Top 5 Takeaways from the Women in Tech Report

2019 will be the first year where members of Gen Z (those born in 1997 onward) will enter the job market en masse. For our 2nd annual Women in Tech report, we surveyed more than 12,000 developers who identify as women and found eye-opening insights on recruiting Gen Z women developers. Here are our top takeaways on how to attract the next generation of diverse tech talent from the report: 

1. Recognize that Gen Z women are digital natives

The key to recruiting Gen Z women is to remember that what worked with Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers will not work with the new generation. Gen Z is the only generation born into the age of the internet. In fact, 25% of them had smartphones before the age of 10. 

You need to have a multi-channel strategy to attract Gen Z employees - emailing and calling are no longer enough. You can experiment with new talent tools that leverage technologies like chatbots and texting platforms. Also consider getting creative with your recruitment campaigns and utilizing multimedia channels that Gen Zers use like YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram to spread the word about open roles.

2. Focus on your tech talent brand

Gen Z women are twice as likely to seek out an employer with a prestigious brand as women from previous generations. Given this, it’s imperative for you to have a strong digital presence and a brand that’s attractive to developers (in other words, a tech talent brand) when recruiting Gen Z women.  

Since Gen Z has been using smartphones from a young age, they have spent most of their lives surrounded by and engaging with, large brands like Apple and Twitter that have a strong online presence. For smaller companies, this means that you need to have active and engaging social media accounts in order to build a large following and capture Gen Z women's attention.

To establish your tech talent brand, you need to create a clear and concise careers page. Job descriptions on careers pages often highlight company missions, tech stacks, and perks. However, these are actually what developers of all ages and gender identities are the least interested in.

So what should you focus on? Show candidates what it’s like to work at your company, what their career trajectory may look like, and what they’ll be learning at their new roles. You can find a more in-depth guide on how to build your tech talent brand here.

3. Let candidates know what to expect during the interview process

Lack of interview prep is one of the biggest turnoffs for Gen Z women and men. Moreover, 66% of university students say they don’t feel ready for interviews.

To address this, make sure you clearly outline what the role is and how your company will be conducting interviews from the very beginning of your conversations with candidates. Let them know if there are take-home assignment, online challenges, or panel interviews that they’ll be expected to complete while interviewing.

It’s also important to train your entire team to be transparent about the interview process. Make sure that you and your hiring manager are aligned about the expectations for the roles and are providing candidates with a unified message. Hiring managers should also know how to prepare candidates for interviews.

4. Talk about what problems new hires will be solving

Along with professional growth and learning, having interesting problems to solve were among the top 3 factors that Gen Z women consider when evaluating an internship or job opportunity.

Get the next generation excited to work for your company by highlighting in your conversations the interesting challenges that they’ll encounter, how they’ll be making an impact in the company, and how it will help them grow their skills.

5. Keep in mind that not everyone is interested in working in Silicon Valley

Gen Z women are less confident in Silicon Valley’s future. They are starting to look at different cities around the world like Shanghai, Beijing, and Bengaluru as the next potential global center of tech. So if you’re a company based in the Bay Area, it’s important to highlight if your company has remote work options when recruiting Gen Z women. Remote work has steadily been on the rise for the past few years and research has found that remote employees can actually be more engaged and productive than their peers.