Dive Brief:
- The IT profession has experienced rampant skill shortages, even though there are thousands of very capable female coders around the world ready to take on IT careers — if only Silicon Valley would provide them opportunities, Lydia Dishman writes for Fast Company. Dishman believes disparity in technical companies is deeply rooted in beliefs that pervade current recruitment and retention strategies.
- HackerRank, a startup company that helps companies locate and test global tech workers, recently focused on finding the world's best female coders. They found that India had the highest percentage of women using their platform (22%) with U.S. women following close behind (14%). But both countries' female coders lag behind Russia, Italy and Poland on algorithm tests.
- Vivek Ravisankar, CEO of HackerRank, told Fast Company that companies can improve diversity in coding careers by looking past current shortages in favor of educational programs that encourage the next generation of young women to pursue careers in coding.
Dive Insight:
A study about gender diversity in the IT sector revealed that almost all of the C-suite positions in IT are held by white males. Yet, at the same time, the above HackerRank results show there are literally thousands of highly talented women coders all around the world looking for career opportunities in Silicon Valley and other IT meccas.
Such a study yet again throws the "talent shortage" that many (including HR Dive) continue to talk about. How much of it is perceived or limited by location? Pipelines in tech continue to create controversy, such as Facebook's internal veto program, though new technologies are emerging that are supposed to take bias out of the system.
