The greatest change and challenge of all...

Eda Erten — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 10:22:07 +0000

What should you follow when you decide to move to another job? Does the company you are about to move support ethical values? If you need to ask a question, the question would be how included you feel while you are in this company? The world is right around the corner for an enormous change. A good reference in this challenging time is that seeing how tech companies adapt to this situation? How much they care about their employees on the way.

Choose wisely #BigShift

What do you feel about your company giving you perks on the days like international women's day or pride month? Does that make you feel included only for one day? A very obvious way in my view is that hiring people while considering the diversity and a solid continuity/improvement on that matter.

Does the company you want to work for lead by example to the other companies with their culture? Do they define their success with the team they have? Is it just a company that has diversity except for the management? If you start to ask these questions, either you will get the right answers or red flags like the only same group of people is eligible for the positions.

You have to be included and speak about yourself without a doubt in the environment you are working to be productive.

If you're considering moving to a country, it's also good to pay attention to the diversity of influential people in the government of that country.

While the industry is changing massively because of the pandemic, you can drive the change. It’s just a matter of the space that exists in the company, so you can create a change.

One of the things I love in a company is that they can step up and talk about inclusion and diversity when they see it is the most important thing we need to talk about. One of the things about caring for your employees is how you care about your customers. It is also a good sign how companies care about diversity towards their customers. How much percentage of accessibility they achieved on the company website? There are tons of extensions and tools you can just click and check the accessibility. If the products are made for all kinds of people of every age or differences in people, that would be a very good sign.

Finding the right place to work means that you can be productive and be happy in your workplace. Ocean is blue because of the sky is blue and sky is blue because of the ocean is blue. People are the center of success. Success needs you.

Don’t waste your valuable years by believing generic sentences in the job description and don’t forget to search your answers.

Another 8th of March, yet we are not still there!

Eda Erten — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 15:17:21 +0000

Where are we about equality in tech in 2021? Aren't we still there yet?

How long does it take to get there to have true equality in the tech industry?

The time of the pandemic and working from home shouldn't absorb people's voices and give companies to be a ghost if there are employees who belong to minority groups in tech who haven't have sufficient resources to be productive at home and can't raise their voices enough. It is the responsibility of the organization which needs to push and makes sure to have people's voices heard.

We are still seeing posts in 2021 telling us that if you want more women in tech then start training them. I believe to the opposite that it's not the problem we don't have enough women educated in tech, but the problem should be somewhere else if you don't see enough in your organization. I believe unconscious bias is something serious as much as conscious bias and people should have trained regularly since unconscious bias could be a very sneaky disease.

If you think about the math of the problem to get the equality equation right, you need to put absent positive values to fill the gap from the past that we had collected enough negative ones. The inevitable result is that the equation will never be achieved if only women who are the one embracing the equality approach in the tech industry.

To seeing enormous companies which we had seen diversity term in action when they were a start-up are taking the backward side of the road is just frustrating. Carrying the diversity in a company shouldn't be reminding employees that they are not male in tech, diversity should be about different voices we have that would contribute our products from different angles.

According to reports by TrustRadius[1], women are more likely to be laid off and have more pressure in terms of productivity than men in the tech industry which is still having issues about under-represented women. In addition to the burden taken by women for child care is 20% higher than men and the pandemic increases family responsible by 60%, we should be aware of the pandemic, and working from home opens the gap in terms of equality.

I feel very lucky to see people in my organization embracing the same approach. I have started my tech journey when I was in high school and started to deny the fact that it is a male-dominated environment. Now I'm finally feeling that I can raise my voice in my organization freely and my voice has no different than majority groups, however, not every woman or minority in tech has the same environment and that shows that we are not even close to accomplishing equality in 2021. If we are concerned about newly graduated women will eventually face an unconscious bias somewhere in their path until finding the right environment, this means we have a lot to do. If you have never seen any injustice towards women in tech, raise your voice for others, but if you do, you should have been already raised your voice by now with no excuse. Look at the glass ceiling and break it.

So now if this is not the right time to face your work environment and make it better for being equal in terms of diversity, then when is? I believe this is time to ask if we are where we want to be in terms of equality in the tech industry since every effort counts. Women do not need anything but equality on the 8th of march and every other day.

It's time for the tech industry to walk away from toxic masculinity and lead by example to the world. "The world is waking up, and change is coming whether you like or not."

[1] Foundation, T. (2020, May 12). Coronavirus is hurting women in tech. Retrieved January, from https://news.trust.org/item/20200513171548-bt842/

DEV Community: Eda Erten

The greatest change and challenge of all...

Another 8th of March, yet we are not still there!