In case anybody has stumbled on this short thread while experiencing similar issues: I've had pretty good success with LinkedIn connection requests. I think it helps that I'm crafting the invite to be personal and that I'm a founder and not a recruiter.
The biggest struggle was finding the candidates in the first place. LinkedIn limited the number of search results you can get for free and "premium" subscriptions didn't seem worthwhile.
Instead, I used Google-fu "site:linkedin.com/in" and some boolean search around the technology I was looking for and my location. The key that got female candidates was including "Grace Hopper" or "Anita Borg". Nearly 100% of the search results were experienced women.
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In case anybody has stumbled on this short thread while experiencing similar issues: I've had pretty good success with LinkedIn connection requests. I think it helps that I'm crafting the invite to be personal and that I'm a founder and not a recruiter.
The biggest struggle was finding the candidates in the first place. LinkedIn limited the number of search results you can get for free and "premium" subscriptions didn't seem worthwhile.
Instead, I used Google-fu "site:linkedin.com/in" and some boolean search around the technology I was looking for and my location. The key that got female candidates was including "Grace Hopper" or "Anita Borg". Nearly 100% of the search results were experienced women.