We didn’t put enough of an emphasis on hiring a diverse team in the early stages. This made it all the harder to bring on women and underrepresented minorities and backgrounds once they’d grown. If you’re interviewing your first female engineer, and she shows up and thinks, ‘Wow, this team is huge and all guys,’ that just makes the barrier even higher. That really does happen, and if you can avoid that, you’re in much better shape.
[…]Don’t underestimate the value of being vocal about this. Just saying it’s a priority during recruiting conversations won’t build your pipeline or generate interest from the candidates you really want. It won’t start to sink in for prospective candidates until they’ve heard it or seen it from you at least twice, probably three times — and until your team is reflective of your goals.
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