Toward recruitment and retention strategies based on the early exposure to the IT occupational culture

In this research in progress, we examine cultural issues of the occupation that generate negative attitudes toward IT majors. This project follows a qualitative and quantitative study whose findings suggest that culture of the IT occupation plays a critical role in a student's decision to pursue or continue in the IT occupation - especially for women and minorities. We propose that inoculation theory provides an ideal framework to enhance students' recruitment and retention in IT majors. Exposing students to small doses of the negative aspects of the IT profession that we found in our previous study will affect their decisions. We video-taped interviews of senior IT students to extract video segments that would impact students who have not had work experience in the IT field yet. These segments will be part of a workshop where the videos will be presented. In this report we present the theoretical framework that explains our approach and the procedure that we are following.