I work at a Big Ten college. Girls. Everywhere.
and it seems that somewhere on campus they are always looking for devs.
Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
11–20 of 22 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#12Lots of funny comments here, but in all seriousness, I think a lot of social game studios have more female employees.
It makes sense, considering the article on VentureBeat today that suggests that women play more social games than men: http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/22/do-women-play-more-games-t...
Perhaps a place like Zynga or Playdom would be a good fit for you?
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#13Thanks for asking this! I've been wondering the same thing -- I don't want to spend the rest of my life only working with men, it's ridiculous. If I was skilled at another profession, I think it would be enough to make me go and do that instead..
The obvious answer, I suppose, is to get involved with projects that increase diversity in CS and the tech industry, and also to encourage your HR department to find places to advertise their programming jobs that will be seen by women. (Perhaps a women-in-CS group at the local university, or a more formal group such as LinuxChix.)
There's a negative feedback loop here, though, where women will probably be less interested in a team/company that's so far totally failed to hire technical women. :/
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#14Go work for a big consulting firm, or spin-off. Usually lots of smart female devs.
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#15Live in an environment where a lot of different start-ups co-exist. I have been having a better chances of a meeting a female each day at the kitchen, every so often. Not that I have a chance in the world with them, but I have my dreams, man. I have my dreams!
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#16Would you consider working in India? The M:F ratio in software development is 4:1.
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#17Would you consider working in India? The M:F ratio in software development is 4:1.
Yeah, I was going to suggest that too :-)
The ratio I observed in Israel was much better than most Western countries too.
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#18Would you consider working in India? The M:F ratio in software development is 4:1.
Isn't that about what it is in the U.S. as well? Google claims their ratio is 4:1, and that the Valley overall is around 5:1 (source: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/22/google-s-marissa-mayer-gi...).
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#19Live in an environment where a lot of different start-ups co-exist. I have been having a better chances of a meeting a female each day at the kitchen, every so often. Not that I have a chance in the world with them, but I have my dreams, man. I have my dreams!
The attitude above is the easiest way to ensure that the environment stays all-male.
Re: Ask HN: How to avoid working in all-male work environments as a programmer?
#20A lot depends on the leadership style of an organisation, no so much its size or business. Diversity ultimately creates better organisations, but it's harder to manage every day (that's true for all diversity: gender, culture, language, orientation, religion, "mindset", etc.). So look for organisations where "people management" is recognised as a valuable skill set, not just something that people do after some tenure period at the company. A lot of tech organisations unfortunately fall into the latter category.
A good first-glance indicator is whether the management titles of the organisation are given based on tenure (older people and/or long term employees), domain expertise (e.g. the most experiences developers have management titles) or leadership skills. Try to find companies with the last type of promotion system and you are very likely going to have more gender diversity as well.