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Historically, “tech” roles have been occupied by white males with a 4-year degree from a name-brand academic institution. Yet despite advances in education and achievement, women in STEM continue to be underrepresented in the workforce. While they make up nearly half of US workers, they account for only 27% of STEM workers.

Together, we can drastically increase that proportion.

Focusing your women in STEM hiring on early talent, your hiring and onboarding costs can be ~180% less than hiring an executive-level employee.

Dig into these 6 trends impacting women in STEM, and learn what they can mean for your overall hiring strategy.

1. Women in STEM need more role models

Think about career paths for early talent before, during, and after school. Role models can have a dramatic influence on young women’s career choices, with data showing the number of girls interested in STEM almost doubles when they have a role model to inspire them (41%) compared to those who do not (26%). Throughout their journeys through school and work, mentorship builds confidence and provides women with networking opportunities that can unlock equity.

What does this mean for your talent recruiting strategy?

Build relationships with student organizations like the Society of Women Engineers and Women in Computer Science to cultivate relationships with women in STEM throughout their time in school. Think even earlier than college students and recent grads about how to cultivate and inspire STEM careers with a company like yours. For instance, partner with youth-focused organizations like the Girl Scouts or Girls Who Code. Invite women who are in STEM roles at your company to speak at events, volunteer, and network with promising young talent—and inspire lifelong interests.

2. Women in STEM are enrolled in all types of educational programs

Universities, colleges, and alternative training providers like bootcamps are investing more resources toward empowering more young women to pursue STEM degrees and careers. Cornell Engineering’s Class of 2021 was the first in the college’s history to enroll more women than men.

What does this mean for your talent recruiting strategy?

Your school network is a critical piece of your early talent recruiting strategy. Make sure you’re connecting to the early talent pools of women in STEM students that you’re looking for. For instance, if you’re using a core schools strategy, there is probably bias in your hiring process. To unlock access and equity for women in STEM, sourcing from a wide range of schools is key.

Encourage your employees who are women in STEM to teach and network at bootcamps, and recruit from the growing number of tech training providers on Handshake. By doing so, you’re also helping expand the community of role models for women exploring STEM careers, and supporting career mobility.

3. Women in STEM are more likely to major in life sciences than engineering

While 34.4% of STEM graduates are women, they’re proportionally more represented in life and social science majors like Biology and Psychology. Women in STEM occupations are still underrepresented in engineering and computer science.

What does this mean for your talent recruiting strategy?

One way to discover more women who can fill STEM roles is to broaden your student search beyond major. Limiting a search to women Computer Science majors, for example, would narrow your funnel too much. But if you expand your filters to include skills or even interests, you can discover women who upskill to meet your team’s particular needs, and bring unique perspective to your org.

4. Women in STEM are looking for representation

According to a Handshake Network Trends survey, 65% of Gen Z women look for women in leadership roles before applying for a job at a company. Women want to know that there are career paths for them before committing to any given company.

What does this mean for your talent recruiting strategy?

There are many, many ways to uplevel your employer brand to show and tell women’s stories, and be more inclusive of women’s candidate experience. For instance, the language in job descriptions can actually persuade or dissuade women candidates from applying to certain roles—especially in STEM. Avoiding gendered words like “ninja” is more welcoming for women.

During the recruiting process, expose URGs and other ways for women in STEM to feel belonging. Microsoft’s Codess community, as described in detail on their careers page, offers mentorship and networking. Cultivating alumni connections can open doors for women in STEM to see themselves in your organization.

5. Women in STEM are benefitting from virtual recruiting

Handshake Network Trends report, Who Wins with Virtual Recruiting?, revealed data that women found virtual career events and interviews to be less anxiety-inducing and more accessible when compared to meeting with prospective employers in person. A Handshake student survey found that 85% of respondents prefer attending an event before applying to a job—and that women are 26% more likely than men to embrace developing relationships virtually.*

What does this mean for your talent recruiting strategy?

Virtual recruiting strategies can help correct for historic gender inequity in recruiting. Now that you can find talent anywhere, the massive and rapid scaling of remote work has the potential to level the gender equality gap. Using career fairs and virtual events as an example, the barrier to entry and time commitment is much lower than an in-person event (you might find the same is true for yourself!)—and so is the intimidation factor.

6. Women in STEM want, and need, professional development

A Handshake survey revealed that 62% of students attend career events to ensure there are growth and development opportunities—and that over 90% of students and recent alumni expect substantial professional development from their employer.*

What does this mean for your talent recruiting strategy?

Use events to offer transparency into career pathways should begin before new hires join. For instance, host a panel and invite both early career employees as well as more seasoned women in STEM to discuss their progression within your organization. Empower women that emerging talent is welcome at your company by establishing pathways for career changers. Along with developing women in STEM talent once they join your organization, it’s important to note that promoting women as they progress in their careers is a critical component of any DEI strategy.

Recruiting a more equitable STEM workforce

To compete for top early talent and squeeze the most juice out of digital channels, you’re probably seeing a shift from seasonal recruiting to “always-on.” This is especially true for recruiting tech talent today. To future-proof your business, invest in early talent women who can become STEM workers and leaders—and lead innovation for years to come.

*Handshake internal study, July 2022; n= 1,593

6 trends impacting women in STEM

Gen Z is showing strong interest in working for Software & Technology companies. On Handshake’s platform, tech companies receive the most applications of any industry. More and more of Gen Z is choosing to study tech-related fields, with Computer Science and Computer Systems Networking among the top 5 majors of the Class of 2023.

But, the reality of winning this talent is more nuanced.

A year of negative industry headlines coupled with industry-wide layoffs is giving stability-minded Gen Z pause. This is coming at a time when hiring for tech talent is becoming more competitive than ever, as nearly every industry undergoes digital transformation.

So which tech industry trends do you need to know to win over Gen Z? Keep reading to learn where you might be falling short—and how you can catch up.

Tech industry trend #1: Building a brand dedicated to DEI

Gen Z is the most diverse American generation, and diversity consistently ranks at the top of their list when Gen Z is considering an employer. A Handshake study found that 60% of Gen Z researches diversity in an employer’s leadership when considering companies.

While there has been progress to increase diversity within traditional Software & Technology companies, the industry is still lagging behind. While almost all underrepresented groups are not proportionally reflected within Software & Technology, this issue remains especially prevalent with women.

One study by McKinsey found that across every major industry, Hardware Technology companies had the fewest women in leadership roles of any industry, at just 14% represented in VP+ roles. Technology software companies ranked slightly higher, at only 27%. In fact, women technologists make up just 26.7% of the tech workforce, and less than 8% of tech workers are Black. Even more shocking is that 83% of tech executives are white—80% of whom are men.

Early talent wants to see themselves reflected in the workforce at every level of an organization. Talent who don’t see themselves reflected in company leadership will find a job elsewhere.

The tech companies that consistently win over talent, especially Gen Z, are the ones that know DEI is more than a “right now” issue. That’s why these companies are building a company culture with DEI as part of their present—and their future.

Here are just a few of the ways they’re doing it, and how you can too.

📚 Proactively engage women in their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years of school. A Handshake study shows that women in STEM apply slightly earlier in their college journey than men. So if you only focus on students in their senior year, you could be missing out on qualified candidates who will bring innovation to your company.

✉️ Send personalized messages. One of the best ways to build a diverse pipeline is to build relationships. Take a cue from Raymond James, who leverages Handshake Premium to expand their geographic reach and diversity reach. With an expanded scope of schools, Raymond James efficiently increases access to a bigger talent pool. Through personalized virtual campaigns, Raymond James meets students where they are–a win-win.

🌍 Show candidates what diversity looks like in your company. Women and non-binary individuals are almost 2x more likely than men to say that seeing women in leadership roles makes them likely to apply to a job. Use events to highlight diversity: for example, invite a female leader at your organization to attend your career fair and provide personalized insight into how your company supports other women in the tech industry.

Tech industry trend #2: Expanding the talent pool beyond core schools

Software & Technology companies that are able to build more diverse workforces at every level of their organization will have a huge advantage in the competition for talent. That’s why tech companies are broadening their funnel of applicants.With 48% of Gen Z being non-white, recruiting early talent from underrepresented groups is table stakes.

However, companies must reevaluate where they are sourcing this talent from. This means expanding your list of school partnerships to include community and technical colleges and skill-based programs into your recruiting strategy. Why is this important? Only 26.1% of Black and 18.8% of Hispanic Americans have a traditional 4-year college degree.

When companies create arbitrary barriers to entry such as candidates coming from the “right” 4-year college, they leave out huge portions of the population, especially underrepresented groups. Creating strong partnerships from a broad list of schools opens up new, more diverse talent pools for Software & Technology companies.

Handshake’s top 10 community colleges graduating tech talent:

Miami Dade College

Los Rios Community College District

De Anza College

Cuyahoga Community College

St. Petersburg College

Collin College Frisco Workforce

Seminole State College of Florida

Columbus State Community College

City College of San Francisco

Foothill College

So how can you take advantage of this tech industry trend and widen your reach? Here are a few suggestions.

🗺️ Use an early talent recruiting platform with a large network. TD Synnex is a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem. With limited brand recognition, they needed to expand their reach to compete for tech talent. By using Handshake’s network of  academic institutions, TD Synnex increased their applicant pool by 559% 

📅 Apply a hybrid events strategy. To save time—and money—virtual fairs are a force multiplier. Virtual events allow you to interact with students without having to be physically on campus. That means you can “attend” multiple events across the country, all in the same day, and connect with many more schools than you would have if you only attend in-person events.

✅ Consider smaller cities and a remote-friendly culture. Gen Z are looking for an affordable cost of living. A student at the University of Dayton commented, “I think that the most up-and-coming cities are going to be smaller cities like Dayton because Gen Z people don’t aspire to work in offices as much as past generations. The appeal of cities and apartment living has gone down while housing prices in big cities have skyrocketed.”

Tech industry trend #3: Competing for tech talent

Tech companies often have high brand awareness. But they’re still getting ghosted. In fact, on Handshake, Software & Technology companies receive a much lower response rate to their outbound messages than in year’s past.

Why? Traditional tech candidates with engineering backgrounds are hearing from recruiters from almost every industry. This means that they can pick and choose who they respond to and will only engage with companies they are truly interested in.

Software & Technology companies can’t expect to just message their talent pool when they hit a hiring sprint. One-off messages can backfire, coming off as impersonal.

Ranked average open rate to messages sent by employers:

Investment Banking: 48.1%

Biotech & Life Sciences: 47.4%

Management Consulting: 46.8%

Financial Services: 41%

Software & Technology: 38%

And the competition with other industries is getting more fierce. In August of 2022, the Tech Jobs Report noted that other industries hiring tech talent overshadowed traditional tech companies. Finance, manufacturing, and even retail are making huge advances in hiring for these roles.

Source: CompTIA Tech Jobs Report, August 2022

Source: CompTIA Tech Jobs Report, August 2022

You need an always-on recruiting model across a range of proactive outreach methods that enables consistent engagement and relationship building with future talent. How?

🎉 Host company events beyond career fairs. Instead of recruiting school by school, host a virtual career event open to all your target schools. Highlight functional leadership and company growth tracks for early talent.

🤝 Cultivate one-on-one connections. For your most highly sought after candidates, create office hours for one-on-one chats that enable candidates to discuss their career ambitions openly. Expand the reach of your team by asking function-related employees to participate.

✏️ Customize your outreach. You don’t have to be a recruiter to recognize an impersonal mass message. Adding customized touches for each candidate, such as referencing a student’s major or their past event attendance, will increase the likelihood of a response.

Recruiting for the future of Software & Technology

The future is bright for Software & Technology companies to win the talent war, with expected growth of 3x the national rate compared to occupational growth across industries over the next 10 years. But as competition for tech talent continues to intensify from other industries, being a “tech” company is not enough to win over Gen Z.

Software & Technology companies must highlight their commitment to DEI, create transparent growth paths for Gen Z, and build an always-on recruiting model that creates authentic relationships with their target audiences.

3 Tech industry trends to recruit and win Gen Z

Crafting a job description can feel like designing your dream candidate. It’s an opportunity to list all of the skills and qualifications your ideal applicant could possess.

One checkbox that almost always makes the list? Years of experience.

But filtering on a candidate’s job history can be more of a hindrance than a help. This is especially true when you’re recruiting early talent and tech talent, who don’t necessarily have a long job history but who have the capabilities, training, and desire to contribute.

That’s why strategic employers are moving away from the years of experience filter to focus on what actually matters most: skills and knowledge.

Years of experience: What’s the problem with this traditional criteria?

Writing a job posting without a required experience level might feel unnatural, but there are a few compelling reasons why this classic filter can actually screen qualified candidates out.

1. It fails to keep pace with tech innovation

While technology gets a bad rap for replacing human workers with robots, the truth is that technology doesn’t just eliminate jobs—it creates them too. As technology advances, more tech-skilled workers are needed to spearhead innovation.

Just think about some of the in-demand tech roles today that would’ve inspired nothing more than confused looks and blank stares a mere decade ago:

Artificial intelligence developer

Blockchain analyst

Cloud architect

Cybersecurity specialist

Virtual reality developer

And that’s only the beginning. Technology—and the careers that support it—moves at a breakneck pace. In fact, it’s been reported that 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t actually been invented yet. These are roles that aren’t limited to the tech industry—consider finance, government, energy, and yours.

Filtering out candidates based on years of experience means applying an archaic filter to a cutting-edge industry. And, as Sebastián Ramírez, the creator of FastAPI, experienced, you could mistakenly ask candidates to meet a standard that’s quite literally impossible.

2. It doesn’t showcase the capabilities of early talent

The “years of experience” filter might feel like it reveals a lot about what a candidate brings to the table. If they have over two years on the job, they must already have mastered this skill and gained proficiency with this piece of software.

But in reality, years of experience tells you precisely one thing: how long the applicant has collected a paycheck. That’s all.

It’s tempting to assign a lot of weight and importance to the time an employee has already invested in the workforce, but in doing so, you’re only making assumptions. Tenure isn’t always representative of knowledge, skills, and talent.

It’s important to remember that Gen Z is entering the workforce with a lot of enthusiasm and know-how—but they don’t necessarily have the perspective and confidence of someone who’s been navigating the working world for years.

The “years of experience” requirement shrinks your pipeline.

3. It threatens your application rate

Here’s the biggest problem with the “years of experience” requirement: It discourages skilled and highly-qualified candidates from applying to your open roles.

Early talent is typically in the “0-5 years of experience” range. So why create job descriptions aimed at early talent that state “3-5 years of experience”? This can discourage new graduates from applying since they believe they don’t meet the years of experience requirement—even though they’ve recently acquired a degree or certificate in the exact skills you need.

When recent graduates see a bold experience requirement in your job posting, it’s an immediate barrier—and one that often feels insurmountable. Most will move on and look for employers that have more reasonable expectations, particularly for roles that are branded as “entry level.”

Going beyond quantifiable qualifications

Thinking critically about your years of experience requirements—and questioning whether you even need them in the first place—supports more inclusive recruiting.

However, inclusive recruiting is not synonymous with “having no standards.” Employers absolutely can and should have specific criteria they’re looking for in successful applicants. The trick is being more open-minded about what those standards are—and how to evaluate them. Here’s some inspiration to get the wheels turning.

1. Revamp your job descriptions

It likely goes without saying that your job postings will need a bit of an overhaul, particularly if you’ve been reusing the same tired template over and over again. But what goes in a job description if you’re not listing the required experience or a specific college degree?

The traditional approach focuses on this question: What boxes does a candidate need to check? Flip the script and challenge yourself to answer deeper, more meaningful questions about the open position like:

What skills will make someone successful in this role?

What impact do we want this role to have on our organization?

What broader team or company goals will this role support?

What career path will this role put someone on (or help them discover)?

Doing so keeps you and the entire hiring team focused more on the outcomes of the position—rather than creating a laundry list of prescriptive inputs to make it happen.

2. Identify other meaningful experiences

Experience simply means to directly observe or participate in something. But somewhere along the line, it was boiled down to hands-on work in a paid role.

Experience comes in all shapes and forms outside of on-the-job responsibilities, and it’s well worth considering and honoring those less-traditional avenues like:

Apprenticeships

Bootcamps

Certifications

Clubs and organizations

Course work

Internships

Part-time jobs

Personal hobbies

Projects

Side hustles

Volunteer work

All of those can provide knowledge and skill-building that’s equally significant (if not more so) to on-the-job experience, particularly when many offer training that’s far more targeted and timely than college curriculum.

Maybe you can personally relate to racking up experience early in your career that doesn’t directly map to what you’re doing now. Perhaps a student who has waitressing experience applies to your role, and you discount that experience because you’re not hiring for a waitress position. But that student might have fantastic customer service skills, the ability to think on their feet, and agility in high pressure situations.

3. Consider new ways to evaluate candidates

If your experience requirements aren’t traditional, your evaluation methods shouldn’t be either. Fortunately, technical interviews typically include steps like:

Skills-based assessments, or a coding challenge

Test projects, or whiteboarding

Work samples of what the candidate has produced

These approaches, on their own or in combination, rely on a candidate’s current skills and knowledge, and they tell you more about an applicant’s aptitude than a single bullet point on a resume ever could.

There are plenty of out-of-the-box ways you can get a solid grasp on the know-how of job applicants without relying on their job history. Explore speed interviews, use situational interview questions, behavioral interviews over lunch, and other ways to surface a student’s skills, interests, and academic highlights. You can check with your school partners for suggestions for breaking the traditional interview mold.

It’s time to prioritize tenacity over tenure

For decades, listing an experience requirement was as inherent to job descriptions as the job title itself. But when it comes to recruiting early talent—and especially tech talent—that sort of filter can be more of a barrier than a boost.

Employers are better served by focusing on the knowledge and skills required to do the job, whether they were obtained through “traditional” experience or not.

In the end, maybe it’s time for the “years of experience” qualification to go the way of other outdated recruiting methods, like newspaper wanted ads and faxing a resume: complete and total obsolescence.

Look at your data to understand if “years of experience” is filtering out otherwise qualified candidates. Handshake levels the playing field for early career applicants. Find out more →

Need top tech talent? Check your requirements.

Workers just entering the job market have a chance to explore tech roles in new industries and companies that might not have caught their attention when marquee names in tech were on massive hiring sprees.

And employers outside of the tech industry have an opening to capitalize on this moment to get hungry, adaptable, and tech-savvy young talent in the door.

Tech talent isn’t just for tech companies: every industry relies on technical know-how

As businesses grapple with how to keep pace amidst a rapidly-changing environment, all industries will have to rely on technology and talent with tech skills, to innovate, evolve, and digitize operations.

As a result, we’re already seeing variety of industries moving on the opportunity to attract the interest of young workers and, primarily, tech talent:

Chevron is building a workforce to propel the integration of energy and tech. They offer STEM internships and early career opportunities, and are piloting an agile approach to recruiting for strategic functions like IT and PetroTech. Handshake helps Chevron build their brand as an employer of choice to attract tech talent.

Fidelity’s new tech hires, which account for 18% of their workforce expansion, include full stack software engineers, data scientists, mobile/iOS engineers and architecture professionals. Fidelity uses Handshake to uplevel their brand through a digital presence, increase diversity representation in their talent pool, and create efficiency for their teams hiring thousands of candidates a year.

General Motors is committed to an “all-electric future” and is using Handshake to invest in tech talent to support their electric vehicle goals and 50+ digital businesses. They’re looking to hire thousands of interns and entry-level positions this year, including to work on their software and hardware teams.

Read about more Tech Transformers who are leading their industries in digital transformation and attracting top tech talent.

It’s clear tech talent doesn’t only need to search for a role at a notable Big Tech company. Today, every company relies on technical know-how in some way, shape, or form.

For example, with specialized software, automation, and AI, customer service is becoming an increasingly tech-heavy role. During the pandemic, teachers had to become overnight technical whizzes to adapt to virtual learning, with 49% of educators admitting their ability to use technology improved during the 2020-2021 school year.

Since more students are up-leveling their skills in modern ways, employers looking to attract tech talent need to rethink their reqs and talent pool. Handshake data found that a skills-based approach results in a 2.3X increase in technical candidates. Learn more about skills-based recruiting here.

Capitalizing on the moment: How non-tech companies can attract early talent

With a clear need, how should non-tech companies capitalize on the abundance of early career tech talent graduating from college this year?

1. Emphasize the right benefits and attributes

Of course, compensation is a heavy factor when younger workers evaluate jobs. However, there’s another major consideration that actually ranks evenly with salary in its importance: job stability.

You might be surprised that a household-name brand doesn’t carry as much weight as you think, with only 41% of the class of 2023 saying it makes them more likely to apply for a job. Handshake has found that Gen Z prioritizes salary, job stability, and overall benefits ahead of the brand name.

Security aside, there are other perks that early talent is actively looking for. Flexibility is a big one, with 73% of Gen Z stating that they like having a flexible schedule. They’re also eager to advance their careers, with 71% of Gen Z agreeing that they expect to be promoted between six months to one-and-a-half years.

Stability, flexibility, benefits, and opportunities for career growth are all advantages and cultural attributes that should be spotlighted in your employer branding materials, particularly when trying to appeal to early talent.

2. Update your candidate experience

Because Gen Z possesses so much deep-rooted technical expertise, it’s safe to assume that they lack patience for processes that are clunky and inefficient. Paired with their eagle-eye focus on transparency and communication in the workplace, interview and onboarding expectations are high.

All job candidates—and particularly younger ones—will anticipate that you’ve invested some thought, effort, and technology into a smooth candidate experience.

Put yourself in a candidates’ shoes. Walk through the process yourself and ask recent hires for feedback to pinpoint areas that need the most improvement.

Read more: 5 ways Gen Z thinks you can improve your interview process

3. Carefully consider job requirements

Early talent is, well, early in their careers. They bring plenty of valuable skills to the table, but that doesn’t mean they come with years of experience under their belts.

For that reason, employers who want to adjust recruitment strategies to prioritize younger workers need to think critically about the requirements listed in job descriptions geared toward early talent. For example:


How much experience (if any) do candidates actually need?

Is that specific degree really critical? Or will other education, training, or skills suffice?

Keep in mind that there are other ways to evaluate talent beyond these traditional (and oftentimes overly-limiting) filters. Things like projects, assessments, and peer interviews might be a little more labor intensive, but they’re more inclusive and can ultimately help you find a better fit than any arbitrary criteria would.

4. Build your tech talent pipeline earlier

Effectively recruiting tech talent into non-tech industries starts before collecting applications for an open role. Employers need to build and fuel an early talent pipeline by:


Creating internship programs to connect with talent even before they graduate and provide them hands-on experience in your industry


Partnering with schools, particularly those with relevant programs, to attend career fairs and host virtual events where students can get a deeper dive into your company’s specific tech goals.


Optimizing your Handshake company profile to elevate your brand and appeal to early talent

Efforts like these help companies forge strong bonds with young workers—many times before they even hit the job market.

Tech talent

Find your next engineer on Handshake

6 trends impacting women in STEM

3 Tech industry trends to recruit and win Gen Z

Need top tech talent? Check your requirements.

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