Microsoft recruiting female graduates

I’m a student in Dublin Institute of Technology, and around this time of year, students preparing to graduate from their courses usually get given access to graduate fares and talks by various companies. In Ireland this usually boils down to a few major corporations and a general free-for-all with stands and the like.

Microsoft held their event recently, encouraging under and post-grad students to apply for their graduate program, whereby they’ll be interviewed and later do a programming exam.

Well, most of the disciplines I’m exposed to are male-orientated. Computing, Information Tech., Information Systems, Databases, Networking, and all of the other various topics that come under that heading. Summed up by the phrase “computer science”, or as I like to say it, “nerdism”. With all due respect to the ladies in da house, these are disciplines normally dominated by those of us with both X and Y chromosomes.

Well, in order to rectify this, Microsoft (in their latest attempt to reach out, be cool and pretend they’re Apple) have organised an event in the college (and others, mind you) to attract women to their graduate program. No quota system or anything inane like that, just an event geared towards women. Which is great. More boobs at the office… boobs of the natural, non eating-disorder in males type, of course.

The only draw back to this is what they’ve gone and done to market it. “Techie Girls” is what it’s called. Which is fairly tame, but consider the fact that men aren’t called “Techie Men”, “Geek Guys” or “Nerd Dudes”. I’m no woman, but I am probably just an unattractive woman masquerading as a man, so I can say that this kind of stuff is fairly patronising. That is, of course, until you get to the logo…

Stylish, multi-dimensional women. Yep, definitely programmers...

So here we have a group of three young, powerful women. We know they’re powerful by the “I just powered-up” Japanese manga backgrounds. They’re stylish because, well, just look at their hair! Shiny and very much worth it.

Here we have our minxy vixen at the start. Probably blonde, but dyed into a trendy, stylish long bob kind of do. I’m calling it a bob because my girlfriend calls her hair this. I’m no idea why it’s called that, who “bob” is and why he’s managed to cajole himself into a hairstyle brand. Next up is the obligatory goth, catering to the first and possibly first-semester second years in the course who still haven’t realised that being a goth is more douchey then being Christiano Ronaldo (I had to fix the spelling of his surname twice, from “Rolando”). Finally we have the smart, but cute, girl whose caricature always appears on American TV sitcoms. She’s quirky in a funny non-offensive way, but you still totally would.

It’s after this image and a break-down of Microsofts campaign that it stops being patronising, and shapes itself up into a nice big piece of insult right to that old XX-type humanoid. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine them giving away pink Hello-Kitty style Microsoft branded mice geared towards browsing fashion sites or Microsoft branded special edition packs of Always Ultra that detect Wifi.

Like I said, men never get this type of treatment. And hilariously, we’d probably enjoy it more. Some girls will get the joke, others (whom I imagine will be the majority) will roll their eyes in disgust and have a slight sense of shame towards the Microsoft marketing department. Of course, the basic idea to attract more women to a company is great, and should be emulated elsewhere. It’s just insane the way they’ve marketed it like it’s some sort of new play thing.

Interestingly, if you are a woman and want to register for this event – do so by the 4th of December over on microsoft.com/careers.