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by fav_collector 3221 days ago
> recruit junior devs from the ranks of biology grad

Targeting specific groups just because of the racial or gender makeup of the group seems inherently wrong to me.

A biology major doesn't give people many relevant skills for programming. If it was a math intensive subject like Physics, Stats or Math, I could see it being more fair and valid.
2 comments
ikeyany 3221 days ago
It's a bit cynical to say that's done simply in the name of gender. There are certainly many talented people who move away from tech because they look at it from the outside and observe that tech "isn't for them". There is nothing "inherently wrong" in correcting some of that unless you willfully ignore how our society came to be.
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fav_collector 3221 days ago
> There are certainly many talented people who move away from tech

Let's be honest, most biology majors turned programmers aren't oppressed people who had passion for tech but were discouraged from tech by terrible, systemic biases. They're people who either couldn't make it to med school or didn't want to go to med school who realized that there is more $$$ in the tech field than in biology research.

> It's a bit cynical to say that's done simply in the name of gender.

Not really. In this context, that is exactly what the parent was saying. Again, there are many non-CS majors that give people skills more relevant to programming. There isn't much of a reason to specifically recruit biology majors (other than for demographic reasons or if the company software is related to biology).

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ikeyany 3221 days ago
> Let's be honest

If you're going to make such a claim, you should provide some sort of proof. By your cynical logic, engineers are no more than nerds who don't have the stones to go into finance--where the money really is.

> There isn't much of a reason to specifically recruit biology majors (other than for demographic reasons or if the company software is related to biology).

I know many talented biology majors who have no interest spending their entire career alongside men smugly assume they "couldn't make it into med school". Or those who actually believe in the work that they're doing. Try telling the hundreds of thousands in research labs working on groundbreaking science like CRISPR that their careers are considered settling.

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notyourday 3220 days ago
> Targeting specific groups just because of the racial or gender makeup of the group seems inherently wrong to me.

It did not click in my head initially but damn this is a great proxy.

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