A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post called “Five reasons you should work at Gartner with me“. Well, we’re recruiting again for an analyst to replace Aneel Lakhani, who is sadly leaving us to go to a start-up. While this analyst role isn’t part of my team, I expect that this is someone that I’ll work closely with, so I have a vested interest in seeing a great person get the job.

Check out the formal job posting. This analyst will cover cloud management products and services, including cloud management platforms (like OpenStack).

All of five reasons that I previously cited for working at Gartner remain true:

1. It is an unbeatably interesting job for people who thrive on input.
2. You get to help people in bite-sized chunks.
3. You get to work with great colleagues.
4. Your work is self-directed.
5. We don’t do any pay-to-play.

(See my previous post for the details.)

However, I want to make a particular appeal to women. I know that becoming an industry analyst is an unusual career path that many people have never thought about, and I expect that a lot of women who might find that the job suits them have no idea what working at Gartner is like. While we have a lot of women in the analyst ranks, the dearth of women in technology in general means that we see fewer female candidates for analyst roles.

So, here are five more good reasons why you, a woman, might want a job as a Gartner analyst.

1. We have a lot of women in very senior, very visible analyst roles, along with a lot of women in management. We are far more gender-balanced than you normally see in a technology company. That means that you are just a person, rather than being treated like you’re somehow a representative of women in general and adrift in a sea of men. Your colleagues are never going to dismiss your opinions as somehow lesser because you represent a “woman’s point of view”. Nor are people going to expect a woman to be note-taking or performing admin tasks. And because there are plenty of women, company social activities aren’t male-centric. There are women at all levels of the analyst organization, including at the top levels. That also means there’s an abundance of female mentors, if that matters to you.

2. The traits that might make you termed “too aggressive” are valued in analysts. Traits that are usually considered positive in men — assertive, authoritative, highly confident, direct, with strong opinions — can be perceived as too aggressive in women, which potentially creates problems for those types of women in the workplace. But this is precisely what we’re looking for in analysts (coupled with empathy, being a good communicator, and so on). Clients talk to analysts because they expect us to hold opinions and defend them well.

3. You are shielded from most misogyny in the tech world. You may get the rare social media interaction where someone will throw out a random misogynistic comment, but our analysts aren’t normally subject to bad behavior. You will still get the occasional client who believes you must not be technical because you’re a woman, or doesn’t want a woman telling him what to do, but really, that’s their problem, not yours. Our own internal culture is highly professional; there are lots of strong personalities, but people are normally mature and even-keeled. Our conferences are extremely professionally run, and that means we also hold attendees and sponsors to standards that don’t allow them to engage in women-marginalizing shenanigans.

4. You will use both technical and non-technical skills, and have a real impact. While technical knowledge is critical, and experience beings hands-on technical is extremely useful, it’s simply one aspect of the skillset; communication and other “soft” skills, and an understanding of business strategy and sales and marketing, are also important. Also, the things you do have real impact for our clients, and potentially can shape the industry; if you like your work to have meaning, you’ll certainly find that here.

5. This is a flexible-hours, work-from-anywhere job. This has the potential to be a family-friendly lifestyle. However, I would caution that “work from anywhere” can include a lot of travel, “flexible hours” means that you can end up working all the time (especially because we have clients around the globe and your flexibility needs to include early-morning and late-evening availability), and covering a hot topic is often a very intense job. You have to be good at setting boundaries for how much you work.

(By the way, for this role, the two analysts who cover IT operations management tools most closely, and whose team you would work on, are both women — Donna Scott and Ronni Colville — and both VP Distinguished Analysts, at the very top of our analyst ranks.)

Please feel free to get in contact privately if you’re interested (email preferable, LinkedIn okay as well), regardless of your gender!