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>Every last software engineer at ACD was a white man Interesting, where I was at the time, it was a 60/40 split between men and women. Also I would say 10% we

by jmclnx 4y ago

>Every last software engineer at ACD was a white man Interesting, where I was at the time, it was a 60/40 split between men and women. Also I would say 10% were people of color. And one person was completely blind. Two of the smartest people there were people of color, early on (before 1989) I learned a lot from them. This was in the northeast

krallja 4y ago
When you say “northeast,” do you mean more like Boston, NYC, or Kennebunkport?
- jmclnx 4y ago
  at that time, boston
mobilene 4y ago
I do acknowledge that my experience was a sample space of one!
- mixmastamyk 4y ago
  I think this statement goes too far in that case, I'd walk it back: > The software industry was a far less diverse place then. It probably makes sense when talking specifically about the midwest, due to demographics. But out here in SoCal in the 90s, I had a south asian boss and foreign national engineers from a number of countries working side by side. China, Italy, Norway. It was a big facility and we had US minority employees as well, although not a huge number. Software dept was 1/4 women approximately. Re: being gay it was the "don't ask, don't tell" days. No one I knew cared in the least. An interesting angle is I wasn't perceptive about it as a young person. Looking back in the hindsight of maturity, obviously gay people were everywhere. Just like in Hollywood, everyone just winked and nudged. Right, Uncle Arthur is ~fifty, unmarried, and rather flamboyant, nothing to see here. ;-)
nostrademons 4y ago
It's interesting, my experience at a FANG (which invests heavily in recruiting women engineers) is that approximately 25% of teams are 60/40 men/women, and 75% of them are 100% men. The women I've worked with have told me that this is not a coincidence, that they very quickly learn which managers they will not work under or which coworkers they will not be on a team with, and that they take the presence of other women on the team as an indicator that none of these characters are present. I wonder if the same principal operates geographically - certain regions find that they just never encounter women or minorities in the workforce, and it may have as much to do with the region as the people.

by jmclnx 4y ago

krallja 4y ago

When you say “northeast,” do you mean more like Boston, NYC, or Kennebunkport?

jmclnx 4y ago
at that time, boston

mobilene 4y ago

I do acknowledge that my experience was a sample space of one!

mixmastamyk 4y ago
I think this statement goes too far in that case, I'd walk it back: > The software industry was a far less diverse place then. It probably makes sense when talking specifically about the midwest, due to demographics. But out here in SoCal in the 90s, I had a south asian boss and foreign national engineers from a number of countries working side by side. China, Italy, Norway. It was a big facility and we had US minority employees as well, although not a huge number. Software dept was 1/4 women approximately. Re: being gay it was the "don't ask, don't tell" days. No one I knew cared in the least. An interesting angle is I wasn't perceptive about it as a young person. Looking back in the hindsight of maturity, obviously gay people were everywhere. Just like in Hollywood, everyone just winked and nudged. Right, Uncle Arthur is ~fifty, unmarried, and rather flamboyant, nothing to see here. ;-)

nostrademons 4y ago

It's interesting, my experience at a FANG (which invests heavily in recruiting women engineers) is that approximately 25% of teams are 60/40 men/women, and 75% of them are 100% men. The women I've worked with have told me that this is not a coincidence, that they very quickly learn which managers they will not work under or which coworkers they will not be on a team with, and that they take the presence of other women on the team as an indicator that none of these characters are present. I wonder if the same principal operates geographically - certain regions find that they just never encounter women or minorities in the workforce, and it may have as much to do with the region as the people.