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> "Silicon Valley is rife with Stanford and MIT graduates who started coding during childhood, won programming competitions in their spare time, and spent their
by csa 9y ago
> "Silicon Valley is rife with Stanford and MIT graduates who started coding during childhood, won programming competitions in their spare time, and spent their summers interning at startups. At Howard, few of Pratt’s students fit that profile."
> "None had programmed before college."
I think these two quotes answer the headline question.
Specifically, give one group of people a 4+ year head start in the field in addition to engaging in activities that will build confidence for the person when engaging in those activities (e.g., participating in and/or winning programming competitions in high school), is it really a surprise that the less-experienced group is grossly underrepresented in hiring?
To make the above comparison not about race, how well are low-SES white people represented in Silicon Valley? Probably at equally low proportion for similar reasons -- they just don't have the same amount of experience as the highly competitive applicants.
What's the solution? Reach out to underrepresented populations and get them started on programming much earlier. It's expensive and time consuming, but it's totally doable.
- lvoudour 9y agoSpecifically, give one group of people a 4+ year head start in the field in addition to engaging in activities that will build confidence for the person when engaging in those activities (e.g., participating in and/or winning programming competitions in high school), is it really a surprise that the less-experienced group is grossly underrepresented in hiring? I think the assumption that to qualify for employment in SV you need to hack full products in your garage, participate in coding/science school competitions and have a MIT/Stanford degree, doesn't hold under scrutiny
- csa 9y agoAgreed. It wasn't my comment -- just a summary of the article. I almost wrote a parenthetical in my original reply to the effect that I doubted the ubiquitousness of the first quote. That said, I do think that the prior experience is a real issue. Rather than "winning programming competitions"or "hacking full projects in your garage", I do think it's safe to say that the vast majority of the folks who are competitive applicants to AppAmaGooFaceSoft started programming and were exposed directly or indirectly to CS ideas before they entered college. This may have been as simple as making a website for a school club (although frankly it was probably quite a bit more than that), but even actions as small as making a website open the door to a new world -- it is the beginning of the process of exploring new ideas and new problem spaces.
- trhway 9y ago>to qualify for employment in SV you need to to qualify - not. To increase chances of getting the employment in competitive environment (i.e. to get into FB/GOOG/etc.) - yes.