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Tech is the best industry for women

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Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#101

Post by civilian »

tryitnow wrote: post #76
civilian wrote: post #40

I think tech represents a good implementation of a meritocracy. You are welcomed to be weird and yourself, as long as you get your work done. Think about your coworkers-- you've got some weird ones. Dyed hair? Check. Burlesque dancing? Check. Gender non-conforming? Check. Goes to Burning Man? Check, check, self-check. Any of these things could get you fired from teaching kindergarten. Let's keep tech inclusive and ac…

Lol, really? Tell that to software engineers past the age of 50. Look, every industry has its pros and cons. Sure tech is good for the Burning Man crowd (if you live in the Bay Area or other major American liberal city), but it certainly suffers from a ton of ageism, among other maladies. I think it all comes down to what sort of industry you personally feel more comfortable in. For me, that's tech, but if my conserv…

You're right, politics & age are major caveats. As someone who voted for Gary Johnson and laughed when Clinton lost, I definitely feel the lack of inclusion at times.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#102

Post by colmvp »

ghaff wrote: post #41
gitlabuser wrote: post #25

Personally, I think this article title is clickbait. Nowhere does the author show that it's the best industry for women, only that in her experience, it was a better industry than medicine and a biology lab. And then some fluff about meritocracy. No exhaustive comparison across all the industry areas, no dive into data beyond one singular experience. I'm tired of titles that don't explain what the article is about. S…

I don't really disagree with you in this case. However, to be fair, headline writers have been writing "clickbait" headlines for far longer than there have been clicks. Headlines in magazines and newspapers have never been scientific journal titles.

It's understandable why they do that, but it can put journalists/writers of articles with clickbaity headlines in a tough spot, as they are often forced to defend headlines they never wrote in the first place!

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#103

Post by malandrew »

civilian wrote: post #40

I think tech represents a good implementation of a meritocracy. You are welcomed to be weird and yourself, as long as you get your work done. Think about your coworkers-- you've got some weird ones. Dyed hair? Check. Burlesque dancing? Check. Gender non-conforming? Check. Goes to Burning Man? Check, check, self-check. Any of these things could get you fired from teaching kindergarten. Let's keep tech inclusive and ac…

Tech has generally been one of the most inclusive places for people on the aspie/autistic side of the spectrum, but in recent years, it's become far more hostile. The reason for this is tact filters.

http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/tact.html http://ozarque.livejournal.com/176349.html

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#104

Post by mmagin »

"In how many other industries can a woman post pole dancing pictures of herself and still have a job?"

So, I'm not at all convinced that this is because of anything inherently virtuous about people in this industry. Rather, I think it's that we're at a point in business cycles and history where tech industry labor is sufficiently in demand that potential employers aren't using extraneous criteria to discard candidates.

While I think it is great that people are being treated well because of this, I also think it's important that people don't become complacent about issues like employment discrimination just because they happen to be doing well right now.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#105

Post by stale2002 »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #80
stale2002 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not that there is anything wrong with a fancy degree per se. The problem is the opposite. People with fancy degrees often look down on others who DON'T have fancy degrees. Thus, other people often engage in defense, counter ribbing at the other side. But we need to be aware that the current culture context of this it is very common for Fancy Degree people to be praised and everyone else to be looked down upon.

> The problem is the opposite. People with fancy degrees often look down on others who DON'T have fancy degrees. Arrogance is not a desirable trait in any person, but doesn't a fancy degree take work? I find it interesting that on HN we seem to hold up startup employees as shining examples but fancy degree holders as corrupt power brokers, when both take quite a bit of effort. > But we need to be aware that the curre…

A fancy degree is certainly an accomplishment and potentially a good path to follow, but it is one path among many.

There are lots and lots of other paths that one could follow, and they all have both advantages and disadvantages. One path is not automatically better than any of the others 100% of the time.

The problem is that the common, pro-fancy degree perspective comes from a very hierarchical perspective that just isn't true at all.

It assumes that Harvard is better Stanford which is better than a tier 2 or tier 1.5 school.

There is even a hierarchy AMONG similar fancy degrees. IE, Computer Science is better than Information Systems.

Many an Information Systems major will be able to talk about their experience of being shit on for their choices because apparently everyone thinks that the only reason to do Information Systems is because you didn't get accepted to computer science.

Because of the hierarchical cultural context in which we are in, I am not going to criticize Info systems majors for making fun of CS majors, nor will I criticize startupy, non-fancy degree holders on HN for making fun of the fancy degree holders.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#106

Post by gitlabuser »

whatsmypwagain wrote: post #87
civilian wrote: post #40

I think tech represents a good implementation of a meritocracy. You are welcomed to be weird and yourself, as long as you get your work done. Think about your coworkers-- you've got some weird ones. Dyed hair? Check. Burlesque dancing? Check. Gender non-conforming? Check. Goes to Burning Man? Check, check, self-check. Any of these things could get you fired from teaching kindergarten. Let's keep tech inclusive and ac…

Tech is inclusive, accepting and weird as long as you're a liberal aged 40 and under.

Exactly. I'm liberal but I'm still astounded by the vitrol, hate, and language my colleagues use to describe conservatives and Republicans.

Inclusion means accepting people as people, not accepting just the people who look, talk, and share the same beliefs as you.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#107

Post by ryandrake »

gitlabuser wrote: post #25

Personally, I think this article title is clickbait. Nowhere does the author show that it's the best industry for women, only that in her experience, it was a better industry than medicine and a biology lab. And then some fluff about meritocracy. No exhaustive comparison across all the industry areas, no dive into data beyond one singular experience. I'm tired of titles that don't explain what the article is about. S…

It's so weird, this community's obsession with article titles. What is the purpose of a link title, if not to interest someone and convince them to click it?

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#109

Post by colmvp »

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.

I'm not saying I disbelieve your own POV, but bias can sometimes be hard to recognize, both in ourselves and others.

Re: Tech is the best industry for women

#110

Post by gitlabuser »

ryandrake wrote: post #107
gitlabuser wrote: post #25

Personally, I think this article title is clickbait. Nowhere does the author show that it's the best industry for women, only that in her experience, it was a better industry than medicine and a biology lab. And then some fluff about meritocracy. No exhaustive comparison across all the industry areas, no dive into data beyond one singular experience. I'm tired of titles that don't explain what the article is about. S…

It's so weird, this community's obsession with article titles. What is the purpose of a link title, if not to interest someone and convince them to click it?

I guess I'm contrasting it to Susan Fowler's piece "A very, very strange year at Uber" which if she wanted to could have been titled "Why Uber is the worst place to work at in the entire tech industry".

I really respect her for letting the facts and content of her article speak for itself. I wish more would do the same.

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