———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Ed Lazowska <lazowska@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 1:13 PM
From: Ed Lazowska <lazowska@cs.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 1:13 PM
Every tech company is dramatically increasing its focus on diversity. In many cases there is direct accountability at the group or team level to show progress.
As a result, in some cases these groups or teams are creating programs of their own that are not coordinated in any way at the corporate level, may bypass the recruiting staff, etc. – outreach programs, bootcamp programs, and so forth. These programs are well-intentioned, but of variable quality, and may be “little experiments that a single group is running” even though they are presented as something more substantial.
As an example, a trusted recruiter from a top tech company recently wrote me to warn me of such a program, which has a fancy name but in reality is “a 6 week, dev contract position. While there is pay, it is dismal compared to what our normal interns earn, and there are NO benefits or structure. On top of this, there is zero accountability on the hiring team to provide growth and structure, or future job opportunity.”
If you’re approached regarding participation in something like this, reach out to the CSE recruiter for that company, or the CSE advising staff, to make sure that the program is worthwhile.