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Hackbright Academy’s CEO Alice Hill Is Hacking ‘Brogramming’ Culture One Woman At A Time

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Women who want a career as a software developer come up against a male-dominated club. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of women in computer science lags startlingly behind the number of men, with only 26 percent of the field comprised of women.

The obstacle of “brogrammer” culture, a term for the closed-door boys-club culture that has become prevalent in both engineering classrooms and startups, has made it more and more difficult for talented women to get on equal footing with their male counterparts. Women coders and engineers frequently deal with sexism and harassment from their peers — just google the topic and long list will come up. GeekFeminism even maintains a timeline going back all the way to 1963 of incidents of workplace discrimination in the tech community.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. There is a growing movement to help women break down the barriers, and a recognition that we need to train more women engineers. While colleges and other traditional co-ed engineering programs across the country are working hard to recruit more women, Hackbright Academy in San Francisco is taking it a step further. It’s an all-women school that is teaching, promoting and giving visibility to women who want to make a career out of software coding.

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Alice Hill, Hackbright Academy’s CEO and a former senior executive at well-known Silicon Valley companies including eBay, CNET, Dice.com and Slashdot, knows personally what it takes for a woman to blaze a path to the top of the tech world and she is determined to bring more women into the field. “I’ve been in a room where I was the only woman out of fifteen senior executives, and I asked myself, how did this happen? How do we change it? Hackbright is tackling this issue head on, and we’re making an impact.”

Hackbright Academy is all about countering bro-culture and changing the ratio of women in technology. Women from nearly every walk of life are coming from all over the country to attend the school — many of them considering engineering after previous successful career paths. The school, which started in 2012, has graduated more than 500 women from its 12-week full-time fellowships.

The school operates on a bootcamp format running regularly throughout the year. Women learn the skills to become full-time software engineers in an environment that prepares them for the workplace. Classes at Hackbright are a blend of lab work and lectures on the principles of computer science and Python coding. At the end of their coursework, the final challenge is for students to craft their own application including determining the actual architecture and implementation of it.

“We’re looking for women who naturally think like engineers. Hackbright is a place where they can thrive among other bright, ambitious women who want to start successful careers in software development. It’s an environment that is tailored to women’s instinctive strengths and also the challenges they encounter,” said Hill.

The application process starts with filling out a form, writing an essay, and being interviewed. “There’s also a code challenge which isn’t so strange when you consider that most of the women who apply have already learned some coding on their own, whether it was self-taught or through online and traditional classes.”

Graduates have received full-time job offers from companies including Eventbrite, SurveyMonkey, New Relic, GoDaddy, Amazon and Pinterest. The high quality of graduates from Hackbright, which works with hiring partners in the Bay Area’s tech-rich job market and across the country to create a pipeline of skilled women coders, means they are often eagerly scooped up by tech firms hungry for talent.

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Hill commented, “At a time when the issue of diversity in tech has never been more crucial to our future, companies are ready for the tremendous opportunity that more women engineers represents. Hackbright’s culture stands out for its focus on the tools, guidance, and mentorship to achieve great things and employers see the value in that right away.”

She points to the fact that diverse engineering teams are not just important because they bring greater balance and perspective to projects, but it’s just good business to bring women on board because the industry is experiencing a skills gap right now. “Tech firms are looking to women to fill the ranks because of how difficult it is to find good, qualified applicants. There’s a real shortage out there, and women are rising to the challenge. It’s both inspiring and a smart business move.”

Hill says if she had the chance to offer advice to women thinking about a career in software development, she’d tell them not to be daunted by brogramming culture. “We are changing the ratio. That’s a fact. Learning with peers in a focused environment makes it possible for women to crash through those cultural barriers and build the skills and confidence to go head-to-head with the boys’ club. There’s no doubt that women make great engineers, and Hackbright is proof of it.”

A big part of the Hackbright experience is more than just learning to code in a classroom. The support of a web of mentors, alumnae and top-notch instructors, coupled with the all-female composition of the school, means that Hackbright gives students resources and skills that go well beyond graduation. Students and graduates tap into a network that is a counter to bro-culture itself.

“If brogramming culture is perpetuated by a boys’ club then the way we overcome that is through diversity,” said Hill. She sees Hackbright’s mission as more than simply training women programmers but also to spin up a new workforce ecosystem where women can thrive.

“It’s a practical response to an endemic problem. We educate women engineers, we make them part of the conversation, and we help create new careers for them. What’s more, we are only just getting started.”

Hackbright Academy is accepting applications from women who are ready to hack brogramming culture one woman at a time. The next fellowship begins August 21.

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