From the course: Career Clinic: Developer Insights
Diversity in tech
From the course: Career Clinic: Developer Insights
Diversity in tech
- Diversity is a very, very hot topic right now. And I think the companies that are not diversifying their workforce, they're kind of punishing themself. Because when they create a product, whether it's an ad where it's a solution offering, it's clearly reflected in their product that their workforce is not diversified. - I was really lucky early on, in fact the first job I had in the industry, to have some really strong female mentors. That was really instrumental in where I am today. One thing I had heard that I try to carry with me is this quote which is, "You want to forge a path, but draw a map." So I've been lucky to have made it this far in my career and to have reached a position where there may not be many other female tech leads so now I need to make sure that I help guide others to reach that same point that I've reached. - The sad part (inaudible) systemic issue. It's not like I can just offer a quick fix. But I think part of it is just, we need to give people a chance on their potential rather than what they have done already. For some reason, maybe it's just we are all human, we like to do pattern matching, if we see someone who is just like the other successful people we tend to give them the benefit of doubt. Say, "Hey, you know I'm going to give you this project, and then you can try it out and then learn on the job and then become a better developer, leader, what have you." That tends to not happen with underrepresented people. Usually what happens is they need to prove that they can do the job first before they will be assigned those more interesting projects that will lead them to bigger things. I think that lack of opportunity is really hurting people who doesn't fit the mold. We kind of need external help to move these people up rather than... They cannot lift themselves up if they just go knock on doors and demand exciting projects. Someone still need to give them the benefit of doubt. So, I think being conscious that we have that bias and then actively try to offer up opportunities to more people will help a lot. - There is a diversity problem in the tech community right now and I think the way to solve that is, we need people being traveling more. I think that when you travel, you realize that people is people everywhere. It doesn't matter where the people is coming from. It doesn't matter the gender, religion. Everything is the same when we are talking about tech when we're talking about people, persons. I think that's the only way that you have to learn that you're exactly the same as anyone else in the world. Talking about the language. That, to be honest, I haven't been on any issue there. So, again, being on 57 countries, I always communicate with everyone there. So if you want to communicate, so if you feel like you're talking with someone that can add you value, it will work somehow. So I don't think that should be an issue. It's something that can be addressed in a very simple way. And it shouldn't be part of, like a block that we have to increase our communication, our contact with people on different countries or different cultures. - So, when I think about the lack of diversity in tech, there are a few approaches that I've read about and heard about that I feel can be really useful. And they all sort of fall under this umbrella of taking a more fundamental approach. Thinking about it as a fundamental problem in the company culture rather than just a little add on that we can stick here and there. When I think about diversity it reminds me of in web development there's this whole question of accessibility, about whether you're creating web sites and applications that people who are blind or have low sight, low vision, can use. Deaf users, people who interact with computers in different ways. It can be tempting as a web developer to start out just saying, "Okay, I'm building this site for this platform." And then at the end say, "Okay, what can I tack on here to make this accessible?" But really, the most powerful way to do it, which is a better coding practice which makes it easier to develop and which is better for everyone in the long run, is to start out saying, "What do I need to do? How do I need to architect and build this site with accessibility as part of that?" - If we hire a woman or a person of color but they, their behavior is still the same as everyone else in tech, then that's really not really solving the issue either. So we also have to think about different personality types, different viewpoints on topics. So, the idea is to expand what we think diversity means. It's more than just gender, it's more than just race. It's really just allowing different kinds of people to just enter the industry and just be who they are. We're all here to work together. And that's really what we should be focusing on.
Contents
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Kirsten Hunter4m 55s
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Mary Ellen Bowman3m 40s
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Ray Villalobos4m 51s
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Rae Hoyt4m 25s
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Steven Lipton4m 26s
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Diversity in tech5m 23s
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Mohammad Azam4m 49s
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Chiu-Ki Chan4m 56s
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Maximiliano Firtman3m 27s
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Carrie Dils2m 40s
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Ted Neward5m 13s
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Shonna Smith3m 1s
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Janan Siam4m 3s
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Emmanuel Henri3m 28s
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Albert Lo3m 9s
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Christina Truong3m 1s
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Sasha Vodnik3m 47s
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Jen Kramer4m 25s
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Freelancing5m 14s
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Upcoming in tech3m 39s
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David Okun3m 57s
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Learning and obtaining new skills3m 43s
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Perseverance3m 59s
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Clarissa Peterson4m 27s
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Starting a business3m 27s
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Mind of a developer4m 7s
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Derek Peruo5m 26s
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Clean code practice5m
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Mentorship3m 33s
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Bear Cahill3m 4s
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Networking5m 15s
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Ketkee Aryamane3m 28s
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Conferences4m 19s
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Meetups4m 19s
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Leigh Lawhon2m 48s
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Star Wars or Star Trek1m 43s
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Unexpected opportunities4m 58s
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Acting on your ideas3m 30s
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Matt Boyd2m 31s
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Career changes3m 53s
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Business tips4m 57s
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Bonnie Brennan2m 8s
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Collaboration and open source5m 44s
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Communication skills3m 49s
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Upcoming in tech3m 46s
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Diversity in tech5m 15s
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Mind of a developer3m 48s
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Working across generations5m 35s
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Mentorship5m 33s
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Conferences4m 59s
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Collaboration on projects4m 26s
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Networking3m 30s
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Introversion5m 22s
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Raising concerns4m 19s
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Dealing with conflict5m 20s
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Work-life balance5m 25s
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Impostor syndrome5m 24s
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Learning and obtaining new skills1m 42s
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New tools learned4m 16s
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Favorite gadgets/tech3m 46s
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Communication skills5m 3s
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Diversity3m 23s
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Mentorship4m 29s
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Motivate kids/development3m 31s
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Work/life balance2m 14s
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Perseverance4m 49s
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Introversion3m 40s
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Imposter syndrome3m 39s
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(Locked)
Self-promotion3m 36s
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Favorite projects4m 59s
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