interviews will favour some cultures over others not so groomed in ways of expressively telling anecdotes and endearing themselves socially with the panel.
Diversity on disablity is also an issue - absolutely need to be inclusive however HR would deny any acknowledgement that someone that needs ‘reasonable adjustments’ maybe more of an overhead and less productive as that would be so non-pc. So if a manager has a small team judge on performance he would less likely go for someone with dyslexia or autism. It isn’t because they have no tolerance of disabilities (surprised that word hasn’t been purged by now).
I also see many shocking cvs and when you see these articles ‘I have applied for over a thousand roles etc’ and the person thinking it is prejudice on name or whatever it will morEh than likely be a v shit cv/cover letter that’s never going to be successful however many applications they submit. They need to play the survival game better not assume the world is against them.