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​The Venture capital (VC) industry is often deemed a “bro-club” where men dominate the field. It’s been a decades-long problem of solving the diversity issue—the gender gap. There is generally a small number of female executives in the industry at the senior level and an even smaller number of women who actually receive venture capital money compared to male counterparts. For example, KrASIA reviewed 34 different VC firms in Southeast Asia and found that only 12 of these firms had a woman appointed in a senior position. Rishika Chandan, Venturi Partners’ managing director, stipulates that in order to overcome the gender gap in the VC industry, companies must tackle the problem at an organizational level. Where HR mandates at least 50% of the firms’ employees to be female and should follow a meritocracy.  But what makes the hiring process hard in the first place?There are various factors that come into play in diversifying the VC industry. According to Harvard, “bro culture," "gender bias," stereotyping, and a very masculine culture has an impact on the diversity of VC firms around the world. In order to overcome this, firms need to take the following steps to ensure the diversity among male and female employees. In order to increase the number of female venture capitalists, they must(1) Elevate current female role models(2) Offer career opportunities and incentives to women(3) Promote access to female talent by VC firms Melisa Irene, partner at Jakarta-based East Ventures, is an example of the growing women power at a senior level in the field of Southeast Asia VC. Although only 5% of the founders in East Ventures are women, Irene foresees the constant improvement of women entering her line of work. According to Irene, contrary topopular belief, Southeast Asian companies have a positive attitude towards women. “People rejoice at the promotion of female professionals in the industry,” she said. As it is not a rare occurrence for women to undertake more senior roles of work in Southeast Asia, as seen in other professions such as teaching and management.There is still a long way to go for companies in the VC industry to diversify and reduce the gender gap. However, in Southeast Asia, women are slowly making it into the limelight as one of the most sought-after talents in the VC industry. Their ability to be empathetic and nuanced in solving company issues can become an advantage compared to male counterparts in business. ​Half the Sky's mission is to supply the tools that can give every woman the ability to build a successful career and be fully prepared for the future of work. So, that they can lead a healthy, prosperous and more balanced/blended lifestyle of their choosing.  By building your confidence, you’re setting foundations to empower yourself and your career.  The world is your oyster, and it starts with you. Enjoyed this article let us know your thoughts in the comments below:

​Romance is certainly a very important aspect of our lives, especially since there is a whole commercial holiday centred around it!As teenagers, we had dreams of meeting our future significant others in certain scenarios such as at the bookstore, at a café or even at the train station. However, after we grew up, we learnt the hard way that life is just not like a movie and romance is more often than not, found in a more educational setting or at the workplace as we spend most of our waking hours there.Office romantic relationships are more common than you think and according to a study done by Viking in 2019, 68% of their respondents have been involved in an office romance before while a study by Reboot in 2021, has revealed that 48% of their 4,000 participants will date a coworker.Well, if you have been feeling some sparks with the person from across the cubicle or on your daily zoom call and you’re wondering whether you would want to pursue that relationship, then here are some tips for you. These tips will also be helpful if you are currently in a romantic relationship with a person from work. Here are our best tips:Find out what is the company policy​​The very first thing you should do when you feel the chemistry going on between you and a co-worker is not to dive into it but rather, to read up about the company’s policy on office romance. Some organisations take it very seriously and if ever found out, it might result in disciplinary action taken against you both or even getting dismissed in extreme cases. Hence, if there is a clause like that in the company’s policy, it might be prudent to reconsider pursuing the relationship as the both of you do not want it to affect your careers.Analyse the relationshipHumans are wonderful creatures and certain scenarios together with a person can create strong emotions between the two of them. So, you would need to analyse the relationship between you and your co-worker and ask yourself whether this is just a short-term infatuation, a bond built over a mutual dislike at someone from the office or a fated meeting between two soulmates? In order to answer this question, think about whether this relationship will extend out of the office. Will they be compatible with you after hours and on weekends or is this just strictly a romance within office hours?Draw a line between work and romanceThe one rule to uphold at any time in an office romance is to draw a strict line between work and your love affair because you don’t want it to interfere with each other.Your work is all yours and you need it to sustain yourself with, so don’t let that office romance distract you from your job and decrease your productivity. Also, there is a time and place for everything so don't indulge in public displays of affection at the workplace or argue at work as it could be deemed as unprofessional to do so and it most likely will make your coworkers uncomfortable. Office gossip can spread like wildfire and you don't want to generate negative feedback or impressions on your professionalism.Adding to that, when you’re at the office, it's advisable not to present yourselves as a package (going for lunch together every day, sitting next to each other at meetings or just being unable to function as separate entities) as it can be prime material for the gossip mill. Even if the gossip might not be true, rumours spread fast and some colleagues might accuse one of you of being biased as the two of you are romantically involved. That brings us to our next point…Do not get involved with someone who is of a higher position or a lower position​​When you get into a romantic relationship with someone of a different seniority level than you, office politics will play a big part in the survivability of your relationship. This might affect the futures of both of you in the company as it could impact your movement within the organisation. So if you want to date within the company, find a person who you will not directly work with.Go your separate waysAfter spending some time with your other half, if you believe that they are the one, then one of you might need to find a job elsewhere as having this relationship continue at the workplace might affect your home life in the future.Also, sometimes we can let romance cloud our view of the worst case scenario: What if the relationship doesn't work out - how will you handle those awkward moments you bump into each other at the canteen or when you have to collaborate on work projects especially when you have ended things on a sour note.All in all, you have to be smart about this and not only think about short-term pleasures as it affects you in the long term. Think smart and love hard! 

​This pandemic has severely affected the job market with the Great Resignation.However, the job market is slowly showing signs of recovery with many people returning to the workforce and others in the midst of job search. Be it as it may, there is a trend in job interviews these days which is on the rise and may not be good for either a company or a candidate.The said trend is a phenomenon named “never-ending interviews” which is an occurrence where there are many rounds of interviews for one particular role. Two to three rounds of interviews may be alright for most of us, especially if the job is higher on the career ladder. But when it gets to the fifth or sixth round of interviews, it may be detrimental to both the organisation and the prospective candidate.In a LinkedIn post by Mike Conley that has gotten over 2.6 million views, the software engineering manager reveals how he had to pull out of a position he coveted as the company had just too many rounds of interviews.“I decided to pull my name for consideration because they were working to schedule rounds 4-9 of the interview process with me.”He elaborated and said that the reason why companies are doing so is that they are afraid of hiring the wrong candidate and when that happens, then it would result in monetary loss and wastage of time. Ironically, this process is also a waste of time for both the company and the candidate.It turns out that this sentiment is shared by other people in multiple industries as the comments section is brimming with people sharing their disdain at the same process.This practice of never-ending interviews is widespread and we do understand the logic behind it as companies would like to make sure they are hiring the best candidate out there and they would want to make sure that they are consistent. However, Paul McDonald, a Los Angeles-based senior executive director at Robert Half says to BBC that the act of stringing along candidates, also known as “breadcrumbing” will result in a loss of candidates.“They’re risking losing candidates because there are so many opportunities for them.”In a survey by the global staffing firm, 26% of the respondents have said that they will be leaving bad reviews anonymously on the companies that they believe are “breadcrumbing” them. This will definitely result in a bad reputation for the company which may deter other candidates from applying.Some companies may not be stringing the job seekers along on purpose but rather, there may be unforeseen circumstances such as a change in direction or a change in management that is out of the company’s control. On the other hand, there are some that do so because they are indecisive.Paul McDonald added that this indecisiveness provides an insight into the company for prospective candidates.“If the decision-making process is this difficult for the organisation – if they’re not able to pull the trigger after three or four interviews and you’ve done everything asked of you and they’re still unsure – then that’s a key indicator of what it might be like to work for that organisation and those managers.”As mentioned above, the optimum number of interviews is a maximum of four. This has been proven by a study done by Google where they looked at their past interview data. Back then, it was standard for candidates to be subjected to a dozen interviews when they want to get into Google, however, the company’s study revealed that four interviews were enough to make a hiring decision with 86% confidence.Jenny Ho, an experienced head-hunter of Singapore-based International Workplace Consulting, has said that the optimum number of interviews differ for the position offered. For director level, it’s three to four rounds and for roles below director level, it’s a maximum of three but two is most preferable.Not only that, the head-hunter has said that the number of people involved in the interviewing process also matters and they should be, the employee’s would-be direct manager, their supervisor and human resources. If it’s for a C-suite position then it would be best to include the other C-suite executives and if possible, some tenured employees. However, it’s important to not get too many people involved as the study by Google has found that panels of four interviewers will make the same decision as panels of more than four interviewers.Jenny Ho added, “there is this concept that there must be a better candidate out there, so [companies] get more interviewers involved and, sometimes, they just end up more confused.”Hence, companies should have a hire-by date from the start of a recruitment process to eliminated indecisiveness and also because the best candidates only transition the job market for a short period of time, said Dr John Sullivan, an HR thought-leader from Silicon Valley.Ideally the hiring process should not be time-consuming and taxing for both the company and job seekers. Hence, companies should change up their process in accordance with the studies and job seekers should also be on the lookout for red flags when enquiring about career opportunities. 

​The pursuit to achieve diversity and inclusion in the tech industry is still in full swing. Over the past few years, we’ve seen some progress made on the D&I front, but not without major setbacks along the way. Believe it or not, people are still Sexists! And Racist! And homophobic! And generally, don't believe that a workplace should be a great place for everyone!The tech sector over the years is one that many regard as a “dude sector”. With many tech teams having zero female representation, public criticism for their lack of diversity led to big tech firms in 2014 announcing that they will be making it a public goal to make the industry more diverse.Also in 2014, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) took the brunt of the criticism as it was found that 85% of their employees were male and only 1% of the employees are black.The company has shown some improvement as their 2021 diversity report has shown that their employees consist of 24.8% women and a slight increase to 3.1% in black employees.Gender parity and diversity in the industry may not be so easy to reach as a study done by CoderPad and CodinGame has shown that 65% of the recruiters in the industry believe that there is bias in the hiring process. The study was done with a participant pool of 14,000 tech employees with about 4,000 recruiters in the mix.In another study that has surveyed 270 tech business leaders, 68% of them believe that there is a lack of diversity in their workforce. Not only that, 50% of 2,030 workers have said that they left tech or wanted to leave the industry as “the company culture made them feel unwelcome or uncomfortable.” In that 50%, quite a few of them are either women, Asian, Black or Hispanic.So in order to counter this kind of biases in recruitment, tech companies should forgo the traditional, technical recruitment and go for a more skill-based recruitment style that is objective and fair. As an example, tech firms can have practical technical assessments and live coding interviews as part of their recruitment process to ensure that they are getting the right person for the role.

​You often see tech roles in movies filled with men in hoodies but the reality of it may be a little different now as more and more women are entering the tech industry.A study conducted by Boston Consulting Group and Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority has shown that the tech industry is getting more diverse as women make up 28% of the tech sector workforce worldwide. Leading the change is South East Asia where women account for 32% of tech talent in the tech sector.Although 32% might seem like a very large number, in reality, only a small percentage of the tech start-ups in SEA have female founders or co-founders. It seems that this is the same elsewhere and, in the US, women make up 17-20% of CIOs in big companies and 27% of IT managerial roles.In order to grow the tech industry even more with female talents, we certainly need to have more women in leadership positions and as investors. Women are drivers of the economy and they control over USD 43 trillion in global consumer spending. So, it only makes sense that women are working with each other to explore the high-potential female tech market.Even though there are more female professionals in the industry, it is still not enough as we are a long way from gender parity. It is time for companies to realise that having a more diverse, well-balanced and inclusive team will increase innovation, performance and financial performance.Cindy Hook, the CEO of Deloitte Asia Pacific says,“Equality is not a women’s issue; it is a societal issue. To get to gender equity we need men to stand with women and drive change as sponsors, mentors, advocates, and allies. When women thrive, everyone benefits. This is not a zero-sum equation.”We certainly hope to see more women in tech soon as it is a budding sector. Who knows what kind of change they’ll be able to bring to the industry? Check out some great tech job opportunities here. 

​Dream big, but also dream smart. We bust 5 dream job myths to help you recalibrate your career goals, pursue a more balanced perspective on a dream job, and to make sure you don't suffer from work burnout and disillusionment.Working is an essential part of life, one you cannot avoid, and for nearly every person in the world, finding your dream job is the ultimate goal. There are several factors that we look for in our dream jobs, but the pursuit of this utopia can hold many workers back from achieving their career goals due to burnout and disillusionment.In this article, we bust 5 dream job myths that will help you pursue a more balanced perspective to help you ultimately achieve your goals and career happiness.1.You’ll find only like-minded people at your jobIn whatever aspect of life, including work, we are bound to be exposed to different kinds of people from different walks of life. While we may bond with our colleagues over work stresses and office-related inside jokes, there are plenty of other areas where we might come to disagree with them. It’s important that we bust this myth early on, and to remember to always keep an open mind when meeting new people and making friends at work.2.Plenty of jobs align with your valuesIt would make sense for the good causes you value to translate to numerous job opportunities, because who wouldn’t want to advocate for something--  but that ideal isn’t always the case in reality. Job searching becomes more difficult the more you narrow down the job you’re looking for, and oftentimes you’ll find yourself at a loss with only a few search results. The more flexible you are with your options, the more job opportunities there will be for you to choose from.3.Good advocacies come with good payGood advocacies should come with good pay, but that’s not always the case. Many advocacy-centered jobs actually start with volunteer work, which is why it’s often seen as a selfless industry to find a career in. A good paying job would still highly depend on the industry you want to enter, your previous work experience, and your salary history.4.Hard work is all it takes to reach the top of my careerMany of us have grown up thinking that hard work is the only way to succeed. However, the older we get, the more factors to success we start to discover. Hard work may be a big part of it, but no matter how dedicated you are, the path to success will never be linear. There will be bumps in the road-- be it an unexpected emergency or simple work burnout. Taking a few steps back does not mean you are off track on your road to succeeding, and actually often helps propel you forward when you finally get back on your feet.5.When you love what you do it doesn’t feel like workThis myth might just be the most popular one of all, and might cause the most disillusionment when you start working and discover its falsities. Finding a job that you love doing does not mean work becomes all fun and games-- work will still feel like work. There will still be KPIs to reach, tasks to fulfill, and goals to achieve. And as much as you love your job, there will always be a task or two that you won’t be particularly fond of doing. However, despite the struggles, take comfort in knowing that finding a job you love is a great blessing in and of itself that not everyone manages to do!All that being said, don’t let these busted myths burst your fantasy career bubble for long! Instead, use them to think of smart goals instead of pursuing a dream job that might be a shot in the dark. Embrace the opportunities that come your way with open arms and an open mind, and you’ll be just fine.