Full disclosure: I graduated from BYU, but I left Mormonism over 15 years ago. I still have a lot of active Mormon in-laws in the area, so I still visit SLC at

Full disclosure: I graduated from BYU, but I left Mormonism over 15 years ago. I still have a lot of active Mormon in-laws in the area, so I still visit SLC at least once a year. I know several people working in the tech industry there. There was no shortage of talent at BYU, but the lack of diversity on every front in the engineering programs was stark. Engineering programs were almost entirely composed of white men. In the hallways and labs of the Clyde Building, I heard a lot of sexist jokes. For example, "I'm dating someone who's going for her EE -- Elementary Education!" Looking back, I now realize it was really quite hostile toward female students. They often weren't taken seriously since the graduation rate for women at BYU was (and still is) horrible, and they were constantly asked out on dates by their classmates. Saying "no" too often would get them a "reputation," and I know of at least a couple who got a talking to by their bishops (male Mormon religious leaders) about the importance of dating so they could get married and start a family. Of course BYU itself is almost entirely Mormon. The only engineering students I knew who weren't Mormon were graduate students from oversees who probably didn't fully understand what kind of environment they were getting into when they accepted their scholarship for whatever program they were getting into. Since I visit Salt Lake fairly often I have a few contacts in the area who, shall we say, don't quite "fit the mold" for the kind of people you usually see there. It's really a chronic challenge for them to always be hit with microaggressions, both personally and professionally. You don't even have to look really that different for it to happen. A male wearing an earring, a visible tattoo, or something a bit flamboyant about your clothing can impact your ability to be included. And gods help you if you aren't religious and find yourself in a company primarily headed by active Mormon leadership. You can expect to be courted and invited to join at first, but once you make it clear that you aren't gonna convert, you're going to have an uphill battle in the inclusion front from that point on. That said, when I'm ready to start a tech business of my own, I'd really really like to be able to do it in the Salt Lake area. The problem is that I'd want a healthy amount of diversity among my co-workers, and the easiest way to go about doing that is to hire at a place where the diversity already exists.