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Tech is the best industry for women

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Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#51

Post by austinheap »

needlessly wrote: post #47
Rjevski wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any facts to back this up? I would say education is pretty irrelevant if you've actually got something to show off (open source projects, etc).

it's pretty well known if you go to a top university, then you're more likely to get interviews if you don't have much professional experience outside internships. I'm not saying you can't work at Google from a no-name university, but but there is a steeper hill. Once you have like 7+ years of professional experience, then education matters less.

You're totally right that a Name Brand™ degree will open doors at the staple companies like Apple/Google/Facebook. That said, the number of times I've been debriefing on a candidate and their degree came up as a factor is zero. That's after hiring 100+ in SF and interviewing a # I don't want to think about.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#52

Post by tickthokk »

burkaman wrote: post #8
tickthokk wrote: post #7

I'm curious if this was a response letter to the other female-tech blog post ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14868390 ). You don't seem like a stick in the mud, which makes me believe that the other poster is. Not a fair comparison, I admit. I don't know either of you, so that's just the impression I get from these two separate posts.

What do you mean by "stick in the mud"? Do you not see anything wrong with what the other poster experienced?

Of course the other post's experience was horrible. And I know this is a core tenant of not understanding the situation, but it seemed like some of it was purely in jest, and if that poster was a little more... fun? then maybe the post wouldn't exist.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#53

Post by SamReidHughes »

Rjevski wrote: post #22
needlessly wrote: post #16

She goes to MIT by the way. (not saying she doesn't deserve it) I bet if she went to some no-name university and people saw her pole dancing then her employment would be more limited

Do you have any facts to back this up? I would say education is pretty irrelevant if you've actually got something to show off (open source projects, etc).

It's not the education per se, it's the higher probability distribution of how good you are.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#54

Post by needlessly »

austinheap wrote: post #42
needlessly wrote: post #16

She goes to MIT by the way. (not saying she doesn't deserve it) I bet if she went to some no-name university and people saw her pole dancing then her employment would be more limited

As a former dancer from a no name school I promise you no one cares. About the school. Or the dancing.

After years of professional experience and if you're a high contributing employee, then it doesn't matter. If you're a middle or slightly below average contributor then these things do factor in.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#55

Post by rafiki6 »

This constant debate about industries that are good or bad for women is getting a little old and tired. As with all things in life, I find the broader culture tends to affect workplace culture tremendously. Women have tended to shy away from STEM not because it's an antiwomen environment but rather because their broader culture discourages them. My electrical engineering class had about 20% females, and not a single one of them was Caucasian. I went to a top engineering school in Canada. All the females were of immigrant backgrounds where their families and their ethnic culture promoted higher education in STEM fields. On the other hand, several other of the engineering disciplines (the one's a bit closer to traditional science or business such as civil, chem and industrial) had much more balanced ratio's. The problem in North America is that we tend to promote "TECH" culture as male dominated and geeky. Girls shy away from it because they face constant social pressure from a young age to fit in (as males do but that's another story). On the other hand, I come from an ethnic background and in my country electrical engineering classes have the same number if not more women then men. This gender diversity thing is a broad cultural and economic problem (also another story). I hate when popular media simplifies it.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#56

Post by rexaliquid »

hammerzeit wrote: post #4

Please, before this degrades into the inevitable shouting match, let's please consider that there are two things that can both simultaneously be true: 1.Tech is less bad than many, many other industries. I can personally speak to overt, even illegal sexism in the field of medicine at a level that would cause riots in tech. I’ve heard similar stories in academia, to say nothing of fields like manufacturing. We live in…

Positive stories are just as important as the stories of sexism and harassment. One tells us the problem exists, the other reassures us that something can be done about it.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#57

Post by needlessly »

austinheap wrote: post #51
needlessly wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's pretty well known if you go to a top university, then you're more likely to get interviews if you don't have much professional experience outside internships. I'm not saying you can't work at Google from a no-name university, but but there is a steeper hill. Once you have like 7+ years of professional experience, then education matters less.

You're totally right that a Name Brand™ degree will open doors at the staple companies like Apple/Google/Facebook. That said, the number of times I've been debriefing on a candidate and their degree came up as a factor is zero. That's after hiring 100+ in SF and interviewing a # I don't want to think about.

>the number of times I've been debriefing..

Oh, I didn't know you were the hiring manager in the world. Sry.

Cherry picked examples aren't a good example. Logic 101

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#58

Post by bdcravens »

civilian wrote: post #50
rdiddly wrote: post #38

"I'm a stripper" [or whatnot] "and techies treated me just fine." Not exactly changing my mind about bro culture.

You're implying that there could be something wrong with treating a stripper "just fine". How should a person treat a stripper?

I don't think that's the point. I think the point is it's more like the moment in "Liar Liar" where Jim Carey's character is talking to the girl in the elevator and she talks about how "everyone's been really nice"

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#60

Post by drinchev »

Article should be titled :

"Tech is the best industry for women, compared to the others"

It's not like it's the 60-ies. Posting photos about you having fun should always be allowed wherever you work ( well, maybe public jobs is an exception - politics, teachers, etc. ).

I'm sick of this topic, anyway.

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