Redfin’s Partnership with Ada Improves Tech Team’s Gender Diversity + Representation
When Bridget Frey, Redfin’s CTO, joined Redfin, she was the only woman on its Seattle tech team.
Now, 34% of Redfin’s tech team are women. This is due in large part to Frey and Redfin’s continued commitment to building diverse software engineering teams. As a popular real estate platform with a website and mobile apps that reach more than 50 million average monthly users, and as a real estate brokerage serving customers across the U.S., Redfin needs to hire engineers with empathy, collaboration, and interest in interacting with real estate agents. This means engineers with technical mastery, soft skills, and motivation to make a big impact for people trying to buy, sell, or rent a home.
A long partnership
Redfin became a corporate partner in 2014 with the second cohort of interns (now Ada is on Cohort 19!). The Redfin-Ada partnership is successful because of the interns’ in-depth classroom training and support network.
Overcoming initial barriers
Bringing in a new program takes work. Frey and her team initially had some concerns about how successful interns from non-traditional backgrounds would be at Redfin. So she instituted a few policies to help set the program up for success, and she encouraged her team to carefully consider interns from Ada’s program vs. defaulting to interns from traditional CS schools.
She allowed requisitions for Ada interns to open up six months early so that managers could hire sooner. Additionally, she and her team created new training resources for the interns complete with hands-on labs which were self-paced and included office hours so that interns could get all of the support they needed on the job.
Once you have Ada interns, doubts disappear
Any concerns that the Redfin team initially had disappeared once the program started. Over the years, many of these interns have become full-time software engineers at Redfin, showing that Ada’s program works.
Our Ada interns have been promoted and taken on more roles throughout time. The difference with Ada interns is that they come in with workplace experience. With our interns from 4-year programs, we spend a lot of time teaching how to work at a company. Ada interns have this knowledge already.
Support network and vetting process set Ada apart
Frey also likes that Ada interns get so much support from Ada itself through additional training and a community. She also is impressed with Ada’s approach and vetting process to ensure the candidates are successful in tech.
Frey says, “Ada has developed a special formula for taking people with an interest in tech and turning them into people who can contribute to a code base on day one.”
If you want to learn how Ada’s Corporate Partnership Program can help your engineering team, contact us at [email protected].
