Discussion happening at #rubyconf2020 amongst some women attendees:


What are some questions to ask in interviews to suss out "red flags" that a potential employer might be sexist/racist/not a supportive place to work?

Join us for a THREAD:

Huge thank-you to @mercedescodes, @betsythemuffin, @hollabaq and @rose_w for contributing to this discussion and for all the brilliant ideas!

Some tweets in this thread are direct quotes, so assume they are not mine, but came from one of the smart ladies mentioned here.

First, the obvious one:

"We'd really like a woman to join our team."

Dynamics

Note, any interviewers women/POC?

If not -
I noticed none of my interviewers were women or POC. What steps is your company taking to hire & promote people from marginalized BGs?"

This can suss out if they have some hidden bias about assertive women being trouble.

When being interviewed by an all-male panel, observe how they behave and talk to you.

Do they assume you're technical?
Are they talking down to you when discussing technical topics?

Even if you're interviewed by women/POC, still remember to ask about the demographics of the team or check their website for a team page.

It's possible they put the only woman on the engineering team and/or women from other departments in the interview.

Language

Pay attention to the language used in the job posting - if it’s coded super masculine, they probably don’t have very high EQ or care about making an inclusive environment.

Technical Assessment

If they give a code challenge with a 24 or 48-hr turn-around they probably are not very supportive of people with child care, elder care, or who may have a second job to make ends meet.

Parental Leaves

Do you have maternal leave? How long is it?

This can tell you if the employer actually acknowledges people as caregivers and a good indicator whether they take actions to support women in the workplace.

Do you have paternal leave?

If a company that has maternal leave, but no paternal leave is very suspect. It says they have views on what is "woman's work".

Work/Life Balance

Will there be any problems with me leaving work occasionally to take a kid to the doctor?
My kids will be e-schooling and I'll need to arrange my schedule around that.

The more we say that up front, the more companies will realize that is normal.

Promotions/Raises

Do you monitor promotion and retention statistics for underrepresented folks? Are these whole-company, or are engineering stats examined separately?
Follow-up : What strategies are you using to improve promotion and retention of underrepresented groups?

How are new opportunities identified and shared among the team members?
What is the performance review process and how are raises promotions earned?

These questions helps smoke out the red flags:

"We used to have a female engineer, but she quit.”
“We have a bunch of junior women, but mysteriously all of them leave after 18-24 months and their next company hires them as mid-level or senior.”

Leadership

Have you ever experienced [insert inconvenience caused by following DEI procedures strictly enough for them to work — “hiring delays” is a good one]?
How did leadership/the board react when you communicated these issues to them?

Can you tell me about a time that an employee or candidate gave you feedback about process and/or culture and how you incorporated that moving forward?
How would you handle an employee coming to you with ethical concerns about an upcoming project?

These questions will help you understand whether there’s buy-in on DEI matters through the organization, or whether the only folks who care are disempowered line staff.

Your Tone

The way you ask these questions also matters. There are a few different tone strategies out there, pick one that feels organic to your personal:

Neutral, friendly, matter-of-fact:

It’s astonishing the way that people will answer these questions if you sound like you’re just asking out of curiosity. People will tell on themselves and hard.

Confrontational:

Lets you see whether they're defensive, or bring an attitude where they own up to the shortcomings and are willing to work to improve.

Privilege

All of us ( @mercedescodes, @betsythemuffin, @rose_w and @hollabaq) want to acknowledge that we are coming from places of privilege and mostly have the means to push for these benefits and ask these questions.

This one is my personal takeaway: Assess your own situation and do what you are comfortable with, but remember you are the only person you can count on to advocate for yourself.