What Sephora Knows About Women in Tech
TLDR:<p>&gt;the retailer has managed to attract technical women by recruiting with an eye toward candidates’ potential rather than specific skills<p>&gt;“Even if a female candidate doesn’t have all the requirements for a technical job, we want that person to come in and show what they can do,” says Yvette Nichols, the company’s vice president of talent.<p>They hire women without the regular qualifications and are willing to train them on the job, which is refreshing to see. It&#x27;s a shame they only apply it to female candidates though.<p>&gt;At Sephora, Nida Mitchell, 29, got her chance to grow into a new role when she was promoted from web developer to IT project manager after two years at the company. The new job put her in charge of 14 male engineers, most of whom were at least 10 years her senior. She encountered roadblocks on one of the team’s first big projects, updating Sephora’s computing infrastructure ahead of the chain’s expansion to Brazil. “My first week, I had a one-on-one with my boss and said, ‘No one listens to me,’ ” Ms. Mitchell says.<p>She&#x27;s concerned that within a single week of being promoted above 14 male engineers that they don&#x27;t take her seriously when she comparatively has very little technical background (5 months with HTML and CSS) and no management experience (per her linkedin)? The issue here isn&#x27;t that she&#x27;s a woman.<p>It&#x27;s cool that women in tech roles have found a home at Sephora. Something feels a little weird seeing them about bragging about the hiring process being exclusive to women though.