I am excited to announce our inaugural industry conference, Remote Connect 2022: Building Belonging in the New World of Work, will take place April 5-6 this year. This is a free, live virtual event where global businesses and industry leaders will share bold ideas to help us all build better, grow together, and support our teams and communities in 2022 and beyond. 

Remote Connect is for anyone who wants to:

Learn from the world’s foremost experts in remote work

There are many great reasons to attend, but of course the biggest reason is our incredible lineup of 40+ speakers. Headlining the event are some familiar names: Arianna Huffington, Adam Grant, Priya Parker, Michael C. Bush, and Charles Feltman. We’ll also have a diverse group of authors, CEOs, business leaders, industry experts, community leaders, and more sharing their experiences and perspectives. 

When you attend, you’ll also get access to our rich library of on-demand content that will include practical deep dives on global employment topics spanning legal, finance, engineering, and people teams. Do you have questions about offering equity awards to your global workforce? Scaling a finance team when you’re experiencing hypergrowth? Removing barriers for engineering teams to work better remotely? What about hiring in other countries?

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of international employment, just getting started with a new venture, or an HR professional looking to learn from the best in the world, Remote Connect is the place for you.

We’re also really excited to feature some great musicians from all over the world. There’s nothing like music to bring people together, and we’re happy to support these talented artists who have been impacted by the pandemic as they share their talents.

We have many more surprises to come, and we can’t wait to see you there!

Our inaugural industry conference, Remote Connect 2022: Building Belonging in the New World of Work, will take place April 5-6, 2022. This is a free, live virtual event where global businesses and industry leaders will share bold ideas to help us all build better, grow together, and support our teams and communities in 2022 and beyond. 

Join us for Remote Connect 2022

Jobs requiring STEM skills (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are some of the most highly paid in the world. With nearly every business today requiring some sort of technological component — whether that’s just a website or a complete suite of software products — demand for workers with STEM skills is only going up. Most jobs in STEM can be done remotely, creating even more opportunities for this talented pool of workers.

Training in STEM can open all sorts of doors, but one major problem remains: equality.

Women and gender minorities still regularly face discrimination, fall victim to stereotypes, and struggle with a lack of acknowledgment for their work in general. This is especially true in fields like STEM, where women have made significant progress but must continue to compete for recognition and opportunities that remain dominated by men.

Fortunately, the recent boom in remote work has helped to accelerate progress toward equality. Women are now finding more opportunities to pursue STEM careers despite the obstacles in front of them. But how exactly is remote work benefiting women, especially women in STEM, and how can businesses contribute to these improved opportunities?

STEM is an umbrella term referring to four different fields of study: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Several careers exist within these fields, including fintech, banking, architecture and design, application development, and software engineering, to name just a few. Without STEM workers, none of the modern technological comforts we depend on would exist.

While STEM fields offer great career paths, women have traditionally faced extra hurdles in joining the STEM workforce. Equality and equal opportunity, not to mention equal pay, have been a distant goal for most. With the rise of remote work opportunities, though, the tide is turning.

The acronym of STEM includes any form of research or technological work, no matter when in history it occurred. Women have historically been a large contributing force to these advancements, though many have had their accomplishments ignored, stolen, or snubbed in the past.

Some notable examples of these groundbreaking women include: 

Nettie Stevens earned her doctorate in biology at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia before going on to discover X and Y chromosomes.

Lise Meitner, in a partnership with Otto Hahn, contributed to discoveries concerning nuclear fission. However, in 1944, the Nobel Prize for these discoveries was awarded to Hahn alone, while the committee disregarded Meitner’s contributions.

Chien-Shiung Wu, also known as the “First Lady of Physics,” worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II before later partnering with two male colleagues when she helped disprove the “principle of conservation of parity.” Wu went unrecognized for her contributions while her two colleagues earned a Nobel Prize in 1957.

Hedy Lamarr, an Austrian-American actress and inventor, pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems.

This is only a small sampling of the scores of women who have made strides in STEM fields. The technologies today may be more advanced and exciting than ever, but women continue to see their contributions and talents overlooked. 

A “gender gap” refers to systemic roadblocks in which social, political, professional, and cultural opportunities are not equally achievable depending on one’s gender. 

Historically, these systemic roadblocks do the most harm to those who do not identify as cisgendered men. This gap is particularly notable in STEM fields. Women hold only 27% of STEM jobs in the US, for example. Members of the LGBTQ+ community also face challenges to get involved in STEM, due in part to the harassment and hostility they often receive at work, especially in countries that do not have protections for LGBTQ+ people in their laws.

While gender gaps exist across all of STEM, experiences may vary depending on specific niches and professions.

While 20% of engineering graduates are women, some 40% of those graduates either quit the industry or never practice.

Women earn only 83% of men’s pay for the same jobs on average, and while these percentages shrink to single-digit gaps for many STEM professionals, those gaps still remain.

Gender pay gaps are even greater for Black, Hispanic, and Native American women.

The theme is consistent: women may earn more in STEM, but they still do not earn as much as their male colleagues for the same work. Smaller gaps are good, but the goal is to eliminate the gender pay gap, not just lower it.

How the transition to remote is impacting STEM 

Some STEM fields, like software engineering, flourished during the major shift to remote work over the last two years. Others, like many hands-on sciences, struggled.

From canceled professional conferences to closed in-person labs and active research being put on hold indefinitely, many forms of hands-on scientific work came to a halt when people were sent to work from home. Especially in the life-sciences field, researchers were unable to complete lab work, testing, and other procedures in a home setting without the proper cleanroom tools and safety precautions.

While scientists in many fields may still be able to work at full capacity from home, others have had to put expensive research projects on hold. Many professionals need to consider how to join and host conferences from home, coordinate the writing and editing of papers, and facilitate learning and development in an asynchronous working environment. Due to this indefinite pause on many in-progress research projects, many scientists fear losing their work, losing grants, or losing their lab positions.

Many employees in the tech sector were already working from home in varying capacities before the boom in remote work. More experience with remote work meant tech professionals didn’t experience as much disruption in their roles. As such, many tech workers are now more comfortable working remotely than in offices — and do not plan to give up their newfound freedom any time soon. 

This is not to say there aren’t skeptics of remote work within the field. However, the ongoing transition to distributed work in this industry was already in progress, so decisions on where to work are not new to today’s tech workers.

Software engineers can work remotely with ease, but what about more traditional engineering fields, like electrical engineering or mechanical engineering? Some of this work can be done remotely, but in reality, many engineers of varying specialities continue to work in offices. Emerging tools for asynchronous collaboration are helping to bridge the gap, but for now, most positions for engineering work continue to require an in-office presence.

Mathematics in STEM includes fields such as banking, fintech, and accounting.  Many of these niches have a unique relationship with remote work. While these industries are filled with roles that could often be done remotely, they also must meet high standards related to privacy, cybersecurity, and compliance. The divide in mathematical professionals today is primarily one of tradition. More modern fintech companies are happy to allow workers to stay remote, while more traditional banks and other financial institutions may not be so allowing.

Of course, finance is far from the only mathematical discipline in STEM. Because math touches so many different fields, possibilities for remote work vary dramatically from one opportunity to the next.

Benefits of remote work for STEM professionals

Remote work offers tremendous benefits for everyone who can enjoy the privilege, especially in STEM. Women and LGBTQ+ people may find some of the challenges they faced in offices to be diminished or even nonexistent in remote work environments. That’s not to say that women no longer face discrimination in remote work environments — or that employers can afford to be lax about protecting their workers — but overall, remote work does more to reduce disparity than exacerbate it.

Let’s take a look at a few reasons remote work is making life better for women in STEM:

Employers are no longer limited to hiring in one region.

Local STEM communities can be insular. Employers and hiring managers tend to favor candidates they know, which often means men hiring men. However, now that fully remote roles (and fully remote hiring processes) have been normalized, employers are casting their nets wider and relying less on local relationships.

STEM job opportunities have traditionally been concentrated within metropolitan areas. In turn, this has led to higher rents, a higher overall cost of living, and long commutes for employees. For women, who often bear the burden of “invisible work” that goes into maintaining a household, the obstacles of living and working in a city can be even more daunting. All things considered, it’s no surprise women are some of the most likely candidates to apply to open remote positions.

Remote work allows employers to access global talent and hire from anywhere in the world. Employees can not only apply to and be hired by international companies, but they can also find more opportunities to travel around the world while maintaining their income. Many have used this opportunity to move closer to family or to leave expensive cities for areas with lower costs of living.

Improved accessibility of mentorship and networking opportunities.

Where professional and industry-specific conferences used to be hosted in person (and regularly required paid tickets to attend), the shift to remote work has revolutionized large events. Events have gone online, driving prices down and lowering barriers to entry to STEM professionals to expand their skill sets. 

Virtual events don’t require event producers to take on the more expensive aspects of conferences, such as renting a location, parking, and security. This lower cost of production is passed on to attendees, meaning more opportunity for those who otherwise would not have been able to afford to attend on top of travel costs or time off from work.

It’s true that organic connections can be more difficult to make at virtual conferences as opposed to in-person events. However, people who are proactive in their outreach and engaged with the content of these events enjoy great opportunities to meet leaders in their industries and make new connections.

(Looking for the world’s best conference for remote work and global HR? Sign up to attend Remote Connect this April!)

What obstacles do women in STEM face in the remote work world?

Despite the benefits, there are still several opportunities for improvement within the remote working world for women. Issues women and face in remote work often include:

Disproportionate responsibilities at home, including childcare and household labor

Gender-based harassment or discrimination, which is especially common for LGBTQ+ individuals

Expectations for women to perform administrative work outside their roles, like taking notes in remote meetings or relaying messages

A lack of representation in company leadership

Understanding the root of these issues and how they affect women in STEM fields can not only shine a light on potential remedies, but also help to protect against similar issues in the future. While STEM continues to undergo a slow shift in women’s opportunities in the workforce, there is still a lot of ground left to cover.

What can STEM businesses do to lessen the gender gap through remote work?

Remote work has already helped more women access STEM careers, but there are things businesses can do to welcome more women into these roles — and to retain them. 

1. Establish better remote work goals, deadlines, and reviews.

Remote work highlights the value of measuring employees based on production instead of hours spent at work. While it is important not to hold office and remote workers to different standards, note that work may get done differently and at different rates depending on each individual’s work style.

Shifting toward more equitable measurement and performance analysis structures allows companies to conduct fairer reviews of their team members. Everyone should be measured equally using criteria that do not favor one side over another. This is a great opportunity for managers to examine their own biases so they do not unconsciously favor employees they see in the office over employees who work elsewhere.

2. Be more accommodating through flexible work hours and environments.

Consider employee expectations both during the workday and outside of it. Employers operating with a hybrid or remote model must answer culture questions like:

Are employees expected to be on the clock during specific hours?

Are there options for flexible working hours depending on different employee needs?

Are there recurring, required meetings that could be reworked to be more flexible?

Could more meetings be canceled in favor of asynchronous work?

What are expectations around answering messages outside working hours?

Simply allowing employees to work from home without considering changes to meeting structures or working hours is a recipe for disaster. Companies must trust their employees to do great work instead of micromanaging them. Another great reason to measure performance based on output instead of hours.

3. Provide relevant, targeted training to people leaders.

Intentionally train managers on the best ways to support remote workers. As Remote’s CEO Job van der Voort likes to say, “You don’t have to smell people to manage them.” Managing remote employees is not all that different from managing in-office employees, but remote work can expose bad management practices quickly.

Leaders should focus on developing their employees, recognizing microaggressions and harassment, and ensuring every member of staff has equal opportunity. Not only will these initiatives help employees feel supported and heard, but doing so will also create a more positive, welcoming environment for all.

Training also means development: creating an environment in which women’s accomplishments are recognized and those women are promoted based on the merit of their work. Promoting and supporting the great women in STEM already within your organization is the best way to attract more brilliant team members and keep your current ones on board.

4. Improve networking and mentorship opportunities.

Growth-focused STEM businesses should be investing in mentorship, leadership training, and other networking opportunities (particularly for employees working remotely). There are a number of simple practices employers can incorporate to facilitate this learning and development:

Hosting events, seminars, and conferences

Offering to send employees to remote and in-person conferences

Providing a learning and development allowance 

Inviting industry professionals to speak to staff remotely

Developing a structured mentorship program 

Especially for women working remotely, these events offer opportunities to connect with other women in their field and demonstrate how management sees and supports them. Professional development allowances are an excellent perk to help employees grow their skills in new ways, and structured mentorship programs can help employees identify areas in which they would like to improve.

5. Establish and practice zero-tolerance policies for harassment.

Working remotely does not automatically end harassment for women and LGBTQ+ employees at work. Toxicity can easily infiltrate remote companies the same way it can physical offices. In fact, the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic actually led to increased harassment for women and LGBTQ+ individuals in many cases, per Project Include.

Businesses with remote workforces must be active in how they communicate and enforce their anti-harassment policies. To ensure employees feel comfortable speaking up, companies may consider creating internal advocacy groups or allowing employees to do so on their own. When an employee reports harassment, the company must act swiftly to investigate the claims and decisively to ensure workers feel safe. Not only is protecting workers the right thing to do, but if harassers are allowed to continue, they will create a hostile environment for everyone.

Millions of brilliant women around the world already enjoy successful careers in STEM. The challenge for businesses is not to open the door but to support those who have opened it themselves. 

Women have made great strides in STEM fields, especially in recent history. But with some hurdles still standing in their way, many are finding the boom in remote work to be what they need to find success.

Bridging the gender gap in STEM with remote work

You found your dream position, poured all your time and energy into an amazing cover letter...and you hear nothing back at all from the company you applied to. Sure, your CV wasn't a perfect match, but you more than compensate for that, which you explained in your cover letter. Then why didn't you get a response? Or, if you got one, why was a it such an impersonal one without any feedback?

Most organizations use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Examples are Workable, Lever and Greenhouse. When you send in your application, be it to an email address, or a form on a website, it ends up in one of these applications.

Depending on the size of the company, they might have a team of recruiters or their own managers reviewing incoming applications here. For companies that want to grow fast, and companies that have many applicants (because they are popular), they could be receiving tens or even hundreds of applicants for any given position. For example, for one hire I’ve made last year, I rejected more than 300 people before hiring someone.

To manage so many applications, the recruiter has to evaluate profiles quickly. This means that applicants that do not match the requirements are usually rejected quickly. Your cover letter might not even be seen. And because the recruiter might have to review hundreds of applications, they will probably use a bulk-reject function, which is offered by platforms such as Lever. 

This is probably what happens with your application if you get rejected, or don’t hear anything. You might be the best fit, but if a quick scan of your profile doesn’t reveal that, you might be rejected without much consideration.

An organization that wants to scale up quick, that is - hire many people really quickly, will closely monitor how many people are hired, and how quickly. This is why ATSs market their reporting functions heavily, see this page by Greenhouse for example.

To hire people fast, they usually create strict job descriptions and might have internal rules that rank people higher or lower. For example, companies might prefer applicants with a university degree over applicants that don’t. Some companies avoid applicants that tend to job-hop, others will only review applicants that come from other notable companies.

I’ll refrain from going into unconscious bias here, but unfortunately this plays a role here as well.

The recruiter that does most of the first-stage filtering and selection will not have a deep understanding of the role and requirements. They often hire for several roles, and it’s impossible for them to understand that someone that does experience X might fit really well for role Y as well. They might select candidates on “do they have experience Y”.

A recruiter that has many applicants will not take any risk with candidates. The next person to interview a candidate is usually a manager or coworker: someone that does not spend all their time hiring. Recruiters are therefore under pressure to only pass through "safe bets."

You’re convinced you’ll make a great fit for a particular position, but your application still got rejected. How do you still make it in?

If you didn’t get a reply at all, ask for one! It might be that a company has simply missed your application. If a company doesn’t reply to your email, reach out to them on social media or reach out to the recruiter directly if that’s possible.

Got a standard rejection? Try to understand why, again by reaching out directly, but usually your best bet is to talk to the people that you’d be working with. You can easily find those people on Linkedin and social media. Reach out with a short message. Be kind and humble.

One thing that I’ve seen work is to reach out to the person that would be your manager. They have the best understanding of what kind of person would fit and could also tell you why you wouldn’t make a good fit. Do be respectful of their time.

Try to be empathetic with the recruiter and company as a whole. It’s not nice to get rejected, or not hear anything at all; consider that the people working at that company are likely in a situation that they’re not able or discouraged to help you out. The best companies do reply to every applicant, and give feedback. We’ll write more about this in the future.

Above any other way, the best way to get hired at any company is to be referred. Often there are internal incentives for referring a new colleague, plus you get to bypass much of the recruitment process.

So if you’re looking for a particular position, ask around in your network first. It might save you a lot of time, and generally your chances are higher.

You might read this in desperation and don’t feel like this was much help. I didn’t address any of these things:

I don’t have experience, but all jobs require experience

There is a problem with my CV, and I get rejected because of it

I want to change careers, but I can’t find a first position

I’ll address each of these over the coming months. Sign up at Remote.com to receive the newsletter that’ll let you know when one of these is up.

What is your personal struggle with finding a new job?

How companies review your application (and why you don't hear back)

How companies review your application and why you don't hear anything back

A meeting should be short, to the point, and not waste the time of anyone in it. That sounds difficult, but is absolutely achievable. This works for both in-person and remote meetings.

If you can avoid having a meeting, consider not having a meeting.

Something quick can still be disruptive to the work and time of the other participants. Meetings, even well-ran, are costly.

Only invite people to your meeting that need to be there. If you want to satisfy the curiosity of people that don’t need to be there but are interested in what is discussed, you can share the agenda and notes with them (see below).

If your meeting only needs all participants for a part of the time, do that first, and tell those people to feel free to leave when they are no longer necessary.

A meeting is a tool to achieve a particular goal. Be careful to not create a culture where being in a meeting means you’re important. It’s not.

Expert move: if you’re in a meeting that you don’t need to be in and can’t contribute to, leave. Don’t disrupt the meeting. Just send a message to your manager / superior and let the person that organized the meeting know why you left.

A link to a Google doc* is the easiest way to do this. Give everyone edit rights, and tell them you will only discuss things that are on the agenda. Do this at least a day in advance, preferably whenever you send the invite.

1. Job: A brief description of what I like to discuss
	1. Marcelo: A comment I have on Job’s point
	2. Eduardo: Another comment I have on this point
	3. This is a note someone made while this point was being discussed
2. Luís: A different topic I’d like to discuss

Your name before your point. If it’s your point, you speak up. Have a clear goal in mind for adding something to the agenda. That can be a FYI, a clear ask or a clear point of discussion.

Everyone that isn’t talking, takes notes.

You want to have a document that everyone can easily modify. Sending around an attachment, or an email is not a good solution for this.

You should only discuss what is on the agenda. Nothing more, nothing less. If someone but the person raising the point is changing the topic / going off-course, shelve the discussion and make it a separate point on the bottom of the agenda.

Job: “Let’s discuss what we’ll put on the bagels”

Marcelo: “Can we also have donuts? Other donut-shaped foods maybe?”

Luís: “I prefer cubic foods, actually”

Job: “Let’s make that a point on the bottom of the agenda” *adds a point to the bottom of the agenda ‘Marcelo: Other food’.

Learning to do this is extremely important for running a good meeting. It’ll make sure you actually treat each point sufficiently, and take notes. This goes for the original topic as the newly added topic.

Plan your meetings for 30 minutes or less. You’re probably overestimating the time you need for a well-prepared meeting. If you find that you need more time, you can schedule another meeting - and add some time for the next instance.

In my experience, it’s hard to keep everyone engaged for more than 30 minutes. Even within that time, I find that people start to lose attention twenty minutes in.

The meeting starts at the meeting start time. Given you sent an invite in advance, there’s no need to wait for people to arrive if they’re not on time. Just start the meeting as is scheduled. Don’t wait for people.

If there are points of absent people on the agenda, move them to the bottom of the agenda.

Make it clear that you’ll be starting on time going forward, and be consistent about this. Before you know it, everyone shows up on time.

End the meeting early, or exactly when planned. Never later. You only asked for a set amount of people, respect their time by ending a meeting when you’re out of time.

Any points left to discuss should be moved to the next meeting (if there is one), or scheduled into a new meeting with the people that need to hear these.

If there’s no formal or natural leader in a meeting, take it upon yourself to be that person.

Leading a meeting is a skill that can be learned, get started with:

Telling people to start discussing their point once the time of meeting has started.

Sticking to the time. Clearly running out of time? Address that ahead off the end time, and make a plan for it.

Highlight underrepresented voices. People that tend to speak more, or more loudly, do not have better ideas than those that do not speak up. As a leader you can level the playing field.

Once something has been discussed, make it clear what the follow up is, and who is responsible for it. You should do this right in the agenda, so it’s easy to refer back to, e.g.:

1. Job: Donuts are great - TODO Job: order donuts
1. Luís: Cubic foods are great too - TODO Luís: schedule meeting with fellow cube-fanatics

Once something is done, mark it as such in the same agenda - and provide links where necessary

1. Job: Donuts are great - DONE Job: order donuts
1. Luís: Cubic foods are great too - DONE Luís: schedule meeting with fellow cube-fanatics
    1. link to meeting

For recurring meetings, start the meeting with a review of TODOs of last meeting.

What have I not covered here? What are your meeting annoyances?

Something I didn’t cover: Why have a meeting in the first place? What are your rules?

HR

Join us for Remote Connect 2022

Bridging the gender gap in STEM with remote work

How companies review your application and why you don't hear anything back

How to run a successful meeting