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These type of blind auditions typically favor female candidates.
I would hazard to say that it favours the most qualified regardless of gender.
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I guess I could add one name to my list then, but she's already got things to do at her existing job... at Paizo.
I'm still interested in hearing some names though... Christina is fairly prolific.
I'm not particularly comfortable with the request for anyone to start naming the female members of the industry who they do and don't think are qualified for the job, let alone to start dissecting their qualifications publicly.
I'm also not particularly comfortable with the implication, however oblique, that we shouldn't have hired Joe because he's male. Joe's a strong and efficient editor, a first-class human, and someone who handles the fast pace of our environment with grace, kindness, and humor. He was the right choice for the position, and I'm thrilled to have him on our team.
At the end of the day, the production team hires the people who seem most able to do the job well and work effectively in our work environment, and when a new developer gets hired, it will be based on their skills and their fit for the team, not their gender or their opinions. There are things the team is doing to try to ensure that the process is as fair and unbiased as possible, and several of us are out there encouraging women and candidates from other underrepresented groups to apply. I'd love to see a strong pool of female candidates as well as male ones.
We'll continue to attack the problem from both ends -- both in doing the above and in inviting more women into the RPG space in the first place by continuing to do our best to make playing, GMing, and making Pathfinder welcoming to everyone.
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I'd honestly love to work for Paizo as an employee--it would truly be my dream job--but I don't think they would hire someone as opinionated as myself.
Look. I disagree pretty strongly with the way the OP of this thread went down. Obviously. But as a conversation it's moved beyond that. So I've got two things to say here...
1} With deepest respect, shut up and apply. <Grin> As is my viewpoint, Paizo is good at detecting and hiring talent. You shouldn't be denied a dream job opportunity, and we shouldn't be denied a good option for a writer because one thread went sideways. If you want this, try for it. Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn't. But I wouldn't have the wife I do if I had been afraid of taking a long shot. (This from a timid guy who never took such an out-of-character gamble before or after.)
2} SKR. Seriously, I'm pretty much a huge Sean fanboy. I like his work a lot, and I tend to agree with most of the posts he's made that were violently debated. He's a guy who backs his arguments up with factual firepower and while you don't have to agree with him, he's always got really good reason for his posts. But. Some people were very put off by him. Not Mr. Popular. And yet he was a Paizo employee forever and a day. I don't think being universally liked is a requirement at Paizo. You just have to be good at what you do, and get along with Paizo.
I happen to think there's zero chance that this thread - as it exists - would ever count against you in a hiring process that involves people like Lisa, Vic, James and Erik.
I'm not particularly comfortable with the request for anyone to start naming the female members of the industry who they do and don't think are qualified for the job, let alone to start dissecting their qualifications publicly.
I'm also not particularly comfortable with the implication, however oblique, that we shouldn't have hired Joe because he's male. Joe's a strong and efficient editor, a first-class human, and someone who handles the fast pace of our environment with grace, kindness, and humor. He was the right choice for the position, and I'm thrilled to have him on our team.
At the end of the day, the production team hires the people who seem most able to do the job well and work effectively in our work environment, and when a new developer gets hired, it will be based on their skills and their fit for the team, not their gender or their opinions. There are things the team is doing to try to ensure that the process is as fair and unbiased as possible, and several of us are out there encouraging women and candidates from other underrepresented groups to apply. I'd love to see a strong pool of female candidates as well as male ones.
We'll continue to attack the problem from both ends -- both in doing the above and in inviting more women into the RPG space in the first place by continuing to do our best to make playing, GMing, and making Pathfinder welcoming to everyone.
Weird post. Weird angle. I'm going to go ahead and say... I don't even vaguely understand where you're coming from.
Newsflash: I don't know who Joe is. Maybe you're replying to someone else, but it can't be me because I can't make insinuations about something I've not heard of. But you're quoting me, so... uh... weird.
Back to the first paragraph, consider my mind blown. I'm going to go ahead and ask you to explain where you're coming from here.
Watch.
I think Richard Pett would be an excellent candidate for consideration for the position being discussed. Why? Because everything I've read that he's written is bloody awesome. No Richard happens to not be a woman, last I'd heard, so in a thread about women in RPG writing, his name probably shouldn't come up.
But how's that make anyone uncomfortable? There's a bunch of authors out there, male and female, who have excellent qualifications in the form of "have done the job very well previously". To name them is in no way anything but complimentary.
I specifically called out Christina because I think she's one of the good ones, and she thinks she's not good enough. This is called encouragement. In the end, Christina named a name, and that's kind of cool because it helps me understand who she's comparing herself to. If I wasn't racking up 20,000 words here, wondering if I'm about to get banned from the forum because - I don't know... I still don't understand this post - I'd be replying to Christina, telling her that while I agree her candidate is very good, I'd be equally happy seeing either become permanent full-time writers. 'Cuz they're both that good.
So let's do this right. I think Crystal Frasier is also very good. There's nowhere near the amount of her material as Mr. Pett's, but I'd like to see more. But - as I alluded to in a previous post - she's got a job already, at Paizo. Again, absolutely nothing but a compliment.
I'm truly sorry, but I just can't wrap my head around this post, if it's actually - in bulk - replying to me.
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With the comment about Joe, I wasn't responding to you.
For the rest, I thought it was fairly clear. I don't think it would be particularly polite, professional, or fair for Paizo staff to answer the question posed in your response to James and start listing off who any of us think is qualified for the position, and I also don't want to see this turn into a thread where the community compares various female members of the industry to one another and dissects who they think is more or less qualified than the others.
I never said you shouldn't have hired Joe. I don't know Joe: I'm sure he's good. I just said that editing has traditionally been an area where women predominate--via that, I would have expected there to be more than one there.
You have good folks, no doubt. My plea is to consider recruiting an actual qualified woman at some point, as the number of males in the company is quite numerous, and will only continue to grow. As you said yourself, there is zero representation on the RPG side. My naming names was to show that there are already several in existence. No disrespect was meant by that.
Additionally, I applaud your tumblr posts to encourage women. More of that is needed.
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The idea of paizo not wanting to hire opinionated people made me smile. I think if that becomes policy, theres going to be a lot of current staff updating their resumes. :)
If anyone is interested in the job, I hope they apply. Second guessing oneself about "who they probably want" is generally counter productive, in my view. (I obviously include you in that, Christina but it's intended as a more general comment).
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Have you taken a look at who's sitting in the Big Chair? If you look at staff size, Paizo is pretty much a mom and pop shop compared to the average video game studio.Hey, Paizo. You know I love you, but you have forgotten to represent us women gamers on your staff. You have zero women on your RPG design/dev team, so you are not even reaching the lowly three percent number of women designers in the video game industry. And your newest hire in editing, which is a field that women tend to dominate in general publishing, is a man. Please add some diversity in your staff. You are a leader in diversity in gaming in publishing, so please be a leader in diversity in hiring, as well.
We look to you to lead this industry against sexism.
If, however, you compare apples to apples, you find that Paizo is among the largest (if not THE largest) RPG developer.
With the comment about Joe, I wasn't responding to you.
The joys of technology. Thank you for explaining. I had a very troubled sleep last night.
For the rest, I thought it was fairly clear. I don't think it would be particularly polite, professional, or fair for Paizo staff to answer the question posed in your response to James and start listing off who any of us think is qualified for the position, and I also don't want to see this turn into a thread where the community compares various female members of the industry to one another and dissects who they think is more or less qualified than the others.
That makes more sense too, and I can see where there's a breakdown in communication. I wanted Christina to tell me who she thinks exceeds her chops, so as to understand and encourage her. I misunderstood the nature of the Paizo position being discussed, James corrected that misunderstanding, I expressed appreciation and enlightenment, and stated that I still wanted a names list. What I didn't explicitly say was that I still wanted it from Christina. Not James.
The joys of technology.
Thanks again for replying.
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I guess I could add one name to my list then, but she's already got things to do at her existing job... at Paizo.
I'm still interested in hearing some names though... Christina is fairly prolific.
I'm not particularly comfortable with the request for anyone to start naming the female members of the industry who they do and don't think are qualified for the job, let alone to start dissecting their qualifications publicly.
I'm also not particularly comfortable with the implication, however oblique, that we shouldn't have hired Joe because he's male. Joe's a strong and efficient editor, a first-class human, and someone who handles the fast pace of our environment with grace, kindness, and humor. He was the right choice for the position, and I'm thrilled to have him on our team.
At the end of the day, the production team hires the people who seem most able to do the job well and work effectively in our work environment, and when a new developer gets hired, it will be based on their skills and their fit for the team, not their gender or their opinions. There are things the team is doing to try to ensure that the process is as fair and unbiased as possible, and several of us are out there encouraging women and candidates from other underrepresented groups to apply. I'd love to see a strong pool of female candidates as well as male ones.
We'll continue to attack the problem from both ends -- both in doing the above and in inviting more women into the RPG space in the first place by continuing to do our best to make playing, GMing, and making Pathfinder welcoming to everyone.
Thank you Jessica!
As someone who is considering applying for this job, it would be a bit demoralizing to feel that since I am considered the majority in almost every catagory you can think of (White, Male, Christian, Straight), that I would have no shot at the job because Paizo is looking for a specific type, instead of specifically for the most qualified type for them.
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I never said you shouldn't have hired Joe. I don't know Joe: I'm sure he's good. I just said that editing has traditionally been an area where women predominate--via that, I would have expected there to be more than one there.
You have good folks, no doubt. My plea is to consider recruiting an actual qualified woman at some point, as the number of males in the company is quite numerous, and will only continue to grow. As you said yourself, there is zero representation on the RPG side. My naming names was to show that there are already several in existence. No disrespect was meant by that.
Additionally, I applaud your tumblr posts to encourage women. More of that is needed.
Christina, I respect your opinions. I respect you as a developer, writer, and friend.
But it really bothers me that you are advocating, essentially, against someone like me to get the job, simply because I'm a man.
I'm not particularly comfortable with the request for anyone to start naming the female members of the industry who they do and don't think are qualified for the job, let alone to start dissecting their qualifications publicly.
If someone names them without anything beyone "These people are great" that just gives me a list of people who's work I could go look for, if I don't know them already. :D
But details.. yah that's not goood.
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At the end of the day, the production team hires the people who seem most able to do the job well and work effectively in our work environment, and when a new developer gets hired, it will be based on their skills and their fit for the team, not their gender or their opinions. There are things the team is doing to try to ensure that the process is as fair and unbiased as possible, and several of us are out there encouraging women and candidates from other underrepresented groups to apply. I'd love to see a strong pool of female candidates as well as male ones.We'll continue to attack the problem from both ends -- both in doing the above and in inviting more women into the RPG space in the first place by continuing to do our best to make playing, GMing, and making Pathfinder welcoming to everyone.
Couldn't have been said better.
I've seen a much more diverse pool of players now than I saw when I first started playing RPGs, and I think the industry as a whole -and Paizo as a shining star therein- have made some some real strides in diversifying their audience and in providing games that increasingly reflect that diversity. With that being done, the applicant pool for industry positions will itself become more diverse, and that's a good thing.
A very good friend of mine in college introduced me to RPGs in the first place, and she pushed me to stop writing for myself and submit stuff to Dragon and Dungeon. She's damn talented herself and I pushed her to do the same, but when Dragon magazine stopped being printed she thought that her chances of getting published in the same route that I'd taken to get into the industry died. So I prompted her to enter RPG Superstar, and she did. She didn't make it far, but the opportunity did spur her to continue trying various creative pursuits and she's now doing stuff with Eclipse Phase that's rocking.
Push creative and talented people from every background and group to apply for open positions, take open calls, and talent will rise to the top. :)
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I can't think of an offline gaming company that's more encouraging for diversity than Paizo. They have girls, boys, t-rexes, Cosmo, straight, LGBTI, white, non-white, human beings of all shapes and sizes, political views, culinary diets and tastes in C-class cinema. The fact that there are no female rules designers out there is because the tectonic shift from a male basement pastime to a hobby for everyone isn't quite there yet as to generate enough female talent, but the pendulum swings and one day we'll get there. Processes take time, and we should find comfort that they progress much more rapidly within geek hobbies than they do in business or politics.
I hope to be happily surprised if a woman gets selected in this process. Note that my plea was not for this specific developer job, but for a conscious choice to represent women in the field at some point in time by adding one on the development staff. As I've mentioned before, I believe women need role models in the industry to start understanding they can strive for these jobs themselves. I spoke up to say that, as a woman gamer, I would like to see a woman on the RPG staff. I said that to a company I know respects diversity. They responded by saying the blind audition is an attempt to rectify any possible bias. I am happy that they have made an effort to even the field. That is good to hear. I hope it all works.
Thank you for the discussion. My sincere best wishes to those who apply.
It's always good to return from the wild and windy (very, very windy at one slightly hairy point) highlands with a good thread with some very interesting points where we're all huge fans of this brilliant company. For me, Paizo have always been amazing to work for; incredibly encouraging, keen to embrace new ideas and take risks, as well as being very fair when they have issues or things they wish to see changed.
Thanks for the shout out Anguish, I'd dearly love to work in such fine a place, alas time and space separates us, but these lovely people are always in my thoughts. I honest can't imagine not being associated with Paizo as long as they're happy to keep publishing my oddness. Mnar...
Whoever gets this post will be fantastic and lucky enough to work with a great bunch of very positive, happy smiley folks.
Huzzah!
Rich
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Honestly, I wonder if the focus should be at the bottom, and not at the top.
Push on 'how to play at a diverse table', 'ways to annoy women and minorities that you should avoid' and encourage 'judging for people who are different than you'.
Encourage women to step up and run games at cons, maybe become a VL, or submit that idea for a PFS scenario.
I think that if we can do a better job here, then we'll attract and recruit female gamers.
From there, it's just a matter of time.
Add another one for Anonymous' suggestion with the grass-roots encouragement. I know there's likely quite a bit players could do to make women feel more welcome at the gaming table. We can be a socially inept bunch, and likely stepping on toes we're woefully unaware of.
In fields like this, it pays to play the long game, and cultivate talent from the beginning.
I would hazard to say that it favours the most qualified regardless of gender.
These type of blind auditions typically favor female candidates.
Statistically if members of a minority group are discriminated against within a work field, those within the work field will be more talented than members of the majority. This is because they have to be better than average to overcome systemic roadblocks to success. Thus the blind tests favor minorities. This conversely means that men are favored in blind tested jobs that are traditionally given to women, such as elementary school teachers.
Statistically if members of a minority group are discriminated against within a work field, those within the work field will be more talented than members of the majority. This is because they have to be better than average to overcome systemic roadblocks to success. Thus the blind tests favor minorities. This conversely means that men are favored in blind tested jobs that are traditionally given to women, such as elementary school teachers.I would hazard to say that it favours the most qualified regardless of gender.
These type of blind auditions typically favor female candidates.
Correlation does not equal causation. If the most talented happen to be women, that doesn't make my statement that it favours the most qualified false.
Correlation does not equal causation. If the most talented happen to be women, that doesn't make my statement that it favours the most qualified false.
The second part of what you say is true. I'm just saying that for the most part industries that are hard for women to get jobs in tend to have women looking for jobs that are more talented than the men looking for jobs. So that most talented person will usually be a woman if there are any women signing up. At least this will be the case until the industry as a whole stops being sexist.
Correlation does not equal causation. If the most talented happen to be women, that doesn't make my statement that it favours the most qualified false.The second part of what you say is true. I'm just saying that for the most part industries that are hard for women to get jobs in tend to have women looking for jobs that are more talented than the men looking for jobs. So that most talented person will usually be a woman if there are any women signing up. At least this will be the case until the industry as a whole stops being sexist.
Perhaps? Look, I don't want to get misconstrued, but I think that stating blind test favours "women" instead of "the most qualified" is false because:
1. It is an awfully binary statement and discounts the numerous other minorities (agender, trans, any other spectrum of LGBATQ, different races, etc) that also benefit from the blind testing.
2. It simply isn't a correct statement. In the situation of, say, an equally qualified man and woman candidate, a system that favours woman will, more often at least, choose the female candidate. The blind system favours neither (in theory), and will either seek further test or criteria to determine the more qualified, or at the very least consider them equal when moving towards the next interview process. If, as you propose, woman who make it in a male dominated industry are more talented than male counterparts, the system favours them because of that talent, and not because of their gender.
In any event, I apologize from distracting from the main, very important thrust of this thread and will refrain from further posting unless it is relevant to the discussion of how to encourage the diversification of the Tabletop gaming industry.
AS LONG AS WE ARE TALKING DIVERSITY...There are a few areas which PAIZO does not represent minorities.
I don't think most of the pictures they post have a racial minority (I think ethnic, for example Hispanics, but I haven't seen any Asians or African Americans in the pictures that they post on their blogs, or on the representatives of their company all that much).
In fact, we've seen more European women and men than any minorities. We've seen a few LGBT, normally not in their photos though, but on the forums.
That is, if we are going to talk about the hiring representation, of course.
As far as the editing the OP came across as personally motivated (whether it was or not). Hard to comment on such a thing in that light.
On that same note, and related to the design and development team, I think a women would almost be mandatory for that. I was unaware that there were no women on that team. Wouldn't it be great to have a woman's insight? I think a women on the team would be able to more aptly directly apply a woman's sense of interest and thoughts which many times are not heeded or seen on teams composed entirely of men.
Just my two useless copper since this subject was brought up.
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Thank you Jessica!
As someone who is considering applying for this job, it would be a bit demoralizing to feel that since I am considered the majority in almost every catagory you can think of (White, Male, Christian, Straight), that I would have no shot at the job because Paizo is looking for a specific type, instead of specifically for the most qualified type for them.
I don't foresee a day when white men have to worry about getting jobs in games, unless they're counting on the advantage that being white and male gives them to provide them with a leg up. I hope to see that go away as soon as we can make it, although I don't hold out a lot of hope that it's going anywhere any time soon in most industries, especially since in tests even with hiring managers who were specifically trying to hire more female candidates they still rated identical resumes with male names on them as more competent and qualified than those with female names attached.
That's not to say, especially in a position that involves world-building, that people shouldn't view having a background that differs from those of most of the team as an additional qualification. Worst case scenario, it helps balance out some of the sort of unconscious bias outlined above.
But ultimately, anyone who's qualified has a shot, regardless of their gender or other demographic factors, which is what blind tests are designed to ensure.
Perhaps? Look, I don't want to get misconstrued, but I think that stating blind test favours "women" instead of "the most qualified" is false because:
Blind tests don't favor women and other minorities. But women and members of other underrepresented groups do tend to get hired at higher rates when blind auditions/applications are used, which suggests that systematic prejudice is still very much a thing.
so how are player/GM numbers looking in terms of diversity
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AS LONG AS WE ARE TALKING DIVERSITY...There are a few areas which PAIZO does not represent minorities.
I don't think most of the pictures they post have a racial minority (I think ethnic, for example Hispanics, but I haven't seen any Asians or African Americans in the pictures that they post on their blogs, or on the representatives of their company all that much).
In fact, we've seen more European women and men than any minorities. We've seen a few LGBT, normally not in their photos though, but on the forums.
That is, if we are going to talk about the hiring representation, of course.
As far as the editing the OP came across as personally motivated (whether it was or not). Hard to comment on such a thing in that light.
On that same note, and related to the design and development team, I think a women would almost be mandatory for that. I was unaware that there were no women on that team. Wouldn't it be great to have a woman's insight? I think a women on the team would be able to more aptly directly apply a woman's sense of interest and thoughts which many times are not heeded or seen on teams composed entirely of men.
Just my two useless copper since this subject was brought up.
When it comes to art, the Paizonians have mentioned that fantasy artists are a funny bunch.
They often get art which which is much more white and buxom than they ask for.
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Please add some diversity in your staff.
There's much more to diversity than one's genitals. Considering their current success they're exactly where they need to be from a diversity angle.
Overall checking a box on the diversity bingo card does more harm than good as there's another quality being sought than 'is this person good for our company'.
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Since we are on the subject, I'm just curious to see how people feel about this situation. We can all say for sure that most women and men think differently, having had different types of experiences in their lives. Let's say a Paizo does decide that they want a female perspective on the dev team, would it be ok for them to hire with the intent of hiring a female, even if the candidate is less qualified.
BTW this isn't an attempt to play the other side, or show things from a different angle. I am seriously wondering how people feel about that as Paizo is a private company. should they be within their right to specifically shoot for a female dev, just so they can get one on the team regardless of any more qualified male applicants?
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should they be within their right to specifically shoot for a female dev, just so they can get one on the team regardless of any more qualified male applicants?
And that's part of the stickler for me. How do you define "more qualified"? If they're looking for someone who may not be as strong in one area of development but stronger in another that they feel is more needed, is she still less qualified as another male applicant?
I used to have a lot of discussions with a friend of mine who worked in HR and alot of the hiring ultimately comes down to who people feel more comfortable with. There are more than a few times where people get hired who know the minimum but get trained after they're on the job.
People hire those who will "fit" and that's mostly WHITE and MALE with WHITE and FEMALE being a close second, ESPECIALLY in management.
The illusion of fairness and meritocracy in this country in particular is a JOKE. So if Paizo wants to hire a female developer just to hire a female developer? Especially since they're gonna have to probably train ANY developer that they hire in how they specifically do things anyway?
They should go right on ahead and do just that.
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I'm not exactly sure how to phrase this (which is not a great sign for a writer ;) ), so I'll just say I've received both encouraging and questioning messages about me applying for this position and I appreciate them both. There are many reasons why I'm not applying, not just that I have a current job, but I'm not really comfortable listing all the reasons why. It comes off as defensive, I suspect, and of course some of the reasons are private.
I think it's true that women, people of colour, and other underrepresented groups are less likely to apply for this position for a variety of reasons. I've been in the industry for a long time and I've always tried to be a resource for new writers and existing writers trying to develop their skills. If anyone has questions about getting into RPG writing or needs a little guidance, feel free to contact me. I rarely check my messages here but you can reach me at medesha at yahoo dot com.
CEO
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Just in case it needs to be said, Paizo will ALWAYS hire the best available candidate regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, or any other variable. We encourage folks from all walks of life to apply and love having a diverse and varied staff.
On a side note, we DO have a female designer on staff. Tanis O'Connor is our designer for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game organized play. She also works with Lone Shark on our new AP designs.
-Lisa
Just in case it needs to be said, Paizo will ALWAYS hire the best available candidate regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, or any other variable. We encourage folks from all walks of life to apply and love having a diverse and varied staff.
On a side note, we DO have a female designer on staff. Tanis O'Connor is our designer for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game organized play. She also works with Lone Shark on our new AP designs.
-Lisa
/thread
Just in case it needs to be said, Paizo will ALWAYS hire the best available candidate regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, or any other variable. We encourage folks from all walks of life to apply and love having a diverse and varied staff.
On a side note, we DO have a female designer on staff. Tanis O'Connor is our designer for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game organized play. She also works with Lone Shark on our new AP designs.
-Lisa
That's good to hear. I apologize for any misconceptions I may have had or presented.
I was erring in going off information given out previous in the thread and assumed (sometimes not a good thing to do) that it was completely accurate.
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I also think it's worth noting that Associate Editor Judy Bauer, like all our editors, has had significant influence on the development of the game and our setting. Speaking as someone who's been both a developer and an editor (and a customer service person, and a website person...) at Paizo, there's a lot more overlap between the jobs than people might think. And Judy has extra influence in that she's in charge of hiring all our freelance editors—folks like Lyz Liddell and Christina herself, who you may have seen in the credits in the last year.
This is not to say "Oh, we have some women on the team, we're covered." Not at all. We're still a long way from gender parity (and even farther from an ideal racial distribution) on our creative staff, and it's one of the reasons we've been trying so hard to get the word out to people who feel underrepresented in the industry. I just don't want the contributions of folks who are already here to get overlooked.
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Hey, Paizo. You know I love you, but you have forgotten to represent us women gamers on your staff. You have zero women on your RPG design/dev team, so you are not even reaching the lowly three percent number of women designers in the video game industry. And your newest hire in editing, which is a field that women tend to dominate in general publishing, is a man. Please add some diversity in your staff. You are a leader in diversity in gaming in publishing, so please be a leader in diversity in hiring, as well.
We look to you to lead this industry against sexism.
OP, I tip my hat to you. That was well done. Well. Done.
<Applauds>
How would a blind application process even work? Resumes would have to be redacted to the point of uselessness. This isn't that big of an industry.
"Hey, this applicant was Lead Developer at Super Genius Games, I wonder who it could be?"
I don't pay half as much attention to Pathfinder 3PP as the Paizo staff does, and I bet I could recognize Christina's resume with the name filed off just from her Kobold Press work.
Yes, the industry needs more female developers/designers. But Paizo has been good about hiring qualified women when given the opportunity.
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The application process isn't blind -- the writing/dev tests are.
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The application process isn't blind -- the writing/dev tests are.
That makes a lot more sense.
Of course, another blind test Paizo has is RPG Superstar. Sure, past the initial round it isn't blind. But just getting into the top 32 out of thousands of applicants is a remarkable feat.
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I'd honestly love to work for Paizo as an employee--it would truly be my dream job--but I don't think they would hire someone as opinionated as myself.Again, apologies if this seems like sticking my nose into your business or too opinionated, but I'd say, put your name in and let Paizo be the one to determine if they want you or not. Why dash your dream job without even giving yourself a chance?
Again, to the goal of getting a female developer, why would you withhold such a qualified candidate as yourself? The worst they can say is no.
Late to this thread--I usually try to avoid posting any more, and especially feel unsafe in gender-based threads after a shaming attack on me awhile ago for daring to say I wanted to speak to my friends in my own voice, and no one had my back on the situation--but I found this and feel the need to speak up:
Christina, your attitude on this and similar are one big reason why there are not enough women applying in typically male-dominated industries. (It is not the only reason, and it is not the only hurdle women face, but the other reasons are not the subject of my post.)
Men, typically, are conditioned to develop their ambition and competitiveness. Women, typically, are conditioned to develop relative humility and cooperativeness. (Emphasis on "typically" to note of course there are exceptions to the rule, and I hope it is very clear to all I am speaking very generally). Women often psych themselves out of applying for promotions or asking for raises because they come up with reasons why they aren't good enough, rather than thinking about and defending why they ARE.
Many women, when approaching their careers, assess themselves on their flaws. "I'm too opinionated" (socially typically seen as VERY undesirable in a woman, so women are especially often inclined to feel ashamed of such a trait even though having an opinion is not an evil thing), "I'm not qualified enough," "I don't have the experience," "I'm too girly," I'm too butch," "I'm too old," "I'm too young," "I'm too fat," etc. etc. etc. Women who are very successful in so-called masculine fields are the ones who overcome this, recognize the gifts within themselves, and push them hard.
Not long ago I know a high level academic who wanted to write a nomination for an extremely brilliant, highly qualified female colleague. He needed to get her to write a statement of her accomplishments. She took forever to get back. Why? She said she struggled with trying to write about herself positively--and acknowledged it was why many women in her field had stifled careers. This is a woman who has shown immense leadership and brilliance in science, and she struggled--to the point of nearly skipping out on a great opportunity--because she couldn't bring herself to say nice things about herself. That's just messed up.
It's the employer's job to decide whether any given applicant is good or bad enough--or opinionated, or what have you. It's your job to talk about what gifts you have. (It's also your job to decide whether an employer is right or wrong for you--interviews go both ways). If it's a job you want, you should apply for it. Rejecting yourself automatically rather than giving yourself a chance at success makes no sense.
And I say this all, very bravely, not because of course I am a champion of self-aggrandizement but of course because I am terrible at it. I have psyched myself out of so many opportunities. My dream in my youth was to be a writer, but (apart from a stint as a journalist, which was different) have seldom really brought myself to submitting anything. I still fight with myself constantly--I have a story one revision away from submissible status and have a place in mind to submit it, and I find every reason possible not to finish the revision and send it in. And I know when my dreams are crushed, it will be entirely my own fault, a rejection and failure entirely of my own making, because I refused to give myself a chance before anybody else could.
Don't be me.
My belief that I will not be considered is not a lack of belief in myself or my abilities. I do want to be clear on that. I am totally qualified for the open position, and I would do well in it. I have total confidence in that regard. Based on past application experience with Paizo, I do not believe I would be considered. My reputation has suffered tremendously over the past few years from bouts of illness and severe depression, and I know they are aware of it--that on top of my being very opinionated--and it has likely kept me from receiving interviews or tests. I can't blame them for not wanting a person with my issues. That is why I was saying another woman might better suit them than myself. I'm middle aged and sickly and have life issues. So, that is my reasoning for not applying.