Or &quot;plays golf&#x2F;football, comes from a similar background to  us&quot;, where gender doesn&#x27;t play a role, not even in the much-reported IT industry where there is a paucity of women .<p>As a Brit in central Europe I have come up against this, not to the same extent as someone who isn&#x27;t white, or comes from a markedly different culture, but the differences in culture even between some European nations can be enough that employers do not perceive me as &quot;one of them&quot;.<p>What happened to hiring people who <i>are not</i> like us, because that&#x27;s where the challenge lies and life is better when we are forced to evaluate our own misgivings?<p>A lot of IT people are so similar in personality, skills, hobbies etc that they all fail in the same areas, not just succeed in those areas. My own work place could be better, and produce a better product, if everyone wasn&#x27;t so like-minded, imo.