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Also, the whole rapper/Sports star argument is stupid. Every kid i knew in High school had at one point or another dreamed of being a Sports star or in the Music industry, I mean, Did you really think it was black kids sustaining the sales of Garageband and Guitar Hero ????
This may be the problem. More kids should be dreaming of being a scientist or engineer.
If every young kid wants to be a "star", something is wrong.
Yes, that the argument go to every school in the nation. Lol
Companies do recruiting in schools. They go looking for employees all the time.
This is done at the high school level. We had employers come to my high school and say hey what about a career in this or that field. We are looking for people with these skills, etc and so on.
So the question becomes why can't those companies recruit at more schools to more students to make them aware?
Yes and these companies were looking for high school level talent. The Silicon Valley is looking for college talent that has brain power. So they concentrate their recruiting at top schools that have already done the sorting for them.
If you think these companies are going to recruit from Alabama State you'd be sadly mistaken.
I'm saying what I've seen in school with all the "Girls in Engineering" I did in the Austin area schools.
Never went after that because it was just a big whine session about how they had to network to get ahead.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan
How many girls were in your Math classes, physics classes, EE classes ?
There were only 3 girls in my graduating class from college getting CS degrees (engineering).
I went to UT-Austin. I got a degree in a liberal arts discipline, but my roommate was EE. Most of the girls in my sorority were studying STEM disciplines and most of the rest were business students.
Since I was a liberal arts student, I had to take a little bit of everything including science and math. My science and math classes were majority-female, though that could have been because the females actually showed up regularly and the male students didn't.
As a woman in tech, I'm used to being the only female in the room because throughout my career, that's usually been the situation.
I'm involved in a couple of professional groups for women in tech, and we don't sit around and complain about how we have to "network." We know that networking is important for everyone in pretty much every profession. However, I've heard some stories about age-based discrimination that will make your blood boil. You as well as anyone should know that the tech sector is rife with ageism, and it hits women at a younger age than men. Men are "used up" at 50...for women, it's 40. I can't tell you how many female PMs/BAs I've met who tell me they used to be DBAs or software engineers...then they hit 40...and transitioned.
How do you know what the core problem is? How do you know how to fix the core problem?
I submit that if people who are high school and college students see tech firms recruiting at their school as wanting to give them a chance, that might impact how many students pick what major.
But more importantly, there are thousands of people who get engineering degrees every year, so they exist.
Tech employers hire people for all sorts of reasons just like all companies.
Another who purports to know what tech companies think and or feel.
I have been in IT since 1981. I have been part of the commercial software business since 1989. I have hired and recruited software professionals since 1992 (and continue to do so). I have hired a few H1Bs over my career, though most people I have hired and recruited are citizens. I have also recruited on the campuses of major public universities.
By the way I don't think tech companies "feel" anything. They have a job to do, and they hire people to get that job done. A serious tech company has little need for high school kids. If they do - they would hire locally.
Tech companies hire the best people they can afford to hire. The simple truth is that the supply of skilled tech people is: mostly male, and mostly white or Asian. The supply of these people is evident way back in the supply chain in K-12 schooling.
I have been in IT since 1981. I have been part of the commercial software business since 1989. I have hired and recruited software professionals since 1992 (and continue to do so). I have hired a few H1Bs over my career, though most people I have hired and recruited are citizens. I have also recruited on the campuses of major public universities.
By the way I don't think tech companies "feel" anything. They have a job to do, and they hire people to get that job done. A serious tech company has little need for high school kids. If they do - they would hire locally.
Tech companies hire the best people they can afford to hire. The simple truth is that the supply of skilled tech people is: mostly male, and mostly white or Asian. The supply of these people is evident way back in the supply chain in K-12 schooling.
Your HS physics and calculus/pre-calculus classes are majority male.
Time to stop using "race" as a crutch for explaining the lack of success in any area of the life of Americans of majority African descent. When you make up a small percentage of the population, you have to work harder to be successful, don't expect any handouts.
I went to UT-Austin. I got a degree in a liberal arts discipline, but my roommate was EE. Most of the girls in my sorority were studying STEM disciplines and most of the rest were business students.
Since I was a liberal arts student, I had to take a little bit of everything including science and math. My science and math classes were majority-female, though that could have been because the females actually showed up regularly and the male students didn't.
As a woman in tech, I'm used to being the only female in the room because throughout my career, that's usually been the situation.
I'm involved in a couple of professional groups for women in tech, and we don't sit around and complain about how we have to "network." We know that networking is important for everyone in pretty much every profession. However, I've heard some stories about age-based discrimination that will make your blood boil. You as well as anyone should know that the tech sector is rife with ageism, and it hits women at a younger age than men. Men are "used up" at 50...for women, it's 40. I can't tell you how many female PMs/BAs I've met who tell me they used to be DBAs or software engineers...then they hit 40...and transitioned.
Half of my team is female. None are under 50. Possibly a bit unusual, but these people are on my team (software QA) because of their specific skills (mainframe software).
Age discrimination in tech is not uniform. I think it probably does exist in typical startups and social media companies. But a post startup company often has experienced people in leadership positions that have proven experience managing people, money, and success/failure. Some "senior" tech people have lost it - they are unable to keep up with the most current technologies. As an over 50 person myself, I know I could never compete for a job that required deep experience in web development. I know that there are people 20 years younger that know much more than I do. But guess what - these people have no clue about what I do.
Non-Asian minorities and women are underrepresented in the tech industry. I also own a business in the industry as well. The previous poster is correct-- there are not enough non-Asian minorities and women majoring in STEM majors that lead to tech careers.
Tech careers are accessible, and well recompensed. Is it a problem? I think so.
Unfortunately, minority dominated inner city schools don't seem to graduate students with the requisite math and science skills. It's an institutional problem. Further more, I think our industry would benefit from more diverse less male dominated viewpoints (and management). I don't particularly care what Jesse Jackson has to say, but that doesn't mean you can dismiss the issue entirely.
I have been repeatedly advocating for school vouchers so those kids could go to better schools, but many of the most vocal opponents to vouchers here on city-data are liberals and Blacks even though it is a FACT that minorities overwhelmingly support school vouchers:
Quote:
"Pro-voucher voters among racial minorities overwhelmingly support Barack Obama, but they are baffled by the Democratic nominee's opposition to vouchers. They also say they are frustrated that Democratic leaders appear to be more concerned about keeping the peace with teachers unions -- which adamantly oppose vouchers -- than about finding alternatives that could advance desperately needed education reforms for minority students.
...Public opinion polls also show solid support for school vouchers among minority parents. Sixty-five percent of adult African-Americans and 63 percent of adult Hispanics favor the use of vouchers, according to a national survey conducted earlier this year under the auspices of the journal Education Next and the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University. In the survey, more than half of minority adults gave higher marks to their local police than their public schools.
"There is no doubt that on this issue, ...Obama has it wrong," Martin wrote."
Jesse's grasping a the last straws of professional victimhood for him and his "people". They are losing out to the GLB(ISGD)Q crowd. There was an article in the NYT about how the Tech Giants in Silicon Valley turned out for the San Fancisco "Pride" parade. Google calls their GLB(ISGD)Q employes Gayglers (internally of course, that almost sounds cisgendered to me, a major no-no).
Once you lose your place on the totem pole of permamently aggreived minority it can be a tough thing to take. Poor Jesse, overtaken by the fairies. I bet that one hurts worse than white people.
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