How To Write A Job Description That Attracts Women In Tech
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Andrea Goulet is CEO of Corgibytes, a software company focused on modernizing codebases. Goulet spoke with PowerToFly about her hiring processes, how she has set up her staff to work remotely and shares her tips for writing a job description that attracts a diverse candidate pool.
By: Cathy Sharick
Why did you decide to hire through PowerToFly?
PowerToFly is the rare recruiting firm that actually understands my company’s mission and goals. I’m consistently blown away not by the gender, but the quality of the talent pool. I like having a talent manager who proactively scouts for qualified candidates and respects my time. Since I’ve started using PowerToFly, there’s simply no excuse to not interview women for technical roles.
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The job description for Lead Code Whisper is so well written — and the job title is so unusual. Can you give us your tips for writing a job description that attracts a diverse applicant pool?
- Think Beyond the Bullet Points — Bullet points may seem easier to write, but typically don’t help you find the best candidate. It’s better to take the time to write something that really showcases your company’s unique style. Remember, the best candidates have options; they’re interviewing you as much as you’re interviewing them.
- Avoid Needless Benchmarks — If a benchmark, such as years of experience, isn’t an absolute-must-have-no-way-we-can-live-without-it qualifier, don’t use it. The original draft of this description had 7+ years of programming experience, but I would have definitely considered someone who had fewer years but more experience with scaling a team. Remember, the confidence gap is real.
- Make It a Conversation — Your job description is often the first impression a candidate will have with your company. If you want them to dig in and learn more, it’s best to talk to them directly. Imagine you’re writing directly to your ideal employee, almost like a personal letter, rather than to a group of people. Your description should have much more “you” language than “us” or “we” language.
- Get Feedback — Before you post your description, get others to review it. For this description, I ran the first draft by a women in technology forum I belong to. The feedback I got was harsh. I used words like “rock star” to describe the type of developer I was looking for and many women told me that while they were interested in the position, they wouldn’t apply because when they hear that word, it’s a trigger for a “brogrammer” culture that they’re not interested in participating in. I swallowed my pride, accepted the feedback as a gift, and re-wrote the description. One woman pointed me to textio.com, a tool that helps point out hyper-masculine words in job descriptions. Based on a 100 point score, mine started at a 29 and with a few small tweaks jumped to a 95.
- Give Candidates a Hint — Because I own a software company, a surprising number of cover letters begin with “Dear Sir,” which annoys me to no end. I don’t even consider those applicants. I started putting hints at the end of my job descriptions to help me determine who actually took the time to read the details. Often, I’ll give an article and ask for feedback. This way, people also have something to react to when it comes to getting in touch with you. It’s a great conversation starter.
Your staff is fully remote. Tell us why you’ve set your team up that way. Where is everyone located?
When my partner and I launched our business, we decided we wanted to stay in our home town of Richmond, VA. We love it here, and while we’ve been both been recruited by big brands out of Silicon Valley, there was no amount of money that could compensate for us having all of our kid’s grandparents in the same town. Family is just too important to us. We knew that launching our business in a mid-market city meant our biggest constraint to growth was access to talent. So we decided to grow as an intentionally distributed team. Our team is spread out, from Seattle to Philly, Baltimore to Austin, and even South America — which also helps with our diversity.
Do you have tips for managing your remote team? Tools, best practices?
Having a group chat tool (we use Slack) has completely changed the way we do business and is essential for a remote team. It keeps all our conversations out in the open and creates opportunities for team members to connect. Another benefit is that we’ve been able to use their API along with Lita to build an internal tool we call Einbot (named after our dog, Ein) that “fetches” information for us, such as client budgets, blocked tasks, reminders, and more.
It’s also essential as a leader that you take the charge on communication. Your team will only communicate as much as you do. If you make communication your priority, your team will follow your example. If you stay quiet and don’t post, your team will feel disconnected. I make a conscious effort to reach out to teammates and make conversation as often as I can.
Your tattoo is amazing. Can you please tell us what this represents?
I was sick of getting asked “So, do you code?” pretty much every time I introduced myself as the CEO of a software company. I don’t look like the typical programmer stereotype and being asked that question over and over started to grate at my confidence. One day, I’d had enough. I started to own my talent and share my story. I got this tattoo of a JavaScript function to remind myself that everything I need to be successful is already inside me. I don’t need to rely on anybody else’s opinion to determine whether I’m good enough. Now, when I shake hands with someone, hopefully they’ll infer that yes, I do know how to code (thank you very much) and will think twice about asking me.
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