Extending the Invitation

The ever clear and direct Erica Baker had a series of tweets this week that I think are very much worth amplifying.

Coincidentally, this week marks the 5yr anniversary of our hiring of a new Associate at OATV. The experience of that hire pushed many dimensions of my thinking around hiring and diversity in tech.

We don’t hire all that often, but when we made public that we were looking to add an Associate, we received a flood of applicants. After a day or two of interviews with potential candidates, I noticed a recurring theme, they were all men.

In response, I wrote this post which explicitly invited women to apply for the job. We kept all of the other requirements the same, we simply made an explicit invitation for women to apply.

Two reactions were immediate.

The first was fairly predictable- men, and even some women, immediately took to the defensive and said we were pandering. Or, that the invitation for more female applicants meant the position was guaranteed to go to a woman. Guys need not apply!

Well, if you read the post, you’ll note that we didn’t make any mention of some symbolic lowering of a bar or any promise that the job was destined to go to woman. Our intent was simply to make clear that we were open to hiring a woman and that we would like to see more female candidates. That’s it.

The second reaction, which seems obvious, was less predictable- we ended up seeing a lot of female candidates. But not just women either, a whole range of under represented folks raised their hands and worked their networks to get introductions to us. 

In the end, after interviewing so many well pedigreed and extremely talented and capable applicants the final two were a person of color and a woman, Both world class. We hired Renee. 

Interestingly, Renee had seen the first post. She knew we were hiring. She had connections that provided her with an easy intro to us. But she didn’t apply after the first post. 

She’d assumed the job would go to a guy. It wasn’t until she saw the post explicitly inviting women to apply that she reached out.

I’m so glad I wrote the second post.

There’s a tremendous amount of work to be done in making the tech world more inviting and accessible to underrepresented folks that it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start. But if our experience is any indication, something as basic as extending the invitation is as good a place to start as any.

Like us, I imagine you’ll be surprised at what a difference something so simple can make.