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Getting to work on diversity at Google

googleblog.blogspot.com

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Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#31

Post by declan »

[deleted] wrote: post #10

[deleted]

Your statement is misleading, and I suspect intentionally so. Google is, reasonably, talking about blacks and Hispanics earning CS degrees.

You're changing the subject to broaden the topic to degrees in S&E -- that is, social sciences, psychology and behaviorial science, medical science, biological sciences, earth science and geology, atmospheric science, ocean science, etc. Few of those degrees lead themselves to careers in software engineering; Google isn't known to hire irrigation management or crop specialists to work on new search products.* That's why it makes more sense to talk about CS degrees specifically.

[* Yes, of course software engineers can come from any field, and we all know the self-taught high school dropout who can outprogram a Stanford CS PhD. But those are the exception, not the rule.]

Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#32

Post by rcthompson »

Torgo wrote: post #14

So women make up 18% of new CS degrees and Google's staffed at 17%. Blacks and hispanics make up under 5% of CS degrees and at Google they make up 3%. Close the ticket, it's an upstream problem.

Well, they say they're working with "upstream" to resolve the issue:

"Among other things, since 2010 we’ve given more than $40 million to organizations working to bring computer science education to women and girls. And we’ve been working with historically black colleges and universities to elevate coursework and attendance in computer science. For example, this year Google engineer Charles Pratt was in-residence at Howard University, where he revamped the school’s Intro to CS curriculum."

Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#34

Post by [deleted] »

declan wrote: post #31
[deleted] wrote: post #10

[deleted]

Your statement is misleading, and I suspect intentionally so. Google is, reasonably, talking about blacks and Hispanics earning CS degrees. You're changing the subject to broaden the topic to degrees in S&E -- that is, social sciences, psychology and behaviorial science, medical science, biological sciences, earth science and geology, atmospheric science, ocean science, etc. Few of those degrees lead themselves to ca…

[deleted]

Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#35

Post by omonra »

samstokes wrote: post #9
ceras wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The official site breaks it down by tech/non-tech/leadership: http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html

Interesting that non-tech is less male-dominated than tech, as expected, but even more white-dominated.

Same white, just fewer Asians.

Nothing to see here, all stereotypes confirmed :)

Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#36

Post by doodyhead »

Although it's fairly straightforward to distinguish between gender and sexual orientation, I disagree with these traditional US categories of ethnicity.

Take a 'White' person, for instance: is a White American the same as a White Englishman, or a White Australian? What about a White Frenchman? These are all classified as 'White' but could potentially be vastly different in terms of diversity.

The same argument could be made with the other ethnicities. The 'Asian' category -- are they Chinese, Japanese, Filipino..? Or an American Asian immigrant -- Chinese-American, etc.

If you're aiming for diversity that's representative of your customer base, then surely your measure of ethnicity has to be more granular.

Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#37

Post by reddog »

steele wrote: post #2

age diversity would be interesting as well

Indeed. I would bet my last dollar that its workforce is skewed hugely, disproportionately young. And there are no convenient they-just-aren't-majoring-in-CS excuses for this either. Lots of 50 year old engineers with years of training and experience are looking for work.

Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#38

Post by middleclick »

Maascamp wrote: post #24
heydenberk wrote: post #17

It's {{current_year}} and people are still asking, "why does diversity matter?" Diversity matters for a lot of reasons. Perhaps most importantly, demographic diversity is strongly correlated with diversity in points of view. You want the people building your products to come from many walks of life. Remember how Google+ had significant uptake in the rich white tech dude demographic? Not a coincidence. If you want the…

Thank you for typing that all out. I agree completely. As a visible minority in tech, I'm simply more attracted to companies where I feel l won't stick out like a sore thumb. Of course I want to hired for my qualifications, but I'm only applying to companies that can meet _my_ requirements as well.

I don't get this logic. How does it matter if you are a sore thumb if you are not being discriminated? As someone who is also from a visible minority group, it never bothers me unless of course people change their behavior towards me because of the colour of my skin, which I have luckily never experienced.

Please don't feel that I am being condescending; I have come across this statement many times before and I can't understand it.

Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#39

Post by vajorie »

doodyhead wrote: post #36

Although it's fairly straightforward to distinguish between gender and sexual orientation, I disagree with these traditional US categories of ethnicity. Take a 'White' person, for instance: is a White American the same as a White Englishman, or a White Australian? What about a White Frenchman? These are all classified as 'White' but could potentially be vastly different in terms of diversity. The same argument could…

Yes, race and ethnicity are socially constructed and are fluid.

No, however much you try to whitewash it, 70-30-3-4-5 is as shitty as it gets outside of legalized segregation.

Re: Getting to work on diversity at Google

#40

Post by justicezyx »

philipwalton wrote: post #13
Dwolb wrote: post #4

It's great to be open and all, but they never mention what their goal is. Do Google believe diversity is good for workplace cohesion, their own social mobility goals, good corporate moral policy, etc.? The data is interesting in it's own right but I don't better understand where Google is going with diversity; I only understand where Google currently stands.

As a Google employee, the reasons I hear is that we'd like the diversity of our workforce to more accurately reflect the diversity of our users, so we can serve them better.

So that's way Google exited China, right? ...
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