[ahallock]

> I still felt looked down upon because I'd first been exposed to and developed an interest in CS "late".

Come on, there are assholes everywhere who use this tactic to make themselves feel superior or to get rid of potential competition, men and women alike. This is not exclusive to CS. A lot of people are worried that they put so much time into something and that someone 'fresh' could make them look bad by picking it up quicker. It makes it that much more satisfying when you beat them.

[whateveridunno]

If it was just a small minority of men in my program, I would have agreed with you, but this attitude seemed also prevalent- and I could be wrong about this- in companies and the larger tech world.

One thing I noticed in particular, was that a hell of a lot of "diversity initiatives" (stuff like code camps, scholarships to diversity conferences, etc) set up by companies like Square and Google and nonprofits like Grace Hopper gave their opportunities mostly to minorities who were already very successful, with internships in prestigious companies. If even the programs explicitly meant to increase the percentage of women/minorities in the industry go largely to very experienced people, I thought at the time, then there's really no hope for me at that point.

In any case, none of this is what led to me deciding I didn't want a tech career, it was just a contributing factor. I probably could have pushed through it, but I realized I didn't like tech enough to do so- I liked coding well enough, but I didn't like or value the work most tech companies were doing.

[jdcarter]

I have to agree that there are a lot of bad programming jobs out there, but there are some really good ones, too--many times in places that aren't obvious. I'm speaking only from my own experience here, but I'm currently working at a big-name company and they pay well but the work is boring as hell and the culture is not to my liking. I've worked at smaller/no-name companies and had a vastly better experience--more diverse work, more opportunities to develop new skills, and a much friendlier culture as well.

If you have any interest in staying in the field--and I hope you do--don't limit your view of potential jobs to just the high-profile companies. Talk to some of the smaller shops around, you might really like what you find.

[Khaine]

On your diversity note. I find it amusing, since when I was at collage the diversity push was all for women, so unless you were an exceptional student all of the scholarships went to women. And now it appears to be being pushed to a smaller and smaller subset.

I hope that you've found something you enjoy to go into a career in. I know I studied tech and now work tangentially to it, and sometimes I feel like I made the wrong choice.