Posted by matt2000 on March 18, 2013 at 11:52pm
Hi Drupal ladies,
I know this group is not for job postings, so I'll keep this to a 'meta' question about recruiting. I'm hiring for a full-time position in Los Angeles (several actually, but all but one are "mostly" filled now) and I've seen very little gender diversity in the candidates that my recruiters and my own HR department are sending me. Certainly less than the 17%. (I've reviewed at least 20 candidates, only one female.)
How can I improve this ratio? How do I get the word out that our dev team doesn't want to be a boy's club? I know smart female developers, but none of them are looking for jobs right now.
Here's the post in case you want to search it for mistakes.
http://groups.drupal.org/node/286318
Thanks for your insight,
Matt
Comments
Just generally, I notice your
Just generally, I notice your post asks for 6-10 and 6-15 years of various industry experience, and the listing it links to actually says 3-5. I suppose the PHP has been around for 17 years by now, but, well... :)
Your job listing mentions qualifications and responsibilities, and some boilerplate corporate bullshit (I mean that in the technical sense), but it doesn't mention what the position offers in terms of opportunities or challenges, really. Yes there's a blandly-written section on the site, "what we offer", which talks about benefits, but the posting is sort of a dog's breakfast of tasks without telling the applicant what they'll be doing in this job that's cool or interesting. I mean, we all do do most of that stuff at our current jobs already; what makes this one different? The people? It mentions team, is this a rolling project team where different people lead different projects? Examples? What defines success?
Also, the position is broad. It reads like half PM and half developer. That may put some folks off, and excite others, but needs to be clarified (and you will have to pay better). Do they work with designers or a marketing team? And, when you say "conceptual" does that mean prototyping with clients or doing user testing as well? What properties, for example, will a person be working on? The site does go into that somewhat, but I'd never have guessed from reading just the posting boilerplate that UBM does marketing services.
You want a hotshot developer who is also a 'thought leader'? That word rings alarm bells for me, because it's completely unitless and kind of buzzwordy.
So, not from an attracting-women standpoint but from a general make-your-posting-stand-out standpoint, I think it could be a bit more expository and informative :)
Some possible ways to advertise the position
Hi Matt,
Thank you for thinking about this and posing this question!
You could make sure more women see the information about this position by advertising it in various women in technology groups. You could also sponsor or host events for such local groups to raise awareness about your offices being in LA.
I found LinuxChix LA and it would probably be ok for you to e-mail the list once about Drupal's presence in the area and available positions. You could also keep an eye on the list for opportunities to connect with the local community.
http://blog.linuxchixla.org/mailing-lists
Similarly, you could host a Girl Geek Dinner or ask the organizers of that community about how to connect with its members to let them know about the job opportunities.
http://ggdla.com/about/organizers
Global ways to let technical women know about the positions are:
- E-mailing Systers list http://anitaborg.org/initiatives/systers/faq/#jobsconversation
- E-mailing DevChix and start the e-mail subject with [JOB]. https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/devchix
- Getting the Ada Initiative to retweet your job announcement . http://adainitiative.org/2012/02/new-service-ada-initiative-will-retweet...
Finally, I'd like to invite Drupal to participate in the Outreach Program for Women, which I organize for the GNOME Foundation. Offering beginner internships to women with your community would help women build the experience to qualify for more senior positions. https://live.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen
@Renee, I agree with all your
@Renee, I agree with all your critiques, though this hasn't stopped the steady stream of male candidates. Should I conclude that women are less sensitive to these things? I assume smart developers will see thru the bullshit, regardless of gender, and expect to have to sell them on why the job is worthwhile. Anyway, most of the applicants are coming through recruiters.
@marinazik, Thanks for the resources!
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Drupal Micro-blogging: http://twitter.com/matt2000
I wonder if the recruiters
I wonder if the recruiters are just doing a good job selling them before they see the listing. Most recruiters I chat with do a bunch of socializing and talk-talk before you get your hands on the actual description; and recruiters have an incentive to make the job sound great ;)
Also, the thing to know about female candidates is that they're generally pickier (and, also, there are just fewer statistically anyway). Typically women tend have been shown to be more conservative about changing jobs, if they've hit on a good work culture, because the risk is higher for them if they don't find a good fit (ie: brogrammers). You're definitely pitching a job to people who are already employed and in-demand; it's just a somewhat harder sell. So direct recruiting (like you're doing! GG!) is more necessary. I think it's awesome that this matters to you. Thanks for doing this!
Another possible factor: are
Another possible factor: are the recruiters themselves pre-filtering or showing any bias? What kind of pitch are they using? If they're going through LinkedIn primarily, are they inferring experience based on what's explicitly listed, or what they suspect the requirements of a candidate's current job are?
And are they just adding people wholesale before contacting them? I know I get random dudes doing that on my LinkedIn, and while it's not quite the "hey, ladies, how'd you like to get followed by some guys who exclusively follow accounts with female avatars?" scene that, say, Google+ is... the overwhelming majority of people who add me on LinkedIn are guys I have never met or heard of.
I know I've been extremely reluctant to take a recruiter seriously from the get-go, but that tends to be because they're super vague and tend not to have an answer for questions about the company culture, office location, etc, etc. Also, I'm not sure I find that it's very effective to get an email with, "hey, why don't you call me and we'll talk because I may or may not have a job for you".
In conclusion, (apparently) I cannot believe how terrible some of the recruiters I've heard from are.