Call for Perspectives: Changing our Hiring Processes for Diversity
Recently I've been speaking a lot about how marginalized people in our communities face issues when they are trying to attend or speak at conferences as well as being a part of our communities, but haven't spent much time talking about the difficulties of finding a job. This is especially important when looking for an environment where we feel we are welcome and fit in.
My friend Emily and I were discussing the pitfalls of certain hiring approaches and what can be done to create more balance. I realized this would be an excellent opportunity to do another set of google hangouts with not only employers and hiring managers, but people who have gone through these processes as potential hires. My goal is to create a living document similar to the one I created for conference organizers, but this time for employers, hiring managers, and job seekers.
If you are interested in being involved in a google hangout and have experience in one of the following areas, I would love to talk to you.
Groups I want to talk to:
- employers, hiring managers or others involved in the hiring process, especially if you have noticed the lack of diverse candidates and employees at your workplace, if you have intentionally changed your processes in a way to encourage more diverse applicants and hires, or if you've faced resistance in trying to make this process more equitable
- job seeker/potential hire, especially if you are in a marginalized group (sex or gender, sexuality, race or ethnicity, country or region of origin, people who do not speak the dominant language of the region, people with disabilities, people with children (particularly mothers and single parents), people from a lower-middle or lower class background, people without CS or other related degrees, etc)
Please fill out the form below (if it doesn't load, try this link) if you'd like to help.
The signup has been closed, but if you have something to, please feel free to email me with your thoughts.
Exercise offset for angry reading
If you follow me on twitter, you probably know I read a lot of things: books, articles, random blogs. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the articles I read make me sad and/or angry and I'm left feeling hopeless and depressed.
While I've gotten a lot better at avoiding certain things (I stopped reading most news, for instance, because the violence was a little much), I still have people sending me articles they'd like my opinion on and others I feel I have to speak up against because they contain intentionally harmful things about marginalized people in technology that I'd rather people not be educated by.
To offset the stress that's caused by these things, yesterday I issued myself and others a challenge:
I started it this morning and as of 11am, I've already had to do 40 pushups and situps. I'm tracking the data using Daytum (which is pretty neat and allows you to track any quantifiable data):
I'm kind of interested to see whether this will curb the amount of upsetting things I read each day, or whether I just get buff in the process.
Update:
Interesting thought: If you tend to Instapaper things to read later and *those* things make you angry, I assume that it'll become easier to keep your instapaper pretty empty! I doubt that Marco ever thought that Instapaper would inspire people to exercise more!
"How do you convince your boss to invest in your growth as a developer? Cajoling? Begging? Arm wrestling? However you try to convince them now, this episode is all about helping you do it better."
Ashe Dryden is a programmer, diversity advocate and consultant, prolific writer,