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And it is well documented, at least at new school tech companies, that there is an exclusionary bro culture that keeps women and people of color out.
But let's forget all that and just keep on blaming the lack of women in lack of interest.
I'd like to see that documentation. And not from Huffington Post or other source. In this day and age, having that exclusionary bro culture is frowned upon. If you're doing it, you suck. It's pretty universal. If women are running into that, speak up. Most people in the IT field won't put up with that crap. Unless she's an idiot. But, we do the same for male IT idiots. Some people claim discrimination when it's really that they just suck.
I'm all for women and equality. 100%. If they want in the IT field, they're going to be up against everyone else. No special treatment. No favors. But, we're not going to be putting them down, not going to be excluding them. We judge based on your merits and your knowledge. It's a tough field to be in at times. But, don't blame discrimination if you can't cut it. A lot of men can't make it in this field, either. It's equality. You're not getting special treatment, and when you fail, it's all on you. Not because you have a vagina.
The best person for the job should get it. Women are more prone to calling off work and other issues with scheduling. I've worked with it in management and see huge differences comparing men to women.
The men are a dream for scheduling, generally reliable, and do high quality work. I'll get lambasted for this statement, but I've seen it first hand.
They go into a variety fields that they find more interesting, more rewarding or perhaps less demanding. Women with the brains to finish engineering degrees don't have much trouble getting hired to do pretty much whatever they want.
So women, blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented in Silicon Valley because all those young uber-liberal tech entrepreneurs are actually horrible sexists and racists. Yeah, that must be it.
The list goes on and on about bro culture and how uninclusive tech companies are. Mirrors my own experience anyway. I have been either a tech worker or working in professional services that supports tech companies for pretty much my entire professional life.
I'll share an experience of my own about black enguneers. A couple of years ago I helped organize a recruiting hackathin tour at black colleges. We looked for Silicon Valley large and small employers to help sponsor aka show up and collect resumes. They do similar things at other schools. Namely Stanford, Berkeley and whatever school the co-founders graduated from.
It was really hard to get companies on board. A lot of them told us that these black colleges couldn't produce engineers that fit in culturally (aka the infamous culture fit that means do I want to hang out with you every day after work at happy hour, rock climbing or the beer garden). Others said, we don't know if students from these schools are good. Meanwhile, something like 2/3 of black engineering grads come from black colleges.
Eventually we got some good names on board, but it was a struggle.
In fact Silicon Valley companies barely recruit from schools in our backyard: SF State, cal state Hayward, UC Davis and SJ Jose State. All of these schools have a more diverse crop of engineers than Cal and Stanford. There are a lot of companies and a lot of engineering jobs, not everyone can afford and get the top tier talent. What gives?
I'd like to see that documentation. And not from Huffington Post or other source. In this day and age, having that exclusionary bro culture is frowned upon. If you're doing it, you suck. It's pretty universal. If women are running into that, speak up. Most people in the IT field won't put up with that crap. Unless she's an idiot. But, we do the same for male IT idiots. Some people claim discrimination when it's really that they just suck.
I'm all for women and equality. 100%. If they want in the IT field, they're going to be up against everyone else. No special treatment. No favors. But, we're not going to be putting them down, not going to be excluding them. We judge based on your merits and your knowledge. It's a tough field to be in at times. But, don't blame discrimination if you can't cut it. A lot of men can't make it in this field, either. It's equality. You're not getting special treatment, and when you fail, it's all on you. Not because you have a vagina.
The senior execs at my company admit it is a problem and the company has been actively working on resolving it. The last company I worked for had a similar challenge but was not so forthcoming. I recently had lunch with former colleagues from that place and they told me the CEO has now admitted is much and is empowering the employees to work on it.
I didn't need to go around googling for stories, I live it daily. And all of my peers have noted the same thing across many roles and many companies.
You can even read Disrupted. It is pretty accurate, my own company is quite similar.
It was really hard to get companies on board. A lot of them told us that these black colleges couldn't produce engineers that fit in culturally (aka the infamous culture fit that means do I want to hang out with you every day after work at happy hour, rock climbing or the beer garden). Others said, we don't know if students from these schools are good. Meanwhile, something like 2/3 of black engineering grads come from black colleges.
Are there any black colleges with "good" engineering programs? ... highly ranked programs that attract top students?
This site lists North Carolina A&T as the top black college for engineering.
Is it surprising that companies aren't especially excited about recruiting people from programs ranked #135 or lower? Do we really need racism to explain that?
Is it surprising that companies aren't especially excited about recruiting people from programs ranked #135 or lower? Do we really need racism to explain that?
If you do a bit more digging you'll find that the black engineering school grads end up doing well when the arrive in the workplace.
Old school tech companies recruited from black colleges with no issue. Companies like IBM, Apple, Sun Micro. Even NASA has a formal program. New school tech companies have a lot of hubris and can't imagine an old school company like IBM has good ideas worth emulating. That problem is a lot broader than just recruiting.
Many top black engineering students land at black colleges because the graduation rates end up being way higher. The established networks and programs within bigger more established companies work well for sourcing. But as for the people who want to get into the hip new Silicon Valley companies it is a bit harder. On the up note Google just started running a special program at Howard University. And schools are doing targeted exchanges with Cal and Standford to help people make those connections. The HBCUs are also working on adding in curriculums about the interviewing process at the hip Silicon Valley companies. But the culture is insular and most employees come from referrals. And you can't solve that easily.
The senior execs at my company admit it is a problem and the company has been actively working on resolving it. The last company I worked for had a similar challenge but was not so forthcoming. I recently had lunch with former colleagues from that place and they told me the CEO has now admitted is much and is empowering the employees to work on it.
I didn't need to go around googling for stories, I live it daily. And all of my peers have noted the same thing across many roles and many companies.
You can even read Disrupted. It is pretty accurate, my own company is quite similar.
She told you and you went ahead and linked the Atlantic. Good job shooting yourself in the foot.
I've posted evidence earlier in the thread.
The Atlantic article is well researched and links to several sources including businessweek. Or you can look at the lawsuits racked up by Uber. The implosion of Zenefits. Or the book I referenced in my post. Piles of stories must be wrong.
The Atlantic article is well researched and links to several sources including businessweek. Or you can look at the lawsuits racked up by Uber. The implosion of Zenefits. Or the book I referenced in my post. Piles of stories must be wrong.
Also, I think you missed the title of the thread. This is about STEM, not Silicon Valley. Since I work in a STEM field, does that mean I work in Silicon Valley? No. Silicon Valley is less than 1% of all the STEM jobs out there in the United States. Lockheed Martin for example has a ballistic missiles division in Silicon Valley opposite of Google across the airport. However does that mean they have anything to do with Silicon Valley? Absolutely not. You're getting the two mixed up.
The Atlantic is not a research peer reviewed organization. They're just as good as any blog because they have an angle.
Try again with peer researched articles discussing the STEM field, not Silicon Valley, not the plight of women because they have a vagina, etc.
Since you don't even work in STEM, you're at a huge disadvantage here because it's obvious you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about.
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