Ce n’est pas tous les jours que je suis ambassadrice d’un outil que j’utilise depuis 6 ans : Shine.

Quand j’ai fondé The Allyance, j’ai ouvert un compte en banque chez Shine. A l’époque, c’était une simple néobanque. Aujourd’hui, c’est un outil d’édition de facture, de suivi des entrées et des sorties d’argent et de recouvrement (même pas besoin car les relances évitent les impayés). J’ai désormais deux comptes chez eux tellement je ne peux plus m’en passer! La gestion administrative est moins chronophage et cela me ravit.

Si vous voulez me voir travailler sans chaussettes, c’est par ici. Si vous voulez ouvrir un compte chez Shine, voici un lien de parrainage de ma part.

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about the Indian AI factory, 60 Claude prompts for Talent Acquisition, bringing your children at the office, finding a job in Paris without speaking French and an AI researcher.

⚡️ The AI factory: the rewiring of India's tech industry

I strongly recommend this 20-minute-documentary from the Financial Times. For the last 30 years, many tech companies outsourced their AI work to India. Yet, India struggles to find its role in the AI economy. AI's expansion is forcing the tech sector to evolve. The FT's Krishn Kaushik investigates whether data annotation to train AI models and humanoid robots is enough for India to thrive in the AI era.

📑 60 Claude prompts for Talent Acquisition

Andriano Herdman’s communication on Linkedin is impressive. Andriano frequently shares tips, prompts and resources for recruiters. I am a massive fan.

Get your prompts!

☀️ Accueil des enfants au bureau lors de la canicule

L’équipe RH de Back Market, emmenée par Axelle Caharel, a partagé son mode d’emploi pour accueillir les enfants de leurs salariés au bureau. Cette initiative s’avère intéressante alors que beaucoup de parents se sont retrouvés à garder leurs enfants à la maison ou à recourir au système D, en pleine canicule, la dernière semaine de juin.

Afin de permettre au plus grand nombre de s’en inspirer, l’équipe partage la façon de procéder, la préparation nécessaire et des liens utiles pour encadrer les enfants.

Lorsque les écoles ont fermé par plus de 40°C, nous avons une nouvelle fois ouvert nos bureaux climatisés aux enfants de nos équipes, à Paris comme à Bordeaux.

Découvrir le mode d'emploi

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

Ever thought about moving to Paris to work in tech… but assumed it would be too complicated? Meet Cian, an Irish engineer who made it happen thanks to The Allyance coaching sessions. After nearly 10 years at Cisco, Cian felt the need for change. Like many Irish professionals before him, he chose to set his sights on Paris.

Fast forward a few months:
👏 He landed a Founding Engineer role at Ewake
😇 He transitioned from a large corporate to an early-stage AI startup
🥖 He successfully navigated the French tech ecosystem without speaking French initially

What made the difference?
📄 Preparation, positioning… and understanding a new market.

When we started working together, Cian hadn’t interviewed in a decade. We focused on:
🦄 Rebuilding his narrative for the startup ecosystem
🦄 Sharpening his communication for interviews
🦄 Understanding the French recruitment landscape
🦄 Navigating salary, contracts, and onboarding in France

The result: a role fully aligned with his values, in an international AI startup based at Station F. And today, he is building AI agents, contributing to product direction, and thriving in a highly collaborative environment.

Read Cian's interview

🎯 A Machine Learning Scientist to hire !

😍 Exceptional candidate alert you don't want to miss! Let me introduce Donna Vakalis! Donna is an AI researcher wrapping up a postdoc in Yoshua Bengio's lab at Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, a two-time Olympian, now settled in France (in Nice) and looking for her next research role.

🍀 What is Donna looking for?
"I want to be part of a team where the mission is grounded in real environmental or social good, and where the research actually ships into the world. I do my best work when the science is rigorous and the impact is concrete."

😇 Why do I recommend Donna in a nutshell?
- Donna is rigorous, humble, and unusually cross-disciplinary. She publishes at top ML venues and has shipped real models for real governments. If your mission is real and your problems are hard, she's a rare fit.
- Available ASAP
- Donna speaks English and French fluently

👏 Fun facts about Donna:
- Two-time Olympian in modern pentathlon (London 2012, Rio 2016)
- Based in Nice, with EU and Canada work authorization
- Trained as an architect (MArch) before a PhD in civil engineering and a pivot into AI

... if you want to know more...
1️⃣ Donna is rigorous, humble, and unusually cross-disciplinary. She publishes at top ML venues and has shipped real models for real governments. She's the person you want when the problem is technical and the stakes are physical.

2️⃣ Donna builds AI that learns the physics of the real world and uses it to cut carbon. She's rigorous, deeply collaborative, and equally at home writing a NeurIPS paper or shipping a model for a city government. If your mission is real and your problems are hard, she's a rare fit.

Her website
Her Google Scholar
🍀 If you want her resume, ping me or reach out to her directly Donna Vakalis!

🤫 Backstage secrets

🤩 Congratulations to Vincent, Julie and Laïla who ended their coaching program by securing a role. We are proud of you!

🌺 The Allyance currently coaches 2 Machine Learning Engineering Managers, a CTO, a Data Scientist. Everyone is ready to interview. Drops us a line if you want their CV.

🩷 One of our readers decided to support us financially for writing this newsletter. Open payments are now opened. Thank you Adam!

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🐳 Machine Learning Manager (AdTech) - to manage up to 10 people (90-110 000€)

🐬 Cybersecurity Expert (FinTech) - (65 000€)

🐟 Tech Lead (GreenTech) - Python, Node.js, Typescript (80 000€)

🐡 AI Engineer (Puclic sector) - Agentic (75 000€)

More details here…

✒️ Last words from Caroline, The Allyance CEO

Si jamais vous n’avez pas lu l’introduction, me voici dans mon environnement naturel quand je recrute. Je ne suis jamais loin de mon ordinateur ou de mon téléphone. D’autres photos cultes sont ici. Si comme moi, vous voulez ouvrir un compte chez Shine, voici un lien de parrainage.

Next month, there will be no newsletter. August is a month to trun off our brains and recharge our battery. See you in September!

💥 Pride Month is a time to celebrate visibility, progress, and community, but also to remember that the fight for equality is far from over. As we mark the legacy of the Stonewall riots, this newsletter gathers useful perspectives and practical resources for everyone working to build fairer, more inclusive recruitment practices.

You know how much we fight against any form of discrimination all year long, especially in the workplace. June 2026 will be no exception!

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about software eating the world, the Ashby 2026 recruitment report, a RPO onboarding checklist, a tool to fight against the LGBTQIA+ discriminations and news about The Allyance.

📊 The Ashby Recruiter Productivity 2026 Talent Trends Report

Ashby’s reports are gold and data-driven! This new edition is not expection to better understand what candidates go through while interviewing.

The report says recruiting is handling much higher application volume than five years ago, but teams have adapted and are now hiring more per recruiter than before.

WIth no surprise, it finds that interview intensity is much higher for technical roles than business roles, with technical hiring taking about twice the interview hours and usually one extra interview event. Despite that added effort, funnel conversion has improved: candidates who reach interview are more likely to get offers, and the candidate experience has stayed fairly stable.

Hiring timelines have also stabilized, with business roles typically filling faster than technical roles. Most hires still come from inbound applicants, showing that direct applications now power much of the hiring pipeline. The report’s main message is that recruiting teams are working harder because of sustained top-of-funnel volume, and many are using technology to manage the load without sacrificing quality.

• The Interview Intensity Gap: Technical hiring remains significantly more resource-intensive, averaging nearly twice the interview hours and one additional interview event compared to business roles.

The 2026 Ashby Report

📑 The RPO Outsourcing checklist

Onboarding a freelance recruiter is not complicated but it's almost always underprepared. The RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) spends the first week chasing basics instead of hiring. I've seen it from both sides: the recruiter waiting on access, and the one who built the entire onboarding structure from scratch on day one because nobody had.

As it's a fixable problem, Morgane made a checklist that I am happy to share!

If your engineering hiring is stalled and you need someone to fix it fast ... that's exactly what Morgane does 👀 Feel free to reach out!

Paperwork. Tools. People. Arrival day. Everything that needs to be in place before your recruiter shows up, so they can start hiring on day one instead of chasing admins.

🌈 Lutter contre les discriminations LGBTQIA+ en milieu professionnel

La balise LGBTQIA+ est un outil d’auto-évaluation qui permet d’identifier les situations problématiques ou à risque au travail, de prendre du recul sur une expérience vécue et d’en évaluer le niveau de gravité. Elle est mise à notre disposition grâce à l’Autre Cercle. La balise aide à nommer ce que l’on vit, à objectiver les faits et à orienter vers les bonnes ressources avant que la situation ne s’aggrave.

🔦 The Allyance dans la lumière

Pour une association interne d’HSBC, j'ai conçu une nouvelle présentation. Après l'inclusion des LGBT, l'équipe m’a fait confiance pour parler des femmes dans l'histoire de l'informatique et plus spécifiquement, en intelligence artificielle. J’y parle de Paris Women in Machine Learning and Data Science.

Pour la concevoir, je n'ai pas utilisé d'IA générative. J'ai pris mon temps et relu des livres que j'aime, sélectionné les dates clés et les femmes qui me semblent importantes parmi nos contemporaines. On y retrouve Dr. Joy Buolamwini, Dr. Sasha Luccioni 🦋, Meredith Whittaker, Fei-Fei Li et bien d'autres.

Si une telle présentation vous tente, c'est par ici. Elle existe en français et en anglais.

🤫 Backstage secrets

🤩 Congratulations to Alexandre who accepted an offer as Senior Research Engineer position in London after a coaching program (less than 2 months!).

🤩 Congratulations to Mae who started as a Machine Learning Ops.

🤩 Congratulations to Zekun who started as a Research Engineer.

🤝 Morgane is available to start a new RPO and working on Python roles.

🤝 Lucie (a former client who is now working with us) is starting a RPO on behalf of The Allyance to replace a Head of Talent Acquisition during her maternity leave.

🤝 I ended a RPO at Sigma Nova on fundational models.

🪴 I signed 4 new investments through Sappho Strategies.

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Machine Learning Manager (AdTech) - to manage up to 10 people (90-110 000€)

🫵 Cybersecurity Expert (FinTech) - (65 000€)

🫵 Tech Lead (GreenTech) - Python, Node.js, Typescript (80 000€)

🫵 AI Engineer (Puclic sector) - Agentic (75 000€)

🫵 Junior SRE Engineer - (45 / 50 000€)

More details here…

✒️ Last words from Caroline, The Allyance CEO

Today, I am going to attend a workshop organized by Sasha Luccioni at ENS. Then, I will go to Nanterre Université to attend a conference with Kimberlé Crenshaw! I could not dream of better women to be intellectually fed.

The first 6 months of 2026 have been intense, packed and creative. We extend our footprint from Paris to Berlin, we extended our recruitment offers and embraced the use of ethical tools.

This past month has been a strong reflection of both our growth and our future with the entire The Allyance team. Caroline and Morgane spent time in Berlin, where Morgane lives and works, deepening relationships with our local partners and engaging with a vibrant, fast-evolving tech ecosystem.

This momentum extends beyond Germany. We are actively expanding our footprint across the UK and the US, supporting organizations that are rethinking how they attract and retain diverse talent in increasingly competitive markets.

At the same time, we are strengthening our commitment to Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), partnering more closely with companies to build scalable, inclusive hiring strategies from within. We have already supported Pigment, Alan, Payfit, Resilience and Sigma Nova through a RPO.

In every geography and every project, one priority remains constant: helping our clients build teams that reflect the world they serve: diverse and future-ready.

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about work in Europe in the age of GenAI, AI recruiter screens, a lesbian Product Manager getting a job after her maternity leave and Caroline in a tech podcast.

🌍 Europe at work in the age of Generative AI

7.4 million jobs across Europe now require AI skills.

That's 24% of every job posting INCO analysed, across 15 languages, every sector, every country. Not just in tech but in marketing, finance, logistics and admin. Only 15% of workers received an AI training last year. The gap between those two numbers is an access problem and access problems are solvable.

INCO is publishing the research and launching NewFutures: AI, with support from Google, a free programme built directly in response to what the data showed.

Get the report

🪛 AI recruiter screens: What Zapier learned and why they’ll keep going

Zapier’s experiment with AI-powered recruiter screens offers a clear signal to tech recruiters: artificial intelligence can dramatically expand hiring capacity without replacing human judgment. The company used the tool to process far more candidates than a traditional recruiter screen would allow, while still keeping a human in the loop before any decision moved forward. The result was not just speed, but also a broader and fairer view of talent, with the system surfacing candidates who might otherwise have been overlooked.

The article’s most important lesson is that AI works best as a force multiplier, not as an autonomous gatekeeper. Candidates remained in control, with the option to choose a live screen instead, and the process was designed to remain transparent and structured. Zapier also reported strong candidate engagement and satisfaction, suggesting that well-designed AI screening can improve both efficiency and experience at the same time.

For tech recruiters, the takeaway is practical and strategic. In high-volume technical hiring, where time and attention are limited, AI can help teams identify promising people faster and at greater scale. But the real value lies in using it carefully: as a tool for collecting better information, widening access to opportunity, and supporting more informed human decisions.

Recruiters got significant time back. Time between initial applicant review to completed recruiter screen shrunk from 8 days to 2.75 days, a 66% reduction.

Zapier screened 5x more candidates per role. Not 5% more. Five times more.

Read Zapier's results

🌿 Françoise, Product Manager engagée et adepte de sobriété numérique

Après un début de carrière dans la communication et le digital, Françoise a choisi de mettre son expertise au service du produit et du sens. Senior Product Manager chez AssoConnect, elle incarne une approche humaine du tech et de la gestion de produit. Dans cet entretien, elle revient sur son chemin atypique; du Camino de Compostelle à la civic tech, sa rencontre avec The Allyance, et sa vision lucide d’une tech utile, inclusive et responsable.

J’ai été embauchée […] dans une période où ça n’était pas franchement la fête sur le marché du travail. The Allyance renverse la dynamique du marché du travail. Les entreprises étant déjà sélectionnées, cela évite les mauvaises surprises et garantit davantage de pratiques modernes avec la DEI à l’honneur.

Lire l'interview de Françoise

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

Je suis l’invitée de Bruno Soulez, le créateur du podcast incontournable If This, Then Dev! Je décrypte l’impact inédit de l’IA sur le recrutement : parcours rationalisés, filtrages automatisés et montée de la pression pour candidats comme recruteurs. Je mets en garde sur la transmission de savoirs et la difficile progression des juniors dans ce nouvel environnement. Selon moi, c’est l’agilité humaine et la capacité d’adaptation qui feront la différence pour les carrières tech de demain.

• La vidéo Youtube est ici.

• Le podcast est sur toutes les plateformes d’écoute ici.

🤫 Backstage secrets

🥨 The Allyance is opening in Berlin. Reach out if you want work with us!

🤩 Congratulations to Pablo who started as a Senior Data Engineer.

🤩 Congratulations to Jason who got a new job in the US after 10 years without working (and starting our coaching program a few months ago).

🤝 Morgane is doing a RPO and looking for a Tech Lead for a GreenTech.

🤝 Caroline is doing a RPO at Sigma Nova on fundational models.

📚 Ne manquez pas notre liste des 5 livres à lire pour mieux comprendre l’intelligence artificielle.

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Tech Lead (GreenTech) - Python, Node.js, Typescript (80 000€)

🫵 Chief Product Officer (FinTech) - to manage up to 30 people (140 000€)

🫵 Senior Software Engineer (AI) - Typescript, Python (70 / 80 000€)

🫵 Junior SRE Engineer - (45 / 50 000€)

More details here…

✒️ Last words from Caroline, The Allyance CEO

There will be no newsletter in May as it is our tradition.

We are going to come back stronger than ever thanks to Madonna’s new song “I Feel So Free”.

Madonna will release a new album this summer, the second chapter of her record “Confessions on a Dancefloor”.

For the past few months, the amount of content about Artificial Intelligence has exploded. While we at The Allyance are more than familiar with the subject, that doesn’t stop us from continuously expanding our theoretical knowledge about Artificial Intelligence and its societal implications. It’s therefore only natural that we wanted to reiterate our reading recommendations, with a focus on this hot topic.

As you’ll see, the five books we recommend draw essential connections between technology and contemporary society: work, climate, feminism, sociology, and power dynamics… for a reasoned and conscious use of AI tools.

Discover the books

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about the post-2020 DEI boom, endometriosis, AI agents for recruiting and women among executive committees.

🌺 Why the post-2020 DEI boom was never going to last

In this interview, fairness strategist Lily Zheng reflects on how DEI work has shifted from low-priority, one-off trainings in the 2010s to a post-2020 boom that was highly visible but often superficial and ineffective. They explain that brief trainings and “song and dance” sessions were never supported by research as capable of changing culture, reducing discrimination, or improving employee experience.

Lily Zheng describes how the 2020 surge in demand mainly produced performative, external-facing initiatives that made it harder for serious practitioners to do meaningful, long-term systems change work. As the hype has faded and backlash has grown, they note that workers are increasingly rejecting empty gestures, while organizations genuinely committed to sustained, structural DEI efforts have remained engaged. Source: The Aleria Newsletter and HR Brew

Now, the pendulum is flowing the other way, partially because of just how empty all that buzz was in 2020 and 2021. People got really tired of workplaces that didn’t actually care, saying, “Oh, we’re going to throw some money at the problem, and bring in some entertainers to do a song and a dance about how much we care about race”...

Read Lily's interview

❣️Endometriosis “the missed disease in the workplace”

This article highlights endometriosis as a “missed disease” in the workplace, affecting around 1 in 10 women while remaining poorly understood by many employers. It explains that tissue similar to the womb’s lining can grow elsewhere in the body, causing symptoms such as heavy, painful periods, severe abdominal and pelvic pain, and potential fertility issues, all of which can significantly impact work.

Dr Louise Newson stresses that stigma around periods and hormones discourages disclosure and support-seeking, and urges employers to foster open conversations, signpost medical help, and consider measures like flexible working and adjusted hours to better support affected employees.

Women with endometriosis lose an average of 10.8 hours of work per week, with more than half needing regular leave and up to 40% leaving or losing their jobs.

Read the article

🪛 AI Agents for Recruiting: A Guide for Hiring Teams

We use AI at The Allyance. During a hiring process, we use it to automate what can be to spend more time with our clients and candidates.

This article from SeekOut explains how agentic AI is moving beyond reactive tools to proactive AI agents that work toward hiring goals with minimal input.

By taking over repetitive tasks like resume review, follow-ups, and scheduling, they free recruiters to focus on candidate relationships, hiring manager collaboration, and strategic decisions.

AI agents for recruiting use a different approach. They’re proactive. Instead of waiting for prompts, they get things done and make progress in your workflow.

Discover the guide

💣 Diversité et inclusion au sein des entreprises du CAC40

L’Observatoire SKEMA de la Féminisation des Entreprises a été créé en 2007 par le professeur Michel Ferrary. Il étudie, chaque année, l’évolution de la place des femmes dans les instances dirigeantes et les entreprises du CAC40. Ce rapport est riche en données chiffrées et en perspectives. Il met en lumière les conséquences des lois Copé-Zimmermann et Rixain.

En 2025,les femmes occupent 7,5% (contre 6,25% en 2024) des 80 postes de Président et/ou Directeur Général des entreprises du CAC40 et les hommes en occupent 92,5%.

En 2025, les femmes représentent 28,81% des membres des plus hautes instances de gouvernance exécutive (Comex) des entreprises du CAC40. Moins d’un poste sur trois.

Lire le rapport

🚺 Journée internationale des droits des femmes

Voici une sélection d’articles publiés par Le Monde à l’occasion de la journée internationale des droits des femmes.

• « Reconnaissons aujourd’hui la ménopause comme une problématique professionnelle », Le Monde

• « Pour les femmes, le télétravail peut réduire le coût de la maternité sur leur carrière », Le Monde

• « En 2025, les femmes cadres gagnent toujours 16 % de moins que les hommes », Le Monde

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ We signed 3 more clients and got more tech roles to offer !

🤩 Congratulations to Jenny got a 30% salary raise following our coaching program!

💡 Caroline gave a talk at the University of Paris Nanterre and supported a student from Ada Tech School.

📑 We signed lots of new roles ⤵️

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 CTO - to manage up to 100 people (+140 000€)

🫵 Chief Product Officer (FinTech) - to manage up to 30 people (140 000€)

🫵 Senior Software Engineer (AI) - Typescript, Python (70 / 80 000€)

🫵 Tech Lead (GreenTech) - Python, Node.js, Typescript (80 000€)

🫵 Junior SRE Engineer - (45 / 50 000€)

More details here…

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

🏈 Every year, the Super Bowl halftime show reflects more than just musical trends. It reveals who gets a voice on the biggest stage in the world. This year, Bad Bunny’s performance was a powerful reminder that representation is not a “nice to have” but a cultural force that shapes how millions of people see themselves and others. His presence as a Latino, gender-bending, boundary-pushing artist signaled that diverse identities and stories are not only welcome in the mainstream. They are a source of energy, innovation, and connection.

At The Allyance, we see the same dynamic at play inside organizations. When companies give real stage time to underrepresented talent, not only as a symbol, but as decision-makers and builders, they unlock new ideas, stronger teams, and more resilient cultures. HR leaders and tech teams are today’s showrunners: the ones deciding who gets invited, who gets heard, and who feels safe to bring their full selves to work.

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about Black women being better leaders, Stacey Abrahams warning us, agentic AI and sexism.

👌🏿Why Black Women Are Better Leaders

Paolo Gaudino, for Forbes, argues that in systems where bias affects advancement, disadvantaged groups end up underrepresented in leadership but those who do reach the top tend to be more talented on average than their privileged peers.

Using computer simulations with four demographic groups, the author shows that when promotion decisions are skewed toward the cultural majority, that majority’s representation nearly doubles at the top while its average talent is the lowest of all groups.

Conversely, more culturally distant groups (including Black women and queer Black women in the U.S. example) become rarer at higher levels but show significantly higher average innate talent. Paolo Gaudiano concludes that, given equal talent distribution and systemic bias, Black women who reach leadership roles are, on average, better leaders, and that adversity may further enhance their skills, reinforcing this effect.

If anything, there is evidence that facing adversity tends to build character and increase competence – which would mean that disadvantaged people may have greater acquired skills in addition to greater innate talent.

Read the article

🪶 They’re Not Just Coming for DEI. They’re Coming for Democracy

In this article, Stacey Abrams argues that Republican attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are part of a broader effort to undermine multiracial democracy in the United States. She contends that recent policies, ranging from deep budget cuts and expanded immigration enforcement funding to executive actions targeting marginalized communities, are designed to strip vulnerable groups of rights and dignity while consolidating power.

Abrams frames these efforts as a coordinated campaign rooted in Christian nationalism and “techno-fascism,” aimed at silencing dissent and reversing progress led by women, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ+ communities, and the poor. She highlights the projected loss of healthcare for millions and massive funding increases for immigration enforcement as evidence of priorities that favor the wealthy over working families.

Ultimately, Abrams warns that dismantling DEI is not an isolated cultural battle but part of a systematic attempt to weaken democratic institutions and prevent Americans from building common cause across racial and social lines.

Read the article

👀 Anatomy of an Agent

I am excited to share an article written by Cian Duffy … because I got him his job at Ewake (an amazing company which reduces SRE operational toil) !

Cian explains that an AI agent is not magic but a chunk of traditional, deterministic software wrapped around an LLM, used as “probabilistic code.”

Building on Karpathy’s Software 1.0/2.0/3.0 framing, it defines an agent as Type 1 code orchestrating Type 3 prompts, with the LLM sitting inside a ReAct loop that repeatedly reflects and acts.

Robust agents use an internal “actor–critic” dialogue, plus heavy “context engineering” and state restoration, because LLMs are stateless and better at critiquing than generating plans. To actually do work, agents call tools via structured JSON and protocols like MCP, while deterministic code enforces schemas and validates outputs for safety.

Cian concludes that agents are a new, durable application architecture: probabilistic reasoning inside a deterministic cage, ideal for messy production incidents where you need both flexible reasoning and strict safeguards.

People are excited about the potential of Agents, and rightly so. But we need to stop treating them like magic and start treating them like what they are: a new type of application architecture.

Read Cian's article

🐓 Le sexisme en France

Le Haut Conseil à l’Egalité a publié ce matin son rapport annuel sur l’état des lieux du sexisme en France, consacré à la menace masculiniste.

Le rapport identifie deux formes de sexismes, le sexisme paternaliste et le sexisme hostile. Le sexisme paternaliste est un sexisme faussement bienveillant du quotidien qui légitime une répartition hiérarchisée des hommes et des femmes. Le sexisme hostile est un sexisme violent, se traduit par une hostilité envers les femmes et peut inclure des attitudes agressives ou dévalorisantes.

Ces données nous éclairent sur ce qui se joue au sein de la société française, et par extension, au sein des entreprises.

Le cybersexisme est la première forme de discours de haine en ligne, avec 84 % de victimes qui sont des femmes.

En France, 17% des personnes de 15 ans et plus, soit près de 10 millions de personnes, adhèrent au sexisme hostile.

Lire le rapport du HCE

💚 De l’amour

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ The newsletter has more than 1 000 readers.

🤩 We have 3 coaching programs going on ; including one with a lawyer!

💡 Morgane is working hard to hire a Tech Lead and a SRE Engineer.

📑 We signed lots of new roles ⤵️

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 VP Engineering - to manage up to 10 people (125 000€)

🫵 VP Engineering - to manage up to 40 people (140 000€)

🫵 Chief Product Officer (FinTech) - to manage up to 30 people (140 000€)

🫵 Tech Lead (GreenTech) - Python, No Code (80 000€)

🫵 Junior SRE Engineer - (50 / 60 000€)

🫵 Staff Backend Engineer (AI) - Python, Node.js, Typescript (100 000€)

More details here…

I am excited about the forthcoming weeks. I will start sharing all the videos we talked about starting today on our Linkedin page!

The team and I are focused on recruitment and it feels amazing.

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

As we step into this new year, we want to wish a year filled with connection, courage, and progress. In times when diversity and inclusion initiatives face increasing skepticism and even pushback, our collective commitment matters more than ever.

Behind every HR policy and every hiring decision lies a simple truth: inclusion is not a trend but a responsibility. It’s about giving talent, wherever it comes from, a chance to shine and contribute.

In 2026, let’s continue to reach out and collaborate with those who believe that technology becomes stronger when it welcomes every voice.

Together, we can turn ideals into impact and The Allyance team is 100% up for it !

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about hiring your first Sales, transphobia, MeToo in the French tech scene and AI.

😎 Hiring a first sales in Tech

We keep on opening our blog to experts to move the needle towards more inclusion. Today, Quentin Sinig, Go-To-Market Lead at Pruna AI, unpacks valuable processes, data and results about his experience while hiring the first Sales at a deep tech company.

The article stresses the importance of looking beyond big-brand logos to assess whether candidates truly understand your audience, can adapt quickly, and thrive with incomplete information. Quentin advocates for practical tools like realistic role-plays, clear compensation logic and transparent variable packages to build both trust and performance.

A dedicated section highlights that women tend to self-promote less. Yet, data shows they often outperform men in sales, which makes a strong case for deliberately including more women in the pipeline and partnering with specialized networks.

The piece also shows, through Pruna AI’s hiring metrics, how long and selective a thoughtful process can be, especially when diversity is actively nurtured at each stage.

The entire process took 63 days from start to finish. The fastest process, from first contact to offer, took 11 days.

Out of 32 total applicants, 1/3 were women, and female representation reached 60% percent in the later stages of the pipeline.

Explore Quentin's tips

🏳️‍⚧️ Scientific transphobia

The blog post from River Champeimont challenges a common pseudo-rational argument that dismisses gender as “subjective” and therefore less real or less relevant than biological sex, especially among some people in hard sciences who distrust social science.

It shows that gender is a robust human experience, evidenced across many cultures and eras by people who were ready to endure stigma, loss of status and even violence to live as another gender. River connects this to colonial history, explaining how Western powers violently imposed the idea that sex must equal gender on societies that already recognized more complex gender realities.

Through a personal narrative of transition, River illustrates how deeply gender identity is felt from childhood onwards, and how living as the assigned sex can feel like psychological torture.

But in fact, gender is surprisingly real. I would have doubted it myself, and I used to believe in the trans-skeptic logic above, but by coming to terms with the fact that I’m trans, I realized I was entirely wrong.

Read River's blog post

⚠️ Avertissement : viol et agressions sexuelles dans le prochain article. ⚠️

Me Too dans la Tech : l’enquête de Quartier Général

La tech n’est pas une industrie irréprochable et l’enquête de Quartier Général nous le rappelle. L’article de Louison Lecourt met en lumière une enquête policière menée suite à une plainte pour viol contre Jean de la Rochebrochard. Depuis 2015, ce dernier est le managing partner de Kima Ventures, le fonds d’investissement de Xavier Niel, la 7ème plus grande fortune de France. C’est l’un des fonds français les plus actifs dans le domaine.

Cet article a été très relayé par des entrepreneuses de la tech. Il est essentiel que ces faits soient connus afin que la sphère professionnelle (re)devienne un lieu où les agressions n’ont pas leur place.

« Il se démerde pour isoler les femmes dans sa chambre et ensuite il leur met la pression » affirme Mathias* , véritable célébrité dans le monde entrepreneurial depuis une dizaine d’années. Il poursuit : « J’en avais parlé sur les réseaux sociaux, sans mentionner son nom, mais pour alerter sur sa manière d’agir. »

Lire l'enquête

🧠 Formes de l’intelligence - Collège de France

Si vous cherchez un moyen de développer votre compréhension de l'intelligence artificielle, je vous recommande les vidéos du Collège de France suite à son colloque "Formes d'intelligence", organisé en octobre 2025. Je recommande particulièrement :

• Une vision collectiviste et économique de l'IA de Michael I. Jordan

• IA et culture : « je t’aime, moi non plus… » d’Alexandra Bensamoun

• Mystères mathématiques d’intelligences pas si artificielles de Stéphane Mallat

• Comment l’IA transforme le droit et la justice de Benoît Frydman

• L'IA, entre technologie intellectuelle et déraison computationnelle d'Anne Alombert (ma préférée!)

📺 L'ensemble des 18 conférences sont disponibles en vidéo sur la chaîne du Collège de France :

Regarder les conférences

🔦 The Allyance’s 5th birthday

On November 28th 2025, we celebrated The Allyance’s 5th birthday with clients, partners, candidates and people who support our work !

This evening was very special as several children were able to attend as well as The Allyance’s team and a big announcement was made. Only the people who were there know about it. Stay tuned!

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Nigreisy started a new role as a Data Scientist after her coaching sessions !

✨ We are in the process of signing new DEI projects.

🤩 We have 8 coaching programs going on.

💡 The team is preparing new videos to promote our work.

📑 We signed lots of new roles including 2 strategic one in a FinTech company to hire a VP Engineering and a VP Product ⤵️

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 VP Engineering (FinTech) - to manage up to 40 people

🫵 VP Product (FinTech) - to manage up to 30 people

🫵 SRE Engineer (Gaming)

🫵 Senior Backend Engineer (AI) - Python, Node.js, Typescript

🫵 AI Research Engineer (MedTech)

🫵 Fullstack Engineer (MedTech)

🫵 Lead Product Designer (FinTech) - to manage up to 10 people

More details here…

January is sending positive signals about what 2026 will look like !

The team and I are focusing on hiring challenges to influence the tech industry through our practices.

2026, we are ready for you!

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

Clara Gainon de Forsan de Gabriac, a 30-year-old specialist in machine learning, describes her unique journey from aspiring artist to becoming a Senior Machine Learning Engineer !

Inspired early by a passion for mathematics and algorithmics, Clara chose to blend creativity and computing, experiencing Erasmus in Finland, and earning a PhD in Natural Language Processing from Sorbonne University. After three years working in AI for video games at Powder, she found her current role.

Clara credits The Allyance, and particularly Caroline 💚, for invaluable support and mentorship during her recent job search, helping her regain confidence and recognize her strengths. She emphasizes the importance of combining technical rigor with creativity, and admires women who defy conventional success norms, citing Caroline, her mother, and Pink as inspirations.

Clara encourages other women, especially those in minorities, to seek allies like Caroline to transform perceived weaknesses into valuable assets in their professional journey.

Read Clara's interview in French

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about hiring fresh graduates in computer science, AI and discrimination, candidates and companies (mis)trusting AI, froward-deployed engineers and pay transparency.

🎃 Hiring only senior engineers is the worst policy in the startup industry

This article is from the Tech Rocks' newsletter for tech leaders. While computer science graduates struggle to land jobs, Andrew Churchill, CTO at Weave remind us of the obvious : “there is a huge pool of exceptional junior engineers that most companies won’t even consider.”

There is no rational explanations, yet, here is what we hear (even at The Allyance) :

• In small startups: “we are a very small team and we don’t have time to mentor juniors, we need engineers who will be very productive from day 1”

• In medium-sized companies: “we are going to grow very fast, we need engineers who can handle scale and have faced such challenges before”

• In big companies: “our infrastructure is super complex, it’ll take juniors too long to ramp up”.

Read the article

🥺 Don’t let AI speed up discrimination

Here is a resource I got thanks to Karen Katlin from Better Allies.

AI might speed up hiring. It shouldn’t also speed up discrimination. New research from Stanford reveals something troubling yet not surprising: generative AI tools can reinforce age and gender bias, especially against older women. Douglas Guilbeault and colleagues analyzed millions of online images and videos. They also prompted ChatGPT to generate more than 34,500 resumes and evaluate them. It consistently:

• Portrayed women as younger and less experienced.

• Created work histories that disadvantaged older women.

• Rated older men’s resumes more favorably.

If your organization uses AI to screen resumes or evaluate candidates, don’t let it make decisions unchecked. Advocate for a short pause step in the hiring process:

“Before we finalize candidates, let’s review the AI-generated materials for biased assumptions about age or gender.”

Read the Stanford research

👻 AI in hiring: The growing trust gap between employers and job candidates

AI has rapidly become a cornerstone of recruitment, streamlining hiring processes and helping organizations fill vacancies with greater efficiency and speed. At the same time, job seekers are increasingly using AI tools to improve their applications. This dual embrace of AI has generated a widening trust gap between employers and candidates.

For job seekers, the lack of transparency, the prevalence of “ghost jobs” posted without real intent to hire, and fears of layoff-driven instability further fuel hesitation and skepticism.

AI is now an essential tool for many candidates, with 39% admitting to using it for application writing and preparation, but this also blurs the line between genuine skills and digital embellishments, making authenticity harder to judge.

Ultimately, companies that blend innovation with fairness, clarity, and respect for candidate dignity will be best positioned to lead in an increasingly complex hiring landscape.

A March 2025 Gartner survey revealed that only 26% of candidates trust AI to evaluate them fairly, even though more than half believe AI is used to screen their application materials.

Read the article

🤩 The new hot job in AI: forward-deployed engineers

Thanks to someone I am coaching, I discovered a new role : forward-deployed engineers (FDE). The Financial Times wrote an article about it.

The accelerating popularity of forward-deployed engineers points to a new frontier in talent acquisition, where technical know-how meets deep customer engagement to drive successful AI adoption.

• The FDE role is inspired by military concepts : engineers are embedded directly within client environments to discover needs and deliver highly customized technological solutions (but it’s not called consulting…).

• Key skills include technical expertise in AI and machine learning, strong communication, and the ability to bridge gaps between customer requirements and product capabilities.​

• The job is a blend of product discovery and customer success, aiming to build “game-changing” solutions and long-lasting client relationships.

Anthropic, OpenAI and Cohere are recruiting for so-called forward-deployed engineers, a new job for generative AI companies, as part of a push to generate more revenues by installing specialists within businesses to help them customise their AI models.

Read the article

💶 Transparence des salaires : ce qui va changer en 2026

En avez-vous entendu parler ? La directive européenne sur la transparence salariale adoptée le 10 mai 2023 doit être obligatoirement transposée dans le droit français avant le 7 juin 2026. Elle vise principalement à améliorer la transparence en matière de rémunération afin de réduire les inégalités salariales entre les femmes et les hommes. C’est une loi essentielle et certaines habitudes doivent être mises à jour comme:

Les entreprises devront indiquer dans les offres d’emploi et avant le premier entretien la rémunération proposée ou au moins une fourchette.

Il sera également interdit de demander aux candidats la rémunération de leurs derniers postes et obligatoire de veiller au respect du droit à l’égalité des rémunérations.

Informations de la DRIEETS

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

I was invited by Laura Peccia-Galletto and Caroline Cassé to talk to the ERG Women in Leadership at Alma. We talked about building a career path in tech, how to deal (or not) with being a parent, how to address microagressions from clients, peers or other people. It was a very open conversation with a curious group of women !

I rarely accept this kind of talks but when I do, I remember why it is important for minorities to connect and share knowledge.

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ I was invited by Rocket School to talk about incluvie hiring practices. The students loved the class and asked me to come back !

🛫 3 mentees found a job last month and I signed 4 more coaching programs !

📑 We signed 3 new contracts with new clients = 6 new roles.

🤩 Morgane is actively looking for a SRE Engineer and a Fullstack Engineer.

💃 I am working hard to prepare a beautiful party for The Allyance’s birthday.

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 SRE Engineer (Gaming)

🫵 Data Engineer (Gaming)

🫵 Machine Learning Research Engineer (MedTech)

🫵 Fullstack Engineer (MedTech)

🫵 CTO

More details here…

I hope to see you on the 28th of November for The Allyance’s 5th birthday party! Deborah Vance (from Hacks) will not be here but someone as funny as her will !

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

I promised you a big surprise… 🪄

The Allyance’s entire team is delighted to invite you for an evening of celebration as we commemorate five remarkable years of The Allyance. This milestone represents not just our company’s growth, but our unwavering commitment to creating inclusive spaces where every voice is heard, valued and empowered.

🎉 Do you want to celebrate The Allyance’s 5th birthday on Friday the 28th of November? Send an email to me (caroline@theallyance.one) and you will be able to join us. I can’t spill the beans but … we will dance !

We’ll be honoring the diverse voices and perspectives that have shaped The Allyance, including our colleagues, partners, and community members from all backgrounds who continue to inspire us daily.

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about the horrible job market, quotas and disability, free sourcing tools, a tech hiring philosophy and a podcast.

🔥 AI-Driven Hiring Creates New Barriers in an Already Frozen Job Market - The Job Market is Hell

The current job market has become a “late-capitalist nightmare” according to Annie Lowrey from The Atlantic where AI mediates both sides of hiring: candidates use ChatGPT to write applications while employers use algorithms to filter them, creating a dehumanized process where qualified applicants rarely reach human reviewers.

Despite low unemployment rates, hiring has stalled to its lowest levels since the Great Recession, with workers now spending an average of 10 weeks searching for jobs. The crisis is hitting marginalized groups hardest: Black workers are experiencing a dramatic surge in joblessness, partly due to federal layoffs, while over 10 percent of workers under 24 are unemployed.

Job seekers with strong credentials are sending out hundreds of applications and receiving zero responses, never getting the chance to demonstrate their value beyond what an algorithm can parse.

Online hiring platforms have made it easier to find an opening but harder to secure one: Applicants send out thousands of AI-crafted résumés, and businesses use AI to sift through them.

Read the article

✨ Beyond Quotas: Building Workplaces That Truly Include People with Disabilities

Since I’ve heard Sara Minkara for the first time, I have been following her work. The former U.S. Special Advisor on International Disability Rights, argues that employment quotas for people with disabilities often become compliance exercises rather than genuine inclusion, with some companies paying fines instead of hiring, or putting disabled employees on payroll but telling them not to come to work.

While over 100 countries have quota laws, they frequently fail because they don’t address underlying barriers like inaccessible hiring technology, inadequate accommodations, or the lack of pathways to professional growth and leadership roles.

Real inclusion requires asking how companies can actively dismantle obstacles and invest in employees with disabilities to help them thrive, not just meet minimum legal requirements. Sara Minkara emphasizes that accessibility needs, whether physical infrastructure, assistive technology, or individualized accommodations, should be viewed as essential as lights and bathrooms, not special favors to be negotiated.

True progress demands pairing quotas with enforceable accessibility standards, vocational training, mentorship programs, and technology designed with disability in mind from the start. This isn’t about “giving people with disabilities a chance”—it’s about unlocking talent, perspective, and innovation that every workplace needs.

Quotas may be one of the most visible disability employment policies worldwide, but they raise a deeper question: are we content to count numbers, or are we ready to truly build an inclusive workplace that benefits from the contributions of everyone?

Read Sara's article

🛠 Free Sourcing Tools

Dear recruiters, dear sourcers, these tools are for you !

I read in the weekly recruitment newsletter Sourceurs? Non, peut-être ! last Sunday and discovered that during SOSU, Guillaume Alexandre and Pierre-André Fortin shared the results of several months of work. They made numerous tools available free of charge to support your sourcing efforts. They tested Claude, Gemini and other tools, then moved on to Lovable.

Now you can (among many other things): generate searches on LinkedIn, generate the best Boolean queries you could dream of, find LinkedIn profiles based on names, clean up your LinkedIn feed and search for Meetups.

Explore the sourcing tools

🤩 Hiring The Right People at Orus

Samuel Rossille, CTO at Orus, shares his company’s hiring philosophy built on one core insight: the best candidates aren’t always the ones with the shiniest résumés. Samuel trusted The Allyance in the past and I’ve always liked his humble attitude towards candidates.

In a nutshell, Samuel recommends to look for potential, not perfect credentials. He credits his own career breakthrough to someone who saw his capacity to stretch and learn, not just his existing qualifications.

At Orus, they evaluate candidates across five dimensions: fundamentals, craft, architecture, autonomy, and impact. The structure eliminates bias and feel-based hiring while keeping interviews focused on what actually matters.

My favorite part is about “Move fast, show respect” because a dragging hiring process signals low commitment. Orus keeps timelines tight with quick feedback loops, treating the hiring process as the start of a relationship that requires momentum.

The best people are often the ones you can’t perfectly describe in a job ad. So when I’m on the hiring side now, I remind myself: don’t just scan for the checklist. Scan for the energy, the capacity to stretch. Because that’s where the real leverage is.

Read Samuel's hiring philosophy

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

📰 Un podcast sur l’IA

Aurelie Giard-Jacquet 🎙et moi avons enregistré un podcast ensemble ! Nous avons évoqué l’utilisation de l’IA dans le recrutement :

• Que peut on automatiser pour dégager du temps pour les candidat.es

• Comment construire une recherche booléenne ?

• Comment augmenter la conversion de ses contacts avec les candidat.es ?

• Quelle place accorder aux outils d’entretien vidéo ? (Ma réponse va vous surprendre !)

  Ecouter le podcast

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Congratulations Clara for her role as a Senior AI Engineer !

✨ Congratulations Rebecca for her role as a Head of Data !

✨ Congratulations Nikita for his role in the US !

🛫 I am coaching two Engineering Managers, a Senior Backend Engineer and a Customer Success Manager.

📑 We signed 4 new contracts with new clients last month.

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 SRE Engineer (Gaming)

🫵 Funding Fullstack Engineer (HealthTech)

🫵 Engineering Manager (MedTech)

🫵 Senior Machine Learning Engineer (GreenTech)

🫵 Senior Backend Engineer (Freelance)

More details here…

I hope to see you on the 28th of November ! I am ready to dance with you.

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

I want you to start the day with Earth, Wind & Fire’s song in mind. September is all about fresh starts, so what better time to spotlight inspiring journeys?

This month, I am excited to share Houra’s story, a passionate Frontend Developer at Resilience with an incredible path from Iran to Italy and now France. Her background in design and determination to break new ground in web and mobile development prove that innovation comes from diverse experiences.

Houra’s adventure into tech shows just how welcoming our industry can be when we open doors to different perspectives. Whether she’s building apps for schoolkids or tackling challenges healthcare, Houra never stops learning. Houra will definitely inspire you!

Meet Houra !

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about ageism, Linkedin removing the notion of deadnaming and misgendering, automation in recruitment, equality policies in the US and Europe and Adam, an Engineering Manager to hire.

🆘 Workplace Ageism Is Hurting Employees & Businesses Alike

This piece has been on my to-do list for a while. It's time to present the startling statistics that precisely capture what I see when assisting my candidates with their job searches:

“99% of workers over the age of 40 reported ageism in the workplace.”

According to this Forbes article by Liz Elting, workplace ageism is pervasive across all age groups, with 99% of workers over 40 reporting age discrimination and over half of women under 30 saying their age has negatively impacted them professionally.

The discrimination manifests through stereotypes, bullying, and pressure to hide one's age, with 88% of older workers changing their behavior to fit in with younger colleagues.

Job seekers face significant barriers, as 74% of people over 50 believe their age will hurt their hiring prospects, while executives are reluctant to hire recent graduates due to perceived soft skills deficits.

However, research shows that age-diverse teams actually boost business performance by combining complementary skills and perspectives, as demonstrated by successful multigenerational projects like Michigan Tech's open-source 3D printer development.

The OECD recommends fighting ageism through inclusive hiring practices, flexible work arrangements and career development opportunities for all.

Readt the Forbes article about ageism

✅ Automate This, Not That: The Recruiting Edition

According to an article by Hebba Youssef on "I Hate It Here" (one of the best HR newsletter I know) recruiting processes are failing candidates through poor communication, complicated scheduling, and outdated background check systems that create frustrating experiences.

The piece identifies three key automation opportunities: replacing generic, soulless communication templates with personalized, human-sounding automated messages that keep candidates informed; using scheduling tools like Calendly to eliminate endless email back-and-forth; and modernizing background checks with platforms that deliver results in minutes rather than weeks.

Youssef emphasizes that candidates don't hate automation itself, they hate feeling like an afterthought in impersonal, bureaucratic processes. The article argues that smart automation should free up recruiters' time to be more human, not turn them into "tone-deaf bots." The key is using technology to streamline logistics while maintaining thoughtful, personalized candidate experiences that protect your employer brand.

Here is an example with scheduling interviews :

“The Problem: Unnecessary Calendar Chaos

Scheduling interviews in 2025 shouldn’t be rocket science. Yet somehow, we’ve normalized:

• Playing email tennis (“How’s Tuesday?” “No, Wednesday?” “Actually” )

• Begging candidates to pick from a spreadsheet of 47 time slots

• That one hiring manager who may as well only be free a few minutes out of each day

Newsflash: If your scheduling process requires a PhD in logistics, candidates will peace out before you even hit “send” on the third reschedule request!

The Fix: Let The Robots Make it Happen

Automate the scheduling, not the charm.

Drop a personalized note like: “Excited to chat about your [specific project]. Please pick a time that doesn’t ruin your week!”

Robots handle the clock and you handle the vibe!

Tools like Calendly or GoodTime exist so you can stop the back-and-forth emails, slash no-shows by 34% with automated reminders, and finally get some much-needed organization added to your recruiting process.”

Ready to automate ?

🏳️‍🌈 LinkedIn quietly removed references to deadnaming and misgendering from its hateful content policy

While a LinkedIn spokesperson stated that the company's underlying policies haven't changed and that misgendering still violates their harassment policy, advocacy groups like GLAAD have denounced the move as "an overt anti-LGBTQ move."

Advocacy groups view this as part of a broader pattern of social media companies loosening protections for vulnerable users. Open Terms Archive first noted the modification, which was the only change made to LinkedIn's "hateful and derogatory content" policy. The change follows similar policy adjustments by other major tech platforms this year, including Meta and Youtube.

Earlier this year, Meta rewrote its rules to allow its users to claim LGBTQ people are mentally ill. YouTube also quietly updated its rules this year to remove a reference to "gender identity" from its hate speech policies.

Read the article

📰 Une chronique à ne pas manquer dans Le Monde

En mai dernier, dans un article du Monde, la sociologue Dominique Méda s'inquiète d'un possible retour en arrière sur les droits des femmes, illustré par la suppression par SAP de ses mesures d'inclusion suite aux décrets de Donald Trump contre la "discrimination illégale". Elle souligne que le "Project 2025" américain prône la "restauration de la famille" et proscrit les termes "égalité des sexes", "diversité" et "inclusion", tout en promouvant des politiques anti-avortement.

Dominique Méda rappelle que les droits des femmes ont été conquis de haute lutte, citant l'incapacité juridique des Françaises jusqu'en 1938 et leur impossibilité d'ouvrir un compte bancaire sans autorisation maritale jusqu'en 1965. Malgré les progrès européens en matière d'égalité professionnelle, les stéréotypes de genre persistent, notamment dans l'orientation scolaire vers les filières scientifiques. La sociologue met en garde contre un "backlash" qui pourrait ramener les femmes à rechercher la "protection d'un mari" face à des emplois précaires. Elle plaide pour l'amélioration de l'accès aux emplois décents pour éviter ce retour au "code Napoléon".

“Même si la dynamique a ralenti dans certains Etats membres, des progrès remarquables ont été accomplis dans l’Union européenne en matière d’éducation et d’emploi des femmes ces dernières décennies. Dès le traité de Rome, l’UE avait fait figurer l’égalité hommes-femmes parmi ses valeurs fondamentales. En 1975, la première directive contre la discrimination salariale était adoptée.”

Lire la chronique de Dominique Méda

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Congratulations Lise for her new role in the MedTech industry !

✨ Congratulations Alexandre for his new role as a Head of Product !

🎙 I recorded 3 podcasts. They will be shared before the end of the year.

🎉 You will be invited soon to a very special event (not the Mayhem tour).

🛫 I am coaching a Head of Data (she is ready to interview), a hacker (!), a Senior Product Manager and a CTO.

🚀 Are you hiring ? I can recommend talented women. A Head of Data, 2 Senior Machine Learning Engineers, an Engineering Program Manager, Product Manager and Adam ⬇️

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🎯 An Engineering Manager to hire !

Don’t miss your chance to hire Adam Solomon. Adam is an American citizen based in Paris, with a visa allowing him to work in France !

💚 What is Adam looking for ?

"I want to be a part of a team that is dedicated to having a positive impact on the world while enjoying what we do on a daily basis. I want to be a part of a company that wants to take on the world while not forgetting the neighborhood it came from. I want to be fully engaged by the people I work with on a daily basis."

😍 Why do I recommend Adam ?
Adam is humble, has worked on many projects and masters Frontend, Backend and Infra topics. He is adored as a manager.

⌛ Available ASAP
🐬 Adam speaks English and a little bit of French

Fun facts about Adam :

🌎 He has managed teams on four different continents.
🥷 Had a semi-pro Muay Thai fight in Thailand and has the pictures to prove it.
🎭 He published and produced multiple theater plays.

You can reach out to him directly or ask me to forward his CV.

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Senior Software Engineer (Python, AWS, EduTech)

🫵 Account Executive (AI / GreenTech) - that’s a first !

🫵 Engineering Manager (MedTech)

🫵 CTO (FemTech)

🫵 Senior Machine Learning Engineer (GreenTech)

🫵 Senior AI Engineer (A2A Protocol, Model Context Protocol…etc)

More details here…

Stay tuned for big announcements next month 💘

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

“Are you still working on diversity and inclusion ? More than ever !”

Léa sits down with Aurélie Guimera, Director of Human Resources at Esker. In this interview, she shares how the company partnered with The Allyance to roll out customized Diversity & Inclusion training across its global branches in Europe, the USA, and Oceania.

She explains how Esker ensures D&I is part of its daily culture through manager training, employee taskforces, and dedicated awareness events. Feedback shows the training sessions were impactful and sparked new ideas for inclusive practices worldwide.

Aurélie highlights Esker’s commitment to providing a workplace where everyone feels accepted and valued, emphasizing that belonging goes beyond inclusion—it’s about creating an environment where everyone feels free to be themselves. She is one of those who keeps up the good work !

And… you will discover that I woke up at 5 AM to give a training > true story !

Read the interview

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about measuring the success of DEI policies, Revolut’s hiring playbook, fighting discrimination, LGBT+ visibility in the workplace and AI roles !

📊 Measuring the Success of Diversity and Inclusion: Key Metrics and Insights

Spencer Hulse from CEO Official Mag explores how modern organizations can effectively track and evaluate their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts beyond just hiring stats.

The article features insights from various leaders who share concrete metrics and methods: from tracking diversity throughout the hiring funnel and monitoring turnover by demographic group, to measuring the progression of underrepresented employees into leadership roles.

It emphasizes combining quantitative data (like representation numbers and retention rates) with qualitative insights (like employee sentiment and belonging surveys). The key message is clear: meaningful DEI work goes beyond counting heads . It requires tracking whether people feel valued, included, and able to advance.

“Inclusion doesn’t stem from posting values on a wall — it comes from hard data, honest feedback, and a willingness to fix what isn’t working.”

Read the article

🎯 Revolut publicly shares their Hiring Playbook

Revolut just dropped their Hiring Playbook (through QuantumLight) and it’s a must-read. As Nik Storonsky has said, Revolut’s success comes from “building the machine that builds the machine.” This playbook is straight to the point. In 10 slides, they explain what 300 pages would.

The methodology is about breaking every process down into its smallest components with clear steps, responsibilities, and metrics.

Read Revolut's Hiring Playbook

🙏🏼Prévenir les discriminations dans l'emploi

La loi du 27 janvier 2017 relative à l'égalité et à la citoyenneté est venue renforcer le cadre juridique en matière de lutte contre les discriminations au travail en créant, à l’article L. 1131-2 du code du travail, une obligation de formation à la charge des entreprises d’au moins 300 salariés et de toutes celles, quel que soit leur effectif, spécialisées dans le recrutement. Elle instaure une obligation de formation à la non-discrimination à l'embauche. Cela tombe bien, nous en avons conçue une chez The Allyance!

La Direction Générale du Travail vient de publier le référentiel national de formation pour prévenir les discriminations dans l’emploi. Ce document est une mine d’or! Il sera utile pour les entreprises de +300 salarié·es (ou spécialisées dans le recrutement) pour former leurs équipes, managers, dirigeant·es et prévenir efficacement les discriminations dans le recrutement et tout au long de la carrière. Pour les plus petites entreprises, il est possible de s’en inspirer pour adopter les bonnes pratiques dès le début.

Si un salarié ou un candidat à l'emploi estime avoir fait l'objet d'une discrimination, il peut également déposer une plainte auprès du procureur de la République, du commissariat de police ou de la gendarmerie afin que les agissements dont il a été victime soient pénalement sanctionnés. En effet, les discriminations constituent un délit réprimé par les articles 225-1 et suivants du Code pénal. Le tribunal compétent est le tribunal correctionnel et le délai de prescription est de six ans (CPP, art. 8).

Lire le référentiel

🌈LGBT+ au travail : une inclusion fragile

Pour la septième année depuis 2015, Pride@BCG, le réseau LGBT+ du Boston Consulting Group publie son baromètre sur les attentes et les perceptions des jeunes LGBT+ vis à vis du monde professionnel, en partenariat avec Têtu magazine.

Le fait d’être « out » au travail reste perçu comme un désavantage pour près d’un tiers des salarié·es LGBT+ (31% en 2025 contre 30 % en 2018). La dégradation est particulièrement sensible depuis le mois de janvier 2025. Néanmoins, certaines entreprises se distinguent : dans les entreprises les plus engagées, 95 % des collaborateur·ices LGBT+ disent pouvoir donner le meilleur d’elles·eux-mêmes (contre 74 % dans les environnements moins inclusifs). Dans ce contexte, les initiatives portées par les directions, les collaborateurs et collaboratrices via les ERG sont plus que jamais cruciales.

En 2025, moins d’un·e collaborateur·ice LGBT+ sur deux (48 %) déclare avoir fait son coming-out en entreprise, contre 54 % en 2018.

Découvrir le baromètre

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

🎯 Et si le recrutement inclusif n'était pas si compliqué ? Vous serez bouche bée en m’entendant parler de l’impact de Madonna sur ma vie professionnelle et sur mon point commun avec Teddy Riner 🥋, oui, oui ! Je parle aussi du fait que :

🌈 Douter de soi est une force
➡️ Je suis un pur produit de la discrimination positive 🤍
😇 Je rends hommage à l'un de mes professeurs de lycée !
🐬 Je suis transfuge de classe, comme Annie Ernaux (comme dirait un ami)

L’interview a été menée par Alix Nguyen pour B SMART 4Change.

Par ici pour visionner l'interview !

🏄🏼‍♀️ Vous vous souvenez de ma vidéo sur la gender fatigue pour le TAM TAM Show, organisé par Léo Bernard l’année dernière? Pour la deuxième édition, j’étais dans le public pour écouter la crème de la crème du recrutement français, dont la recruteuse Shirley Almosini Chiche. Où est Charlie? 👇🏻

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Congratulations Alexandre (x2) for their Head of Product and Customer Success Manager roles !

✨ Congratulations Merwan for his Senior Machine Learning role !

🛫 I am coaching a Head of Data (she is ready to interview), an Engineering Manager, a Senior Product Manager and a CTO.

🏆 The Allyance signed 3 more client. We are on AI roles at the moment.

🚀 I gave a training to 100 people on “Better Together: The Power of Diverse Teams”

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Senior AI Engineer (A2A Protocol, Model Context Protocol…etc)

🫵 CTO (FemTech)

🫵 Senior Backend Architect (Javascript / Typescript, Node.js - Full remote)

🫵 Senior Fullstack Engineer

🫵 Senior Data Engineer (AI startup)

More details here…

🎤 A few days ago, I attended Kylie Minogue’s concert in Paris.

When I used to live in Tokyo ⛩, I listened to Get Outta My Way wildly in 新宿二丁目. When she sang it on stage, it brought back memories.

Hence, I decided to use this title for today’s newsletter because people think DEI is over. It is not, we are just going to enter a new DEI era : more pragmatic and more legal. Such as Kylie who moves on to a new realtionship in her song, we are all going to reinvent our DEI projects.

There will be no newsletter in August. I will be hiring and preparing many surprises for 2025’s last quarter.

Enjoy your summer and #StayTuned 🌞

P.S: If you like pop music, I recommend Kylie’s project with Garibay : a masterpiece.

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

(with wonderful Abeba !)

I read a book entitled “Résister” (to resist) by Salomé Saqué. One of the book’s haters, Eugénie Bastié, described it as an antifascit ChatGPT 🙄 Her condescending comment appaered to be a great way to introduce this newsletter as I highlight articles related to Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In her excellent book, Salomé Saqué urges to fight against online misinformation, the global rise of far-right movements, their strategies, and the scary implications for democracy. As we are celebrating Pride Month and notice that minorites are attacked, we need to unite.

Illustration from Genappe.ecolo.be

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about DEI commitments having an impact on reputation, the AI landscape, hiring practices for small businesses, lesbians at work, finding a job in France without speaking French.

🩷 Companies that kept DEI commitments saw higher reputation scores in 2025

📊 Holding the line on DEI pays off, literally in reputation. A new Axios Harris Poll reveals that companies that stuck to their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) commitments in 2025 saw their reputation scores rise while the average score across the board dropped. In a year marked by corporate backpedaling and political pressure, brands like Patagonia, Microsoft, and Costco saw measurable gains by staying the course.

Companies that walk the talk on ethics, trust, and culture are reaping tangible benefits. While some organizations backed off DEI goals fearing legal or political backlash, those that remained committed saw better outcomes, not just in rankings, but in employee and public trust. Microsoft earned “excellent” ratings across multiple categories, and even Google, despite revising DEI efforts, scored high due to its innovation.

This data-driven piece is essential reading for recruiters, HR leaders, and advocates of inclusive workplaces. It proves DEI isn’t just a value, it’s a smart business move.

“The big picture: Several companies have scaled back their DEI benchmarking goals amid concerns of legal exposure after the Trump administration's calls to dismantle DEI programs within corporate America.”

Get the data !

❤️‍🔥 The Elephant in the AI Room : of Business Model(s) and Fatal Technical Flaws

This report is a banger ! Everything the AI Now Institute writes should be on every CEO and scholars’ desk !

“The AI industry is on shakier ground than it may seem. Valuations are sky high, while the business model hinges on an intensely expensive technology that lacks a consistent revenue stream. AI companies bleed money for every user they gain: Anthropic burned through $5.6 billion6 this year but was valued at $61.5 billion.7 OpenAI lost $5 billion8 but is valued at $300 billion.9 No profit-making use cases exist yet, or are even on the horizon. This may seem like business as usual for the move-fast-and-break-things ethos of Big Tech, but we are in a profoundly different monetary environment now—it’s no longer the 2000s or 2010s.”

"Amid the frenzy, there’s been a misplaced focus on blinkered questions of whether one AI system or application is good or bad, or evaluating the moral quandaries of hypothetical worlds. Instead, we need to redirect attention to the AI ecosystem, and its dependencies and risks, as a whole. The question we should be asking is not if ChatGPT is useful or not, but if OpenAI’s unaccountable power, linked to Microsoft’s monopoly and the business model of the tech economy, is good for society."

Read the report

🦚 6 Hiring Best Practices for Small Businesses

Hiring the wrong person can be especially costly for small businesses, affecting productivity, morale, and reputation (once again!). To improve hiring outcomes, small business owners should start with thorough planning : defining ideal candidate profiles, evaluation methods, and compensation ranges.

Providing a positive candidate experience through clear communication, transparency, and supportive interviews enhances your employer brand. Lastly, leveraging the right recruiting technologies, from AI-powered tools to applicant tracking system, helps small businesses stay efficient and competitive.

Read the article

🌈💜 L’Observatoire de la lesbophobie lance une enquête sur les lesbiennes au travail et recherche des témoignages

L'enquête ODILE (Organisation - Diversité - Inclusion - LEsbiennes) est un projet de recherche financé par l'Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR). Ce projet est porté par une équipe de chercheuses et de chercheurs en sociologie et en sciences de gestion au sein du laboratoire RITM en économie et management à l’Université Paris-Saclay.

L'Observatoire de la lesbophobie s’associe à cette enquête pionnière pour le troisième axe du projet concernant la lesbophobie au travail.

Cette recherche intitulée, « Inclusion des personnes stigmatisées sur le lieu de travail : le cas des salariées lesbiennes », vise à décrire et comprendre le vécu au travail des salariées lesbiennes, et la façon dont les organisations de travail peuvent devenir plus inclusives envers elles. Si vous êtes une femme lesbienne, n’hésitez pas à témoigner. Si vous êtes une personne sensible au sujet, n’hésitez pas à partager l’appel à témoignages.

En savoir plus ou témoigner

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

🎙 In this edition of "Coach Me if You Can," meet Nathaniel Broekman, a former sound engineer turned Senior Data Analyst at a French video game studio. Nathaniel shares how navigating the French job market as a non-French speaker required more than just skills. It took cultural decoding, resilience, and expert guidance. Enter Caroline (myself), the coach who helped him adapt, regain confidence after rejections, and ultimately land a job that combines his analytical talents with his creative spirit.

From rewriting his CV for the French market to mastering interview speech and salary negotiation, Nathaniel’s journey is a must-read for foreign job seekers. His story sheds light on the emotional toll of job hunting abroad and the transformational impact of personalized coaching.

Read Nathaniel's interview

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Congratulations Etienne for his Machine Learning Researcher role !

✨ Congratulations Xiyao for her Machine Learning Engineer role !

✨ Congratulations Stéphane for his Frontend Design Engineer role !

🎞 I was invited by Nicolas Darcis and Hélène Ly from a sourcing community to talk about ongoing DEI strategies ! This-one-hour conversation with Fabian is full of smiles.

❤️‍🔥 Sciences Po Paris featured me in a list of influential people in the tech industry.

💣 The Women in Product community interviewed me to talk about Paris Women in Machine Learning and Data Science, The Allyance and Sappho Strategies, in French.

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on (with Morgane and Ian)

🫵 Senior Backend Architect (Javascript / Typescript, Node.js - Full remote)

🫵 Engineering Tech Lead (Infra topics)

🫵 Head of Product (AI)

🫵 Customer Success Manager (AI)

🫵 Senior Data Engineer (AI startup)

More details here…

May was a stellar month : lots of talented people starting a new job and invitations were numerous to speak about gender equality, women’s representation and inclusion in tech.

As I am extremely busy, I will not attend VivaTech but…

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

(with Nathaniel ! ⬇️)

Céline Dion was right… and we are celebrating the power of professional relationships. Morgane Dalbergue is once again joining forces with me, marking our fourth collaboration! Our shared passion for inclusive recruitment continues to drive meaningful change in the tech industry, proving that strong partnerships create lasting impact.

When it comes to tech and product hiring, you can rely on The Allyance. Ian, Tanguy, Morgane and myself will be happy to help.

The visual has been crafted by Anne-Katrin Clemens. 📸 Caroline by Gaëlle Cloarec & Morgane by Anne-Katrin Clemens.

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about engineering teams needing diversity, racial bias, how to handle difficult employees, autism and trans, non-binary inclusion.

🩷 Why engineering teams still needs DEI

I am always happy when allies speak up (and add relevant trigger warning). I am super proud because the author is a Head of Engineering we hired in 2022 for Resilience.

In his reflective piece, Loïc Goyet, makes a compelling case for why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) remain essential in engineering and tech teams.

Drawing from personal experience, he highlights the subtle yet persistent biases that hinder diverse hiring and limit team potential. Loïc underscores that diverse teams consistently perform better, innovate more effectively, and build products that better reflect the needs of a global audience.

He challenges the myth of meritocracy in tech, noting that equal qualifications rarely translate to equal opportunities, especially for women and minorities. The article also stresses that inclusive hiring isn’t just a moral imperative, but a strategic one in a competitive talent market. Ultimately, Loïc urges tech leaders to embrace DEI not as a trend, but as a long-term driver of growth and social progress.

“As a white heterosexual man, you might perceive DEI policies as a form of discrimination against you. It may have crossed your mind that it seems unfair not to be selected for a position based on your skin color or sexual orientation.”

Read Loïc's article

🫱🏿‍🫲🏾 How Gig Platforms Can Mitigate Racial Bias in Ratings

Recent research highlights how customer rating systems on gig platforms like Uber and Upwork can unintentionally perpetuate racial bias, impacting worker income and opportunities. The study found that workers of color receive slightly lower average ratings than white workers, despite no evidence of differences in performance. These small disparities, when scaled across thousands of transactions, translate into significant income gaps.

However, a simple shift from a five-star rating system to a thumbs up/thumbs down model eliminated these racial gaps in both ratings and earnings. The authors recommend platforms adopt simpler, more structured evaluation systems and regularly audit for demographic-based disparities. These changes not only improve fairness but also lead to more accurate assessments of service quality.

“We found that white workers received an average rating of 4.79 stars, whereas workers of color received 4.72 stars on a five-star scale. Though this 0.07-star difference may appear small, our findings indicate that it translates into meaningful disparities in worker earnings because of the subsequent reliance on ratings.”

Read the article

👽 The 5 Most Difficult Employees (And How To Actually Handle Them)

Claire Lee, CEO at Canopy, outlines common challenging employee types in the workplace and provides actionable strategies for managing them effectively. My favorite one is the Entitled Veteran 😈 It reminds me of so many engineers I came across.

1. The Entitled Veteran

2. The Passive Resister

3. The Brilliant Aggressor

4. The Perpetual Victim

5. The Performance Rollercoaster

Read the article

🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Guide AGIR p𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹’𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗲́𝘀 𝗲𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝗻-𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲́𝘀 𝗮𝘂 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹

L'Autre Cercle publie un guide inédit pour accompagner les employeurs et organisations dans la mise en place d’un environnement de travail plus inclusif pour les personnes trans et non-binaires. Fondé sur une enquête nationale (auprès de 500 personnes trans et non-binaires) et des contributions d’expert·es, ce guide apporte des solutions concrètes pour comprendre les enjeux, agir efficacement et accéder à des ressources adaptées. Les chiffres sont édifiants :

• 61 % des personnes transgenres et non-binaires optent pour un coming-out partiel ou sélectif au travail, par crainte de discriminations.

• 48 % ne peuvent pas utiliser les pronoms de leur choix dans leur environnement professionnel.

• 1 personne trans ou non-binaire sur 8 a déjà quitté un emploi en raison de discriminations vécues ou perçues.

• Seules 8 % des organisations employeurs disposent d’un guide ou d’une page d’information sur l’inclusion des personnes transgenres et non-binaires.

Découvrez le guide

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

La semaine dernière, le 2 avril, a eu lieu la journée mondiale de sensibilisation à l’autisme. Une occasion essentielle pour briser les stéréotypes et ouvrir la discussion sur l’inclusion des personnes autistes dans le monde du travail.

🔹 Saviez-vous qu’en France, seules 0,5% à 20% des personnes autistes travaillent en milieu ordinaire ?

🔹 Que le handicap invisible est encore largement méconnu et sous-estimé par les entreprises ?

Dans un article puissant et personnel, Léa de The Allyance partage son parcours, son diagnostic tardif et les défis qu’elle a dû surmonter en entreprise. Fatigue chronique, incompréhensions sociales, surcharge mentale… Mais aussi aménagements possibles, forces insoupçonnées et pistes pour un environnement plus inclusif.

Parce que l’inclusion ne doit pas être un vœu pieux mais une réalité, lisez son témoignage et partagez-le pour sensibiliser davantage 👇

Lire l'article de Léa

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Congratulations Françoise for her Senior Product Manager role !

🪩 A delighted client publicly expressed his happiness. I hired a Senior Analytics Engineer within 6 weeks.

✨ You are more than 1 000 subscribers to read this newsletter. Thank you !

🫧 This quarter, 60,5% of our candidates were women!

❤️‍🔥 On Linkedin, I highlighted 8 women who got a job thanks to The Allyance.

🫱🏻‍🫲🏿 If you want to contribute to our blog, feel free to reach out! Our most read articles are pieces from Yannick (tech interviewing techniques), Eustache (Green Tech) and Léa (already!).

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Senior Software Architect (Javascript / Typescript, Node.js - Full remote)

🫵 Senior Frontend Engineer (React - Full remote)

🫵 Fullstack Engineer (React - Full remote)

🫵 Lead Design Engineer (LLM)

🫵 Machine Learning Engineer - Geographic Neural Networks (AI startup)

More details here…

This month, several familiar faces came back : past clients, past co-workers. I devoted myself to recruitment exclusively while working on brand new projects.

I have one question for you 👇

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

(the lady who missed her chance to grab Lady Gaga’s tickets 🪇)

💡As The Allyance builds a more equitable tech world, we embrace the power of sorority—the bond of solidarity among women and allies advocating for change. As the feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir once said, “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”

✨ Through data, insights, success stories, and strategies, this newsletter will empower companies to hire inclusively and help job seekers navigate the tech landscape with confidence. Together, we are not just filling seats—we are creating spaces where everyone belongs.

Here is a picture of Caroline with Farah B., Tina R. and Aurélie P-A from HSBC Asset Management during video shooting for International Women’s Day 💜

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about diversity hiring, Trump’s sex discrimination, landing a tech job in Paris without speaking French and women in tech.

🟡 Embracing Inclusion: Why Diversity Hiring is Necessary

This Medium article by Ashikka Gupta explores the importance of diversity hiring, addressing misconceptions and biases surrounding it. She shares a personal story of securing an internship through a diversity hiring program and the self-doubt that followed due to societal perceptions back in 2023.

Bias in hiring processes persists, as shown by studies where applicants from marginalized groups receive fewer interview callbacks. Diversity hiring counteracts these disparities. While diversity hiring can cause mixed emotions, the author emphasizes embracing opportunities and advocating for inclusivity.

Overall, the article argues that diversity hiring is essential for fairness and better workplace outcomes. I can only agree!

“Many people believe that diversity in the workforce means taking jobs away from those who are “more deserving,” This can lead to resentment and invalidation of the talents and contributions of marginalized individuals who may not have had access to the same opportunities as others.”

Read Ashikka's Article

🏳️‍⚧️ Trump's Executive Orders Promoting Sex Discrimination

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) article criticizes President Trump's executive orders, which mandate federal agencies to discriminate against transgender individuals by defining sex strictly as male or female based on reproductive roles.

The order reverses Biden-era protections and undermines the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which recognized LGBTQ discrimination as sex discrimination.

It affects transgender people in federal custody, potentially placing them in unsafe conditions and denying them healthcare, and restricts their ability to update official documents like passports. The administration also seeks to defund "gender ideology" in federally funded programs, though the scope of this policy remains unclear. Civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, are preparing legal challenges to counteract these policies. Thank you Gillian Branstetter !

“We also expect to see immediate impacts on access to updated sex designations on U.S. passports. Transgender people frequently update the sex designation on documents like birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and passports to reflect their gender identity rather than the sex they were assigned at birth.”

Read the article

✅ Nicole : the Irish software engineer who got a job in Paris (without speaking French)!

Nicole Collins, an Irish software engineer, moved to Paris in 2024 to find a job despite not speaking French. She struggled with interviews until she sought help from The Allyance, where coaching helped her refine her approach and gain confidence.

Through networking and mock interviews, she successfully landed a software engineering role at DataGalaxy. Despite initial challenges, she enjoys living in Paris and recommends The Allyance for job seekers looking for support and connections.

“The main issue was, as Caroline said, that “I sounded like ChatGPT” (laughs). This robotic way of introducing myself during interviews was here to compensate for the fact that I was unsure of my personality.”

Meet Nicole and read some tips !

🤩 La place des femmes dans la tech : entre avancées et défis persistants

Marie Cicero de WeLoveDevs analyse la sous-représentation des femmes dans le secteur de la tech en France. Les inégalités salariales, les stéréotypes de genre et le manque de modèles féminins sont identifiés comme des freins majeurs à leur progression. Toutefois, elle observe une augmentation du nombre de femmes en reconversion professionnelle vers la tech, notamment grâce aux formations accélérées. Certains domaines, comme l'UX/UI design et la data science, attirent plus de femmes. Vous retrouverez un nom que vous connaissez bien puisque Marie m’a posé plusieurs questions !

“Dans les métiers tech, le pourcentage des femmes restent encore trop mince. Selon le baromètre Gender Scan 2023, les femmes représentaient 17 % des métiers techniques en France. Un chiffre équivalent d’une augmentation de seulement +1 point en cinq ans.”

Des chiffres encore des chiffres!

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

Le journal Les Echos a réalisé une vidéo suite à la révélation du Top 35 des Leaders Positifs déterminé par le journal Les Echos et Positiv. L’occasion pour moi de parler de la naissance du meetup Paris Women in Machine Learning & Data Science et d’entreprenariat.

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Congratulations Nathaniel for your role as a Senior Analytics Engineer !

✨ Congratulations Mouna who started this month at Linkup !

🏆 The Allyance signed 3 new clients to offer tech roles to our candidates. We signed 4 new roles within one week. The team and I will be sourcing actively.

🪜 I am supporting a DEI Leader to build her 2025 strategy in a global company.

💜 I announced the creation of Sappho Strategies. A a Business Angel, I want to invest my time and money to support AI and sustainable projects.

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Lead Analytics Manager

🫵 Senior Frontend Engineer (React - Full remote)

🫵 Lead Design Engineer (LLM)

🫵 Machine Learning Engineer - GNN (AI startup)

More jobs here…

💔 After 4 beautiful years spent with someone I loved deeply, I am opening a new chapter. I am divorcing. The last 3 months were a rocky road: I had a hard time.

However, more than ever, I felt lucky. I have been supported by caring candidates, clients and friends during this tough reinvention. Many people accepted to reschedule meetings, saw me burst into tears, showed up or offered their help. Thank you! I will never forget your kindness.

As The Blessed Madonna would say in the song Marea (We’ve lost dancing)… “What comes next will be marvellous”.

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

Everytime we meet candidates, The Allyance starts with a “phone screen”. Most of the time, it happens online through a visioconference. We discover each other and talk about different topics such as skills, salary expectations, roles, remote…etc.

When there is a match, we always send candidates a survey to get feedback about the interview and to collect data about who they are. This tool also enables us to get their consent to send their personal information to our clients. Consent and GDPR are 👑. In 2024:

• 50% of our candidates were women, 49,4% were men and 0,6% were non-binary (in June 2023, women represented 45,7% of our candidates)

• 47,2% of our candidates were looking for a flexible remote position

• 27% of our candidates were looking exclusively for a full remote one

• 82,2% rated our phone screen 10/10!

We care about all our candidates regardless of their gender, age, skin colour, physical ability…etc. We are proud of sharing this data with you.

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. This edition will be shorter than usual to focus on what matters. Here are some articles about fighting arguments against DEI, efficient tests, recruiting email templates, inclusive hiring and lots of news about The Allyance.

🥊 4 common arguments against DEI—and how to dismantle each one

DEI is often framed as a partisan issue, but the article from Fast Company asserts that fostering inclusivity transcends politics and enhances innovation, education, and business success.

👋 Donald, Mark and Elon ! Indeed, critics argue that DEI threatens merit-based systems, but the article refutes this by highlighting how DEI expands opportunities, ensuring that talent is not overlooked due to systemic barriers. Many misunderstand DEI as "forced diversity" rather than a means to level the playing field; metaphors like "mirrors and windows" illustrate how representation benefits all.

“Some opponents of DEI initiatives express fears about the possibility of “reverse discrimination.” They claim that efforts to address historical inequities will result in unfair treatment or disadvantages for specific individuals, particularly those who belong to majority groups.”

Read the article

🙂 Organizing Playwright Tests Effectively

Should I introduce Debbie O’Brien? She is a Principal Technical Program Manager at Microsoft. Combining these practices Debbie highlights ensures a well-structured and maintainable test suite, making it easier to onboard team members and manage tests efficiently.

• Organized Folder Structure: Separate tests based on their context (logged-in vs. logged-out) and per feature. For example, testing GitHub we could have tests/repos, tests/prs, tests/issues, etc.

• Using Hooks and Describe blocks: Improve readability and set up common prerequisites.

• Step Definition: Use test.step to break down complex test cases.

• Leveraging Annotations and Tags: Use annotations and tags to mark failing or incomplete tests, link issues, and categorize your tests for better filtering and reporting.

Test your code in style

✉️ The Best Recruiting Email Template

This article is for the recruiters reading this newsletter! Rhona Pierce, an American recruiter, unveils the way she catches candidates’ attention. Enjoy her templates and examples!

“Cliffhanger subject lines work great with candidates. Those three dots at the end of a sentence indicate there’s an unfinished thought. And the only place to finish that thought is inside the email. This type of subject sparks curiosity and increases your open rates.”

Discover Rhona's templates

🤩 5 conseils pour réussir un recrutement inclusif

La communauté française Tech Rocks a publié un livre blanc pour les managers d’équipes techniques et The Allyance y figure! Être Tech Leader en 2025, est un guide complet pour exceller dans le rôle de CTO ou de VP Engineering. Conçu par des expert·e·s et basé sur les conseils de leaders influent·e·s sur la frugalité, le recrutement, l’architecture et bien d’autres sujets. Voici un extrait de mon interview:

Un recrutement inclusif ne peut être maintenu sans suivi et amélioration continue. En Europe, seules 31 % des entreprises mesurent aujourd'hui l'impact de leurs initiatives en faveur de la diversité.

• Mettre en place des indicateurs de suivi : Suivez les taux de recrutement des minorités et analysez les différentes étapes du processus (nombre de candidatures reçues, nombre d'entretiens réalisés, etc.).

• Analyser les retours des candidats : Proposez systématiquement des enquêtes anonymes aux candidats, comme Alan, qu’ils soient retenus ou non, pour évaluer leur expérience et identifier des zones d'amélioration.

Obtenir le livre blanc

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

Cette petite fille, c'est moi. Je suis fière de la femme qu’elle est devenue. J’ai écrit un long post sur mon parcours pour partager mon émotion : je fais partie du Top 35 des Leaders Positifs déterminé par le journal Les Echos et Positiv. La remise des prix s’est déroulée dans les fabuleux bureaux des Echos et la liste des personnes récompensées est ici.

🩷 Candidates you can hire

Are you looking for a Machine Learning Engineer? The Allyance supports Nigreisy and Merwan in their job search. Both of them are available as soon as possible to start a new role. You can contact them directly or ask The Allyance to get their resume.

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Our 5 last hires were women engineers : a Machine Learning Lead, a Frontend, a Founding Backend, a DevOps and a Senior Mobile Engineer.

✨ Congratulations H. for your role as a Frontend Engineer at Resilience !

✨ Congratulations to Mouna for your next role !

🏆 We signed 4 new clients to offer tech roles to our candidates.

😶 I took some time off to focus on personal projects.

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Machine Learning Engineer - GNN (AI startup)

🫵 Data Analyst (Video Game company)

🫵 Senior Product Manager

🫵 Senior Backend Engineer (C#)

More jobs here…

In 2025, I will focus on what makes me happy : recruiting. I want to meet creative tech professionals. I want to select safe companies. Recruitment is not an art but it can be magic at times.

For instance, I made the decision to visit more of my clients onsite and I started with Linkup (Philippe and Denis) a few days ago.

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

Happy New Year! As we step into 2025, we are reminded of the power of new beginnings and the responsibility to continue building a more inclusive, equitable, and compassionate world.

This year, the landscape for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work faces unprecedented challenges. Recently, comments and actions from leaders like Mark Zuckerberg (and his friends) have sparked concern, particularly regarding their commitment to DEI. When influential voices downplay the importance of cultivating equitable spaces, it undermines the progress we’ve fought so hard to achieve.

Let’s be clear: DEI is not a trend or a checkbox—it’s a cornerstone of innovation, community, and shared prosperity. The moment we compromise on these values, we risk perpetuating inequities that damage not only our workplaces but also the broader society.

As The Allyance’s team and myself reflect on what we can achieve together this year, let’s reaffirm our collective commitment to:

• Amplifying underrepresented voices.

• Calling out performative actions and advocating for real change.

• Holding leaders accountable, no matter how powerful they are.

DEI is everyone’s responsibility, and together, we can push back against any narrative that seeks to diminish its importance.

At The Allyance, we donated more than 30 000 euros to more than 16 non-profits (some are featured below) since 2020. We put our money where our mouth is. We give back to committed communities and we help promote their work. We will keep doing so.

Here’s to a year of courage, growth, and unwavering dedication to justice.

Thank you for being part of this community.

We are stronger because of you. We are stronger because we are together.

Caroline Chavier, The Allyance CEO

🎄 The holidays are close and you're behind schedule for your gifts? The Allyance is here to help you in the end-of-year race ! We are presenting our reading favorites for 2024.

As you'll see, unlike the first edition of our reading recommendations, we've decided to include a wider choice: novels, essays, photography works... What do they have in common? They all tackle subjects dear to The Allyance's heart, in a global context of social injustice. The featured works are in French.

DISCOVER OUR LIST

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about trans and nonbinary allyship, remote work, AI-assisted ATS, hiring underrepresented candidates and some secrets.

🏳️‍⚧️ A Guide to Being An Ally to Trans and Nonbinary People

I am sharing a resource from the Better Allies newsletter. In honor of the Transgender Awareness Week, observed from November 13 to November 19, here’s advice from PFLAG (Parent, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) s’ Guide to Being An Ally to Trans and Nonbinary People. When witnessing bias against transgender people, address the behavior without attacking the person’s character. It is valid at work as well !

“Behavior can and should be addressed, because it’s something that people can correct—but they likely won’t be inclined to if you’ve called them names in front of a large group of people, or made broad generalizations about who they are based on a single action.”

GET THE DOCUMENT 🏳️‍⚧️

⚓ The Remote Work Differences No One Talks About

The article explores three fundamental differences between remote and in-person work: accountability, judgment, and autonomy. It emphasizes that recognizing and leveraging these differences can prevent burnout, enhance career growth, and revolutionize work-life balance. It made me think a lot as I am witnessing companies switching back to the “everyone should be in the office” mode.

“Autonomy in remote work offers immense freedom, contrasting the rigid schedules of traditional office environments. While this freedom can be overwhelming, it also allows for personalized work routines, improving productivity and quality of life.”

READ THE ARTICLE

📊 Manage inbound application volume with AI-Assisted Application Review

During my time at Resilience, I got the chance to use a new ATS (Applicant Tracking System) called Ashby. Even if I am not a huge fan of the trend of injecting AI features everywhere. Ashby succeeded to find one very useful application : the management of numerous applications. When you deal with hundreds of applications, recruitment teams might struggle to deliver a great candidate experience. In this blog post, Ashby offers an answer to this issue. The article starts with a demo and tackles how they use automations without bias.

“While AI surfaces key information to support decision-making, it’s ultimately the qualified humans on your team making an advance/reject decision. Fundamentally, the technology is assistive in nature and designed to expand your team’s capacity - not replace it.”

WATCH THE DEMO

⭐ How to recruit underrepresented talent

🤩 When diversity sourcing techniques bring stellar results… I sit down with Teamtailor's Chief HR Officer, Lisa Skinner Källström to record an episode of Happy Recruiting ! In this episode, several examples are mentioned :

✨ How Pruna AI succeeds to attract more diverse applications than their competitors

✨ How Onfido trains interviews, managers and recruiters to hire 42% underrepresented candidates

✨ How we supported Inato's speacial search of a Senior Data Engineer

Spotify, Youtube, Apple Podcast here

🩷 The Allyance supports the AI ecosystem

The Allyance sponsored the last Paris Women in Machine Learning & Data Science meetup which featured Meredith Whittaker, President of the Signal Foundation and Raphaëlle Rémy Leleu, Conseillère de Paris, Green party.

The talks were about AI, Ecofeminism, privacy, and the surveillance business model

📸 Leslie Rolland

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Congratulations C. for your role as a Senior Machine Learning Engineer !

✨ Congratulations to Marie-Ange who just started as Senior SRE Engineer at D-Edge !

🏆 Merwan, a Machine Learning Engineer, is actively looking for a role !

🏆 We signed 2 new clients to offer tech roles to our candidates.

💟 My RPO mission is over at Resilience. I had a blast and hired 5 people.

🤩 I did my first investment as a Business Angel and backed Pruna’s seed round! Their goal is to sustainably optimize machine learning models and empower AI engineers to focus on innovation.

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Founding Back-end Engineer (Python, React)

🫵 Machine Learning Engineer (AI startup)

🫵 Backend Engineer (Python)

🫵 Fullstack Engineer

More jobs here…

Caroline Therwath-Chavier, The Allyance CEO

I hope you spent a fantastic week-end !

The Allyance is proud to sponsor the next meetup organized by Paris Women in Machine Learning and Data Science.

Paris WiMLDS’ mission is to support and promote women and gender minorities who are practicing, studying or are interested in the fields of machine learning and data science.

The event is free for attendees. It will take place at The Digital Transformation Institute of Mines Paris–PSL, next to the famous Jardin du Luxembourg.

The team invited two exceptional speakers including :

🎤 Meredith Whittaker, President at Signal Foundation who will talk about "AI, privacy, and the surveillance business model”.

This talk will look at where we are now in tech and how we got here, with a focus on AI, privacy, and how they’re connected. We’ll look at the rise of AI in the present moment, and how it is directly connected to the tech surveillance business model of today. And why, order to solve the issues we’re facing, we’ll need to unravel some of the original sins of the original internet business model and address the work undone decades ago to protect privacy.

Her biography is accessible here.

🎤 Then, Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu, Conseillère de Paris, member of the Green party will talk about “Ecofeminism against techno police”.

Her biography is accessible here.

It will be a fantastic opportunity to network, unwind, and meet.

Attend the meetup - RSVP

I look forward to meeting you !

Sincerely,

Caroline

As I reflect on Kamala Harris losing the election and on the dangers ahead of all of us, I decided to kick off this newsletter with something that brings me joy instead.

Did you know I spent almost two years living in Japan? During that time, one of my favorite traditions was momiji (紅葉) — the celebration of autumn leaves. While cherry blossoms in spring are well-known, I found my joy in walking through Tokyo and its suburbs, taking in the vibrant reds and golds of the maples.

As a student, these quiet walks were a balm. They became a time for me to look back on the year and set my intentions for the months ahead. Now, with a world that’s ever-changing, moments like these feel even more essential, offering us a chance to pause, think, and renew.

These pictures were taken in 2010, in Tokyo.

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about women in IT, neurodiversity, biases, hiring engineers and men becoming allies

🤐 Women in IT work harder to make slow progress

Acronis, a cybersecurity company, commissioned a survey to better understand women’s career progression in IT. The survey sampled 327 full-time female employees in the U.S., U.K., Spain and Switzerland. The survey states the obvious : gender diversity is a strategic advantage. 

What I like the most is the final section of the article when they ask women what employers can do to improve gender equity? Almost half of the respondents cited pay equity, and roughly the same number chose diversity and inclusion training. About 49% suggested actively hiring more diverse candidates, and flexible work arrangements were important to 41% of respondents. Have they heard about The Allyance ? 🥰

Most notably, 71% of survey respondents said they worked longer hours with the goal of advancing their careers more quickly. Why? Largely because they still have to. Half of respondents said they had experienced gender bias or discrimination.

GET MORE DATA !

🧠 Your leadership team is likely more neurodiverse than you think

Neurodiversity refers to differences in how people think and process information, including conditions like ADHD, dyslexia, and autism in case you missed our past editions. This article from Fast Company argues that neurodiversity can enrich leadership, challenging traditional views and bringing substantial advantages to organisation.

Neurodivergent leaders often bring unique perspectives and creative problem-solving abilities, which can drive innovation. It seems inevitable to train as many people as possible to fight against persistent stereotypes about neurodivergent individuals hindering their career growth.

75% of organizations with decision-making teams with a diverse and inclusive culture reported enhanced productivity, greater innovation, and positive financial outcomes. Diversity in thought—due to neurodiverse contributions—strengthens a company’s competitiveness and adaptability.

READ THE ARTICLE

👓 A Simple Exercise to Help You Check Your Biases

As I spent a significant amount of time training people on biases this month, I thought it would be nice to share a thought-provoking article on the matter by Anu Gupta published in Harvard Business Review.

Despite the uncertain future of DEI initiatives, managers still need to address bias, the root cause of most DEI challenges. The author introduces PRISM, a set of five science-backed tools designed to help managers and teams unlearn unconscious biases: Perspective-Taking, pRosocial Behavior, Individuation, Stereotype Replacement, and Mindfulness. These tools aim to improve workplace collaboration, creativity, and communication while reducing conflicts and enhancing performance.

READ THE ARTICLE

🦗 200 interviewees : 2,5 % of women and 1 female engineer hire

Once upon a time, Chloé Hermary recommended The Allyance to Marc-Henri Gires, CTO at Defacto. Since then, Céline Regnaud has gotten hired. Here is a beautiful story which I am happy to share. Defacto has an unique engineering interview process, gender parity in the executive team and even if I usually refuse to work for a FinTech company. I made an exception for them. Find out why in the interview :

READ MARC-HENRI'S INTERVIEW

🦋Le baromètre Men at Work pour mesurer l’ambiance sexiste

A force de recommander l’intervention de Sébastien Garcin “Men are part of the solution” lors de mes formations (cf. l’image ci-dessus), je suis tombée sur le baromètre et l’initiative Men @ Work. Je partage systématiquement cette vidéo depuis qu’elle est en ligne afin d’inviter les hommes à s’intéresser au sujet de l’égalité au travail. Quoi de mieux qu’un PDG qui s’est pris quelques claques pour convaincre de devenir un allié?

Je précise que je ne connais aucune des personnes impliquées dans le projet. En revanche, j’ai dévoré “Les hommes hétéros le sont-ils vraiment?” de Léane Alestra, membre de leur comité scientifique. Si vous êtes en réflexion et avez besoin d’aide… A vous de jouer!

Il est temps que les hommes s'emparent du sujet de l'égalité et se mettent au travail.

DECOUVRIR LE BAROMETRE

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

Lauren Letestu est la première candidate avec laquelle j’ai la chance de pouvoir travailler aujourd’hui! Il y a quelques jours, j’ai recruté une développeuse afin qu’elle rejoigne son équipe, chez Resilience. C’est extrêmement valorisant de suivre quelqu’un ainsi.

Lauren est une femme comme on en croise (encore) trop peu dans la tech. Une développeuse douée et une manager qu’on chérit. Je suis fière d’avoir croisé son chemin grâce à Nathalie (Lamy)!

LIRE SON INTERVIEW

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ Congratulations H., M., F. : 3 women engineers who got hired as Frontend, DevOps and Mobile Engineers

⚡️ Congratulations to Imane who just started as Senior Data Engineer at Inato !

🍂 The Allyance signed 4 new clients to offer tech roles to our candidates.

🐦‍🔥 I gave 3 trainings for Esker employees on Beyond Diversity : Inclusion in the US, Europe and Asia.

🎲 The Allyance support a Normandy based association to organise an intergenerational gaming week-end in Fécamp.

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Engineering Manager (Off Market)

🫵 Machine Learning Engineer (AI startup)

🫵 Senior Back-end Engineer (C#)

🫵 Backend Engineer (Python)

🫵 Senior Mobile Product Manager

More jobs here…

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

Caroline Therwath-Chavier, The Allyance CEO

October treated The Allyance with many exciting opportunities. This year has been a struggling year for the DEI and recruitment world. Yet, it has been an amazing year professionally at The Allyance. Past customers came back, new ones turned out to be beautiful surprises and I hired many talented diverse candidates. I am looking forward to wrapping up 2024 in style next month!

Maryam Jahanshahi is the Co-founder and Head of R&D at Datapeople, Rizel Scarlett is a Staff Developer Advocate at TBD, and Emilie Ringwald is Head of Product at Strapi. What these three bright tech professionals have in common is a deep interest in DEI and ideas on how to bring it about. In this newsletter, I share some of their thoughts and urge you to read articles they recently published. 

Because the international women's day on March 8th is still far far away and because we should listen to women every day of the year anyways, I urge you to pay close attention to the following articles and more generally to your female colleagues and your colleagues from minorities.

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about Equal Opportunity Employment’s consequences, pregnancy, product management and senior people.

📜 The Language of Inclusion: Decoding the Effect of Equal Opportunity Employment Statements in Hiring

The paper explores the impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) statements in job descriptions. A study conducted by Maryam Jahanshahi for Datapeople tested five different types of DEI statements, in order to understand how these statements affect candidates’ perceptions of inclusiveness.

The "Legalese" DEI statement, in particular, performed best across multiple demographics (People of Color and LGBTQ individuals). The research suggests that DEI statements help foster a more inclusive job search experience.

Participants who self-identified as a race other than Caucasian, Asian, or Asian-American showed a strong preference for the Legalese diversity statement. As a group, the Legalese statement significantly increased perceptions of inclusiveness and fairness compared to no diversity statement. In fact, the Legalese statement was the only one that was significantly different from no diversity statement for People of Color.

READ THE PAPER

🍼 The Reality of Balancing Pregnancy in Developer Relations

The article below discusses the challenges of balancing pregnancy with a demanding career in Developer Relations (DevRel). It made me think about one of my best friends, a currently pregnant Tech Lead. The author, Rizèl Scarlett, shares personal insights from her own pregnancy journey, detailing how exhaustion, shifting priorities, and “mom brain” affected her performance.

She reflects on balancing work, family, and health, highlighting how her pregnancy changed her perspective on productivity. Despite these struggles, she accomplished major professional milestones and expresses gratitude for a flexible, remote job. She encourages others to prepare realistically for balancing pregnancy and tech careers.

My role as a Developer Advocate, with its demanding travel schedule and constant context-switching, seemed particularly challenging to balance with family life. Eager to learn from others' experiences, I searched the internet for content. The scarcity of publicly shared experiences from moms in tech isn't surprising.

READ THE ARTICLE

🤩 6 key takeaways from my 2 first years as a Manager

Emilie Ringwald, Head of Product at Strapi, reflects on 6 key lessons from two years of management experience after transitioning from a Product Management role. These insights include the importance of being brutally honest to avoid confusion, reacting swiftly with performance plans to facilitate employee growth, and having early conversations about salary and promotions to reduce stress. She emphasizes not taking anything for granted in managing people, acknowledging the impact of multicultural environments, and documenting everything clearly to prevent misunderstandings. These lessons help in building stronger, more effective management practices.

Although we had great internal trainings on the topic, I didn’t fully realize the importance of giving direct and explicit feedback as soon as possible until I experienced the consequences of not doing so.

READ THE ARTICLE

📋 Les seniors sur le marché du travail en 2023

Cette année, les personnes expérimentées que j’ai accompagnées ont eu beaucoup de mal à obtenir une offre à la fin d’un processus de recrutement. “Trop cher”, “pas expert sur les technologies demandées”, “on a privilégié une personne en interne”... Il faut être plein de détermination quand on a plus de 45 ans dans la tech (si vous me demandez, c’est jeune!). 

Je me suis plongée dans le document de la Direction de l'Animation de la recherche, des Études et des Statistiques (DARES) qui présente l'évolution de l'emploi des seniors (55-64 ans) en France en 2023. Leur taux d'emploi est de  58,4 %, supérieur  à l'année précédente, mais reste inférieur à la moyenne européenne (63,9 %). Les réformes successives de la retraite ont favorisé cette augmentation, bien que les taux d'emploi diminuent significativement après 60 ans. Les seniors en activité incluent des travailleurs cumulant emploi et retraite, une situation de plus en plus fréquente.

Le taux de chômage des seniors, à 5,4 %, est inférieur à celui de l'ensemble des actifs.

LIRE LE RAPPORT

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

I travelled to Stockholm to record a podcast with Teamtailor. #StayTuned

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ The Allyance’s team is growing: welcome Cyrielle, Tanguy and Ian! ✨

✨ Congratulations to Nazim for his Engineering Manager role !

🏆 Mike, a Senior Machine Learning Researcher, found a role within one week following a Linkedin post I shared. I am happy for him!

🖥️ A woman engineer, expert in Frontend (React & Typescript), is ready to interview. Contact me to put you in touch!

🚨 I gave a training for FM Logistic employees on “Beyond Diversity : Inclusion”

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Machine Learning Engineer

🫵 Senior Back-end Engineer (Python)

🫵 Backend Engineer (Kotlin)

🫵 Mobile Engineer

More jobs here…

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

Caroline Therwath-Chavier, The Allyance CEO

I am really busy at the moment: meeting an average of 4 candidates per day and preparing for 5 training sessions in the following weeks.I feel connected to what I love: hiring people and helping companies change their culture.

Last month, The Allyance took a break. During that time, I spent hours watching Les Apparences, a Twitch show hosted by Thomas Lévy-Lasne. These 60-minute-conversations between two painters are an amazing way to deepen one’s knowledge about art. 

Thomas is a stunning host and one of the best living painters in France (in my humble opinion). On the 19th of September 2024, he will organize Painter’s Day at Orsay Museum. 80 contemporary painters from French art will be displaying their work and meeting visitors.

It was important for me to mention that day because Thomas made a genuine effort to invite a diverse range of painters : age, culture, gender…etc. He is doing exemplary work towards inclusivity, in a way that The Allyance strives to accomplish in the field of tech.

© Adagp, Paris, 2024 / Judith Prigent, Cyrielle Gulacsy et Thomas Lévy-Lasne

✅ The Allyance newsletter provides many useful references on recruitment, diversity and inclusion. Here are some articles about building AI teams, interviewing tech managers, coding at 50, Microsoft and DEI.

📙The Handbook of Applied AI Teams

Hiring is always a challenge. As Artificial Intelligence  (AI also known as Machine Learning) is “eating the world”, AI professionals are in high demand. To help fellow managers and peers, Olivier Koch wrote and open-sourced a Handbook of Applied AI Teams. It is divided into 3 sections: “Building the team”, “Delivering the product” and “Growing people”.

Olivier and I used to work together at Criteo. He is now Onfido’s VP of Applied AI. Olivier is an excellent manager and researcher, and is always eager to hone his skills. Naturally, his handbook is filled with references and concrete examples and you’ll learn:

• How to spot a great scientist in 3 minutes

• The seven pillars of Applied AI

• The six-week rule

• Everything you want to know about AI teams without daring to ask

GET THE HANDBOOK

🤩 Hire Better Managers: 50 Interview Questions for Assessing a Candidate

When you have to hire managers, you look for solid technical skills and exceptional relational skills. I often face managers who are at loss about what to ask when meeting candidates. The First Round website assembled 50 interview questions for manager candidates. It is a gold mine. These questions happen to be those I usually share with candidates who target a management position. Coaching is also about giving pragmatic tools! Here are some examples:

• Describe a time when you felt your team wasn’t shipping frequently enough. What did you do about it?

• When new positions have opened up on your team, did you promote from within or hire externally? What is your philosophy on this?

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

💻 I learned the language of computer programming in my 50s – here’s what I discovered

I smiled when I read this article from The Guardian. Andrew Smith shares his story about how he ended working on an article about cryptocurrency and felt intrigued about coding and coders. At the age of 50, with no background in programming, he decided to learn something new. I really liked the comparison with pop culture and his moments of self-realisations. For instance:

I was surprised how much fun I had with the Pythonistas. Coding has a gender and race problem, with only about 5% of professionals identifying as women or either Black, African or Caribbean. But strenuous efforts were being made to address the problem within Python communities around the world, notably in Africa. One organisation trying to reverse this imbalance is PyLadies.

READ THE ARTICLE

🔪 Microsoft is not cutting off its DEI team

This summer, a long article published in Business Insider stated that Microsoft had shut down its entire Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team as it was no longer “business critical”. A lot of people were outraged. A few days later, Microsoft announced that their DEI efforts were intact. They explained two roles were cut on its events team because they were duplicated on another team. Microsoft's chief diversity officer, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, told the BBC that  diversity and investment in the workforce can help fix AI's bias problems:

“As we move forward, our D&I commitments remain unchanged. Our focus on diversity and inclusion is unwavering and we are holding firm on our expectations, prioritizing accountability, and continuing to focus on this work.”

READ THE ARTICLE

📋 Comment mettre en place l’IA chez vos recruteurs

Le blog Les Talents Narratifs publie un cas pratique de mise en place d’outils d’automatisation pour les équipes de recrutement chez SFEIR. Conformément à la volonté des dirigeants de l’entreprise, l’ensemble des équipes ont été invitées à utiliser une plateforme interne regroupant toutes les IA génératives du marché (Gemini, ChatGPT…).

Côté recrutement, les équipes ont décomposé toutes leurs tâches afin d’écrire des prompts pour les aider au quotidien. Le résultat? Trois mois après les premiers ateliers, plus de 55% des membres des équipes recrutement utilisent la plateforme GenIA interne quotidiennement. Pour les résultats quantitatifs, à suivre…

READ THE ARTICLE

🔦 The Allyance in the spotlight

🌱 You want to change jobs and look for a more positive impact ? Eustache is a former colleague of mine. When he reached to get support on his ongoing job search, he had one objective : finding a role in the GreenTech ecosystem.

He created a list of tips, links and references which will be useful for other people. He even listed the job boards featuring roles in Climate / GreenTech companies. I am honored he agreed to feature his curated content on The Allyance blog 🌎

EUSTACHE'S TIPS ARE HERE

🤫 Backstage secrets

✨ The Allyance updated its website with lots of new content ✨

✨ Congratulations to Zoe for her Senior Backend role !

✨ Congratulations to Charles for his Lead Machine Learning Lead role !

🏆 I am coaching a Senior Front-End Engineer (she is ready to interview) and two Machine Learning Researchers.

🚨 I gave a talk at L’Ecole de Médecine entitled “AI²: Why AI Should Be All-Inclusive”

🩷Hot jobs we are working on

🫵 Senior SRE Team Lead

🫵 Senior Back-end Engineer (Python)

🫵 Senior Product Manager 

🫵 Engineering Program Manager

More jobs here…

You can contact us : contact@theallyance.one

Caroline Therwath-Chavier, The Allyance CEO

September is always a month full of surprises : people start new jobs, some are actively looking for the next role to start the next year and our lives are busy with sports, kids, movies and exhibitions. Have an amazing month!