The worst part about being a dev is that I regularly feel like I don't fit in and I think it's because I lack the Y chromosome.

Sorry to revive this two-year-old thread, but I wasn't around when you posted it and I think an interesting conversation could come from it.

First question, seeing how old this remark is, do you still feel the same way?

@TheOct0 Aww, thanks for asking. I think this is a fine topic. I hope to discuss it openly and in a friendly manner.

Well, I'll be able to respond better in a few months after working with a new team/startup I'm joining here in Berlin. I'm excited for this team! Everyone is from everywhere and the team is so diverse. I love it!

I almost accepted a job in Seattle with a startup that was recently acquired by a big company so they were hiring like crazy. They only managed to hire one female out of 30 recent hires (all positions) and she wasn't a dev. Most of the team were from India or Seattle. Nothing wrong with that but the diversity wasn't there!

In general, going through grad school and working for different companies, I'm used to being of few or the only female dev. To be short, for the most part, colleagues were similar to each other and I couldn't really relate to anyone outside of geeking out about tech, which sometimes was enough but not always.

@sleepyDevHead That's a shame to be in this position. Just don't get brought down by all of this, we need people like you to represent diversity :)

I understand that the lack of people same sex as you can be hard since your only common points with your coworkers are... Well, your work.

What field of development are you in?

@TheOct0 Thank you for your encouragement and positivity! ^_^

Currently, I am a java backend dev for a B2B platform for commodities.

What about you?

@sleepyDevHead I'm a random dev. I'm not employed since I'm a student, but I program a lot of stuff, ranging from games to scripts and API wrappers :)

I like working with female devs to be honest. I'm lights years away from being attracted to them since I already have someone, but (sadly) it's not that common. I also feel like they are tidier in their work, and tend to be able to focus more. I don't know, I just feel like most female devs are smarter.

That being said, that could be because of the lack of balance. Many men get into dev because they can, and most of them get hired, but the same is not true for women. Since computers traditionally are a boy thing (which is bullcrap) only the more dedicated and passionate will reach an actual job in the field. That makes most female devs committed to their work, and most male devs just half-assing their things. I don't know. Its weird :)

@TheOct0 I miss being a student! I miss having students too.

I like working with female devs too. I especially like the tendency for female devs to be warmly collaborative and kindly suggestive on projects. Otherwise, on other teams, there's usually a bit of aggressively competitive (dare I say arrogant?) lone-wolf types that could not be bothered about anything. Do you know what I'm talking about?

I actually tend to gravitate towards nice forward-thinking older male devs who have been around since Fortran, who got their degrees in applied math, before computer science was a thing. So cool!

@sleepyDevHead Yeah because you know they applied CS to maths, and not the opposite. That's quite interesting.

And yeah, I know what people you're talking about. I'm more of the lone wolf type myself :P

Edit: not competitive though.

@TheOct0 Haha! That's funny. :3 You seem like you'd be a nice colleague though. ^_^

@sleepyDevHead I'm quite passive. If you talk to me I'll just follow along, but that's about all. I love what I do, so I'm committed to it though :)

That's not to say that there isn't anybody that I like talking to! It's just that since people can initiate conversation I don't feel the need to do so myself :P

@sleepyDevHead How long have you been working in development?

@TheOct0 I've professionally worked as a developer for six years. I graduated with my MS in CS three years ago. What's your experience like?

@sleepyDevHead I had scientific studies with a lot of dev stuff as options before graduating, but I was already interested in programming. I started with modding Minecraft in Java :P

After that, I entered Web and Multimedia studies for two years, which also had a lot of dev stuff, and here I am. I'll enter another IT studies for two years next week, and hopefully get a Master in Game Design.

Other than that, I spend a lot of time doing some programming at home, for the challenge or for fun ^^

@TheOct0 Very cool experience! Minecraft modding is the coolest way to get into programming! I use that for some of my classes.