Am I the only one who immediately started singing to myself:

No fewer than four children came forward and made formal complaints that they had been raped. And not only were they statutorily raped - children at the age of thirteen are not legally capable of giving consent (seriously, why is it so hard for people to understand the damn reason statutory rape laws exist in the…

From the article you link to:

I'd really like to hear 99burners' reaction to the plagiarism in Paul's Washington Times column, given that it is clearly a commercial context. Funny how he's mysteriously stopped responding to this thread.

Another one of the lawyer's arguments:

At Google, I've interviewed candidates from a number of diverse universities, though yeah, there's a whole lot of Stanford and MIT too. But I can definitely imagine the situation being very different in other areas.

I got my degree from the University of Virginia. In applied math, actually, with a minor in CS. My first job after college was in NYC, and after two years there I moved to the SF Bay area.

Does your school have career fairs where tech companies may be recruiting? That's how a lot of people get started just after finishing their bachelor's. I understand your concern. People see a 30 year old and assume experience. The way you interview a new grad is different than interviewing a developer with career…

I'm a female software engineer, and I disagree with literally all of this. I went the traditional route, and now I'm an engineer at Google. Nearly everyone I work with has a degree in computer science. When I graduated with my bachelor's, I knew nobody working in the field professionally. I didn't find it hard to get…

First, I'm disappointed in your mentor. Good on you for persevering despite his poor advice.

I have posted this before, but I think this interview is really insightful. It's Dr. Maria Klawe, renowned computer scientist and president of Harvey Mudd College, discussing how Harvey Mudd dramatically increased the ratios of women majoring in Computer Science by systematically addressing three key things that were…

Claudia - I'm not sure I agree. Many professional software engineers have degrees in computer science. At places like Google, nearly all of my colleagues have degrees in CS or related fields.

I work at Google now, but prior to this, when getting email from recruiters and such, my first question was often "how many female engineers do you have?"

There are lots of reasons WHY women aren't interested in it, and surprise! Many of them are external. This interview is about how Harvey Mudd college increased their percentage of female computer science majors to almost equality levels! http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/10/how…

Yup! If Grace Hopper hadn't existed, software as we know it would not exist. She invented compilers, programs that convert sophisticated, human-readable programming languages into machine level code. Before her, people were feeding machines instructions manually, and code for one type of computer wouldn't work on…

Yup! If Grace Hopper hadn't existed, software as we know it would not exist. She invented compilers, programs that convert sophisticated, human-readable programming languages into machine level code. Before her, people were feeding machines instructions manually, and code for one type of computer wouldn't work on…

This was addressed in another comment as well. The VC (venture capital - how startups actually get funded) culture in Silicon Valley is VERY VERY VERY dominated by young, white men, who tend to fund companies started by people who remind them of themselves.

I experienced the exact same thing after talking to a recruiter at Twitter about 3.5 years ago (I'm a female software engineer). I didn't even make it to a technical phone interview, let alone an on-site interview, even though I was living in SF and working near the Twitter offices at the time. I ended up getting an…

"Companies like Twitter aren't created with women; they add them later as an afterthought on their way to become well-rounded, PR-friendly organizations." Nail. On. Head.

Yay! I love this comment because I was a cheerleader in high school and am now a software engineer. :)