Dear all,
One of things I like the most about working as a software engineer is being able to build things that never existed before. Something that applies specifically to scientific software developing. The combination of high-quality tech and cutting-edge research is a unique thing, which I was pleasantly surprised to experience when I entered my current team at CfB.
Diversity is extremely important for these kinds of projects. However, the most important for the team is to have a diversified set of skills. I find that this absolutely exists at CfB and in our team. It is also essential to remember how much diversity in culture, gender and personality can affect a team’s performance.
By having the same personal and professional background, you tend to have the same biases. When diversity increase biases become fewer while the good practices and solutions become many.
It is a well-known fact that women are often underrepresented in tech. Whenever we had a job opening for a software engineer in our team, there were very few or no women applying for the position. Thus, we decided to have an experiment. A study revealed that women are more willing to apply for a job if the job advertisement is written by a woman, even if not mentioned. That is why I decided to write a job advertisement, which made the rate of female applicants jump from almost zero to one third. This is only one example, so it should not be considered a scientific proof, but now we have another female developer in the team and I am really happy about that.
- Svetlana Kutuzova