For you, Tim, I think it's more of a perceived age prejudice than anything else. We also need to consider the fact that most Asian men are very shy in social functions (yes I'm speaking for myself lol), what more in representing a corp.

For you, Tim, I think it's more of a perceived age prejudice than anything else. We also need to consider the fact that most Asian men are very shy in social functions (yes I'm speaking for myself lol), what more in representing a corp.

This is way too dramatic and misses important context. The way I see it, after working a long (long) time in Silicon Valley, things are SO much better than before. In the old days, there was a kind of caste system. You’d have white management, Chinese and Indian Engineers, white, Vietnamese and Filipino technicians, and Filipino, Vietnamese, and Hispanic assemblers. Going to work definitely felt like some strange colonial experience! I remember talking to an HR person during that time about the biggest source of racial conflict, and she said it with white technicians who were working for Asian engineers. They were often older and knew more than some young Asian engineer who was just starting, but they made less and had to work for that engineer, resulting in much resentment – a problem almost exactly opposite of the problem you are talking about.

Eventually, most of manufacturing moved out of Silicon Valley, which broke up part of the hierarchy. At that point in time, my HR contacts told me that their big racial issue concerned Asian Engineers who felt that they couldn’t advance up the management hierarchy would leave and start up their own companies. I knew many Asian-American engineers who felt like that felt that they were relegated to only being technical coolies and struck out on their own. One issue that occurred in that situation was when they did start up companies, the venture capitalists would not let the company be run by an Asian. I recall that there was even a venture capital firm that specialized in reaching out to Asian-American founded companies (forget the name – anyone?)

What about the glass ceiling? A study published in 2000 called “Silicon Valley’s New Immigrant Enterpreneurs” by AnnaLee Saxenian (http://www.ccis-ucsd.org/PUBLICATIONS/wrkg15.PDF) has some interesting insights. She says that although Asian-Americans point to the “glass ceiling” as a race based barriers, income data doesn’t support it – there is no statistical difference in the incomes of Chinese or Indian managers and that of white managers. Tellingly, she said that those surveyed attributed differences in management participation less to “racial prejudice and stereotypes” than to what was perceived as an old boy network. I think that that perception is pretty accurate. Many of the white folks in Tim’s management probably were part of an “old boy” network.

Much time has passed. At the company where I work, there have been Asians who have headed up marketing and major product divisions. I see Asians all over the management hierarchy, and my own boss is Asian. Much of this occurred as employees of all kinds of ethnicities at the company were encouraged to network and get mentors. More and more Asian-Americans are venture capitalists. Some of my Asian engineer friends who left are now the CEOs or high in the management hierarchies of their respective companies. There are now some well-established Asian old boy networks, and I am sure that non-Asians and Asian-Americans people not of those ethnicity would have trouble cracking those. The Asian-American CEOs and VP level management in Silicon valley that I know definitely have their own networks of Asian-Americans that they will tap for management positions.

The meaning of “not enough gray hair”? I’d interpret that as, “you aren’t in our OLD boy network.” I’d think that that to get further, you’d have to crack into the old boy network that is probably there – play golf with those folks, schmooze, etc. – yucky stuff that I’d don’t like to do, which is probably why I am still a technical coolie!