Let’s change the dialogue…

Word of caution: Before jumping into any conclusions, please make sure you read my complete article, so you understand the view I am coming from.

Some facts:

My name is Pooja Gada, an Engineer — who is also a woman. I studied Information Security (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA) and Computer Science (RVCE Bangalore, India). I was the first engineering hire and first hire overall at Qventus Inc. (previously known as analyticsMD). I am a self-confessed nerd, who is not shy about her opinions. I need to state these facts, so I can add credibility to my words.

There have been so many ongoing discussions around diversity, inclusion, equality etc.

I have great respect for all the people who started a conversation about how Silicon Valley conveniently ignores workplace problems. I also have great respect for all the women who instilled the confidence in so many more to talk about their situation.

So what is this article about? Having been an engineer all my life, and having seen a company scale from team of 4 to team of 70 (and counting). I have definitely been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a team who valued my opinions and gave me the opportunity to grow and learn. I have also been fortunate to have strong support from my family and friends, who always lifted me up.

I have seen my fair share of challenges throughout my life. Getting stared at hackathons, for not being a “design eye”, but an engineer. For talking about “scalability” problems, when I was expected to talk about questions that fit the stereotype.

The emphasis I want to make is:

Let’s focus on equality, not preferential treatment.

I felt the strong need to talk about this topic, due to some of the articles being published by some tech magazines. Some of these articles are changing the dialogue of the whole situation(I don’t want to name them, as this is not meant to target them). They have a strong presence in the tech world, and they are quite influential. This article is an attempt to highlight the solutions one can explore — so hear me out.

When the dialogue changes to preferential treatment, it ends up forcing organizations to have diversity hires. Or hires who are there to increase the count of a particular vertical. Let me tell you this — no thank you, We are not interested in helping you increase your quota.

We’ve got 99 problems, and being your diversity hire ain’t one.

So what do we want to do ?

Let’s focus on equality, not preferential treatment.

Instead, why not strive towards the following:

• Changing the bro-culture. When you see bad behavior, why not call it out ? Why not speak out against it ? Instead of turning a blind eye. It’s the small everyday things, when ignored, contribute to erosion of the work environment.
• Strive toward making it easy to voice our opinions. This is largely something the leadership in a company can work towards. It’s important for the team to know that their voice will be heard, their concerns will be heard & no one is going to turn a blind eye against it. When the leadership instills that confidence in them, they might reach out earlier, than later.
• Strive towards paying everyone equally. Let’s be honest here, how many in the valley can truly say they pay equally ? When you bridge the gap, it is going to help you in the short & long run, so why not do it now !
• Strive towards mentoring programs, where everyone gets an equal opportunity to grow personally & professionally.
• Strive towards killing every damn stereotype.

After reading this article, if not many, but at least few think differently, i am a happy person :-)