[Caveman_Coder]

It isn't just the "soft" roles anymore...when I first started applying for positions I got absolutely nothing when I was applying as a male...I literally only changed my name/sex from Joe/male to Joanna/female, reapplied at all the same companies and within the week I heard back from each and every company...they don't want average males...preference is for women now...at least from my experience

[zeppelin101]

Was this an experiment you ran out of desperation? When these companies responded to you (as 'Joanna'), did you proceed with the interview process?

[Caveman_Coder]

> Was this an experiment you ran out of desperation?

Well, I wasn't getting any call-backs for a while, so kinda...I'd go check out the career pages and every single one of them had these various sections "women," "minorities," "veterans," etc...pretty much every category other than white guy from average state school that doesn't have rich parents or professional connections...then I clicked on one of the links and all it showed were "women in tech" and how much they supported women...all the pics on their website were of women...it was okay, I get it, you don't want/need any more white guys...I thought it would be funny to apply as a woman without changing a single thing on my resume other than the name...and lo and behold, I called emails/call-backs from every single company I had previously been rejected by...I'm not even kidding, same college, same professional experience, same extra-curricular activities...everything the same other than name/sex.

> When these companies responded to you (as 'Joanna'), did you proceed with the interview process?

I did not...if they were going to be sexist I had no desire to work for them at that point, plus it left such a sour taste in my mouth. I did find a company that wasn't sexist so I ended up going with them in the end.

[throwaway1748]

You should write a longer post about this, perhaps on Medium, and share it. I think it's a topic worthy of more discussion

[Caveman_Coder]

I'm not a wordsmith...

Plus, what would I write? It's kind of straightforward sexism.

1. White guy applies for job, no responses.

2. White guy reapplies and only changes name/sex to appear female, receives responses within the week.

3. End.

I could have also just changed my race and the experiment would have had the same results.

[zeppelin101]

Glad to hear you found a company you liked in the end.

[Caveman_Coder]

Thanks! The current role I'm in has me working on software that controls the electric grid...pretty cool stuff in my opinion, and it fits in nicely with my electrical trades background. Working mostly with C/Perl/Linux.