My Time as a Black Woman Software Engineer at Capital One
medium.comThis story sounds pretty typical of any corp IT job really. I've had plenty of managers that I just didn't get along with and they seemed to always be on my case or something but let their "friends" do what ever.
One time I was trying to move to a different team. My would-be-new-manager kept asking me what was the hold up. I'd go to my current manager and he'd blame it on the would-be-new-manager stating that he didn't actually want me on his team. I couldn't tell who to believe. I could have said "it's because I'm black" (except I'm white and can't use that excuse) but instead I just left the company. Only thing is, that took nearly 2 years of interviewing. I'd spend sometimes a whole week making my cover letter perfect for what I was applying for, but still I'd get no response or very little of one. I landed some good interviews in that time too and they went well, but still nothing. Ironically I remember thinking that if I was black, how I would have a strong urge to burn up twitter with comments about how I couldn't even land a job interview because of my skin color. But I was white, had a good resume and cover letter, and experience to back it up. Yet that was not the problem at all (applying for a job just sucks in general).
Anyways, by how this woman describes asking several different people for help with her coding, this doesn't always sit well in all environments. In many cases, just asking for help or tips by a new hire is seen as them being an idiot. And to top it off, I don't know of any "smart" people that would want to actually work at Capital One (not as a code monkey anyway).
That was my sentiment as well - it sounded like a fairly typical corp Agile travesty without anything racist. That's not to say it was enjoyable or a good match for a reasonable person - I, personally, could never work in an environment like that.
I greatly resented her comment about a new person being "cis white male" and hence to be greatly dreaded. Especially when the author admits that this person was eminently reasonable and pleasant to work with despite his overwhelming gender, preference, and pigmentation deficiencies.
There's also a throwaway at the end referring to considerable "microaggressions". They're aggressions or they're not - someone says racist or sexist garbage to you or they don't. If they do, you act or at least document for slightly later action.
a poignant, informative essay that illuminates what the experience is like when a malicious manager decides to target a report.
also, i did not realize what a shitshow Capital One's engineering culture is ("scrum masters" at a bank? really? jesus.). good to know - obviously a potential employer to avoid.