Not a week has gone by in the last few years where I haven’t been approached by a recruiter talking about an exciting opportunity in the world of IT.

The roles have mostly been pretty senior and in the world of architecture. Ranging from CTO, Chief Architect and EA positions.

These roles are challenging roles to fill. They can be quite niche in terms of industry knowledge and architectural expectation. They can include all architectural domains at the EA and solution level or can be a subset. They can be focused on innovation and operations or on just one of these aspect. There is sometimes, I would actually say often, an element of the recruiter looking for a needle in a haystack.

But the one thing I can guarantee is that the discussion always starts with “the company is looking to address diversity”. On the face of it this is a great thing. The world of IT and in particular the world of Architecture is very male dominated. Proactive action to seek out applicants from “minority” groups must be encouraged.

However – that phrase in my head is very quickly translated into “we are calling you because you are a woman”.

I understand the motive, I understand the challenge, I get that CVS need to be found to improve the diversity measures but are there far more important aspects that need to be covered off – my experience, my knowledge, my approach to addressing architecture challenges, whether I am looking for a move right now and are all these aspects what the business needs right now.

The key for the conversation has to be finding out if I can do the job and if I would be interested in it – in exactly the same way that recruiters have been having conversations with male candidates who I am sure never have an opening of “the company is looking for a male and you fit the bill – we can come back to your experience later but are you interested in a move.”

I’m pretty certain that none of the recruiters mean to undermine experience by opening with the diversity card, most of the time the conversation does move onto experience but there is a keenness to put forward the CV no matter what because I am a woman.

I urge all those in the world of recruitment and all those setting measures to improve the ratios of minority groups in all teams to think about how they approach candidates. It has to be about experiences, potential, ambition with an idea of understanding what outcomes someone will really drive.

There are minority groups out there for sure who have the experience, the potential and the ambition seek those candidates out but please start with “you have the experience” rather than “the company is looking to address diversity. It’s a twist and a subtle one but it changes the conversation.

To those that may feel like they are in the minority get out there and get your voice heard – promote your experience, declare your ambition and prove your potential – make yourself heard and easy to find.

To those searching for those minority groups – think hard about your opening statement and how it would make you feel – seek out the experience and the potential and please stop majoring on the minority challenge.

It’s going to be a great decade for addressing the imbalance in teams, one where minority groups can be encouraged and supported into inclusive cultures – let’s make it start at the very beginning with that ice breaker of a question and let’s eliminate the “looking to address diversity” opener !

What are your thoughts ?