Reading 01: Ethos of the Computer Industry

In my opinion, the ethos of the computer industry is one primarily of rewarding skill and merit. One might call this a meritocracy, and you would not be wrong in saying that, but it is not a true meritocracy in that skill does not guarantee success. As with most anything there is some contingent of luck and personal connections that go into success in the computer industry. Despite these other factors being present, talent and merit remain the most prominent keys to success in the computer industry. Many of the biggest tech companies had humble beginnings. Apple started out in a garage, Facebook was just a program some college kid made and so on. These companies rose to the top because of the raw talent of those involved, and it is this characteristic that these companies now look for in new hires.

These ideals of talent and merit are reflected in the whole hiring process in the computer industry. Companies want to see that you have real talent for technology, and so they want to know what projects you have worked on, both inside and outside school. This is also the reason for the coding interviews which many computer industry companies like to give. The purpose of this is for recruiters to see first hand whether your skill is an inherent and natural talent for computers, or whether you are just a good test taker. It is clear from my experience in looking for jobs and internships that the most important thing for most companies is merit and talent when hiring, and this is a theme which propagates through the work place.

The computer industry is for the most part successful in maintaining these ideals. While, as I said before, this does not mean that all who are talented or have made great products rise to the top, it does mean that hardly anyone at the top doesn’t deserve to be there. There is always going to be some portion of luck that or other outside factors that go into a persons’ success, but in the computer industry talent is the most important factor for success. In many respects, I think that placing and emphasis on talent and merit is a good thing. Talent makes the best products and the best products make the most money, so it is natural that those with the most talent should rise to the top, in a sort of survival of the most talented type of thing. This implication of this is that anyone can be successful. More than pretty much any industry, in the computer industry you don’t need a fancy education or rich parents to be successful. I would consider this a good thing as it also removes the barriers of race, gender or religion that may still be present in other industries.

There are some who disagree with the notion that the computer industry is one of meritocracy, however. In Silicon Valley Isn't a Meritocracy. And It's Dangerous to Hero-Worship Entrepreneurs, Alice Marwick says, “But if the tech scene is really a meritocracy, why are so many of its key players, from Mark Zuckerberg to Steve Jobs, white men?”. My response to this would be that the majority of people in the computer industry are white males. It makes sense, therefore that this ratio would carry over to those who are successful within the computer industry. The problem isn’t that the computer industry represses women and minorities from success, it’s that there just aren’t as many women or minorities in the field. This can even be seen in the microcosm that is the computer scientists at Notre Dame. The overwhelming majority is white males. In fact, there are such few women in the industry, that the ones who are in the industry have an advantage as companies look to hire and promote them to try and diversify. In Too Few Women In Tech? Stop Blaming The Men. the author writes, “That WSJ article also criticizes Y Combinator for having just 14 female founders out of their 208 startups to date. But I know that Y Combinator wants – really, really wants – female founders and that there just aren’t very many of them. I know this because Y Combinator cofounder Jessica Livingston has told me how excited they are to get applications from women, and that they want to do everything they can to get more female applicants.” This implies that the problem isn’t skilled women are being repressed in the computer industry, but rather there just aren’t enough of them. Personally, I believe that the biggest component for success in the computer industry is skill and merit, and I find this comforting. It leaves some component of success in the hands of the individual, which is both empowering and motivational.