| Be careful with the term "Cinderella program". My direct experience here is working with Hackbright Academy to meet more women than I was getting through the standard job application channels. Hackbright works attracts women from all backgrounds, science but no computer science, college drop outs, and junior CS. It teaches practical programming skills in the 3 months class, then helps connect the women to companies. The program works. Smart women can learn programming and be successful at any subsequent job in the industry with adequate time, mentorship and training. This is of course true for people of all genders, race and college background. There are many similar programs that cater to diverse hiring pipelines. Dev Bootcamp for first time web developers, Jopwell for black, latino, hispanic and native american candidates. But all these still depend on a hiring manager valuing mentorship over "pre-qualified". Of all the things in my career, I am most proud of helping engineers be successful at tasks that they weren't "qualified" to do. This has been hiring junior candidates for roles beyond their current experience (with clear discussions on both sides about how it will be challenging), and rotating and promoting engineers into new roles and responsibilities. |
Until you pointed it out, I hadn't even considered the gender-specificity of Cinderella herself. Thanks and upvoted for pointing that out; it's obvious in retrospect, but wasn't intended.