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Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

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Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

#1
Website: https://stayintech.com/

Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career. Our goal is to decrease that number and help companies increase diversity of their workforce.

See which companies take diversity seriously, and find a better job in tech.

If you have any questions or feedback, we'd love to hear from you!

Re: Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

#2
I read an article in the New York Times about unpublished research. A major company hired researchers to figure out why they had fewer women employees. They found that women quit more than men. Surprisingly, women had exactly the same work issues as men - poor management, lack of work-life balance, unreasonable demands, unreasonable expectations. But women, more often than men, had the freedom in their life to quit - while more men simply didn't have that option.

The company, realizing that the research would require that they treat their employees better, buried the research and started a PR campaign to talk about how they try to hire more women.

So we really need better regulation of companies - so that we can improve life for all of our citizens. I would like to see laws requiring employees on boards, limiting working hours, requiring higher pay for part-time vs. full-time workers, and perhaps required training for all managers for "low power distance" management. Really, I'm for anything that might improve quality of life for our citizens. We live in a time of extreme automation - why are so many of us forced to work in such poor conditions?

Re: Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

#3
post #2

I read an article in the New York Times about unpublished research. A major company hired researchers to figure out why they had fewer women employees. They found that women quit more than men. Surprisingly, women had exactly the same work issues as men - poor management, lack of work-life balance, unreasonable demands, unreasonable expectations. But women, more often than men, had the freedom in their life to quit -…

> But women, more often than men, had the freedom in their life to quit - while more men simply didn't have that option.

It would mean that women have it better than men, which is not a popular narrative today.

Re: Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

#4
post #2

I read an article in the New York Times about unpublished research. A major company hired researchers to figure out why they had fewer women employees. They found that women quit more than men. Surprisingly, women had exactly the same work issues as men - poor management, lack of work-life balance, unreasonable demands, unreasonable expectations. But women, more often than men, had the freedom in their life to quit -…

There are some great companies out there. One problem is how to find the right company for you, that promotes and supports diverse talent.

There are lots of campaigns and initiatives for encouraging young women to start tech careers, but we are taking a different approach by encouraging women to stay in tech.

Re: Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

#7
post #5

This just looks like a job board with ads for companies. Of course they are going say that they take diversity seriously. What have you done to curate this site? I expected to see some sort of data about the companies.

> "Of course they are going say that they take diversity seriously."

Actually this is what we were also worried about, but we have been in contact with many companies, and not all of them see diversity as a priority. Those companies who take diversity seriously are excited about our mission and want to showcase their company to our users. We have had long conversations with all the companies on our site, and heard what they are doing to support diversity. But you are right, there is so much more we can do, and we can't wait to go forward with this.

Re: Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

#8

Why is it bad if people leave tech mid career? I cant imagine cranking out the hiroglythics myself for too much longer. Especially as non managerial it is low status.

> "Why is it bad if people leave tech mid career?"

It's known that gender diversity improves organisational performance and competitiveness. Diverse teams improve ROI, increase innovation and solve problems better. Still only 25% of the IT workforce are women, and over 40% of them leave tech mid-career. We think people who build technology should represent the people who use it. There is a lack of talent in STEM, so in addition to attracting new talent, we need to find ways to keep more of the current talent, to build the future of technology. A career in tech can be very rewarding if you find the right company and job.

Re: Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

#9
post #3
post #2

I read an article in the New York Times about unpublished research. A major company hired researchers to figure out why they had fewer women employees. They found that women quit more than men. Surprisingly, women had exactly the same work issues as men - poor management, lack of work-life balance, unreasonable demands, unreasonable expectations. But women, more often than men, had the freedom in their life to quit -…

> But women, more often than men, had the freedom in their life to quit - while more men simply didn't have that option. It would mean that women have it better than men, which is not a popular narrative today.

Indeed. Roy Baumeister has written about it (where I first picked up the fact, having grown blind to it all my life): http://denisdutton.com/baumeister.htm

Re: Apply HN: Over 40% of women leave tech mid-career, help us decrease that

#10
I applaud your effort. I have upvoted this.

I will suggest you devote more effort to developing a means to talk to companies about "best practices" and how to do this better. Try to frame it in a non judgey fashion. Try hard to avoid sounding like you are moralizing. People will interpret your position that way anyway simply because of the space you are in. You will need to kind over compensate for that to have any hope of being heard as not being on your high horse about this.

I liked the Design for Diversity section. At the moment, all the titles I am seeingseem to be about web and app design. I hope you have plans to also write about how companies can design the company to attract and retain a diverse work force.

Let me suggest you do your best to find good research and to frame it in terms of what is in it for the company. I like your bit about how much job turnover costs. You need more in that vein. Case studies of how to do this sell and how it promotes success for the company would be a good thing.

I don't know where I saw it recently, but I have seen stats that correlate diversity to profitability. This would be another good angle to high light: Hey, all you Programmers, you are leaving money on the table.

If I ran this, I would be angling to help non diverse companies do this better as a means to further my mission and grow my user base/potential paying customer base. I will suggest that helping companies find "low hanging fruit" -- I.e. relatively painless ways to promote diversity -- would be a great way to start enticing companies down the slippery slope of goodness here.

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