A very simple answer for diversity in tech
50-city tour getting strong response just by putting out invitation
“How could I feel included on a team when my entire team had entirely different lifestyles than me and never wanted to know about mine?” Angie Coleman, who handles community outreach for the tour, about a previous job
How do you get underrepresented minorities and women into tech companies?
Who knows? But we know for sure the solution doesn’t include leaving it up to tech companies that have shown they can’t crack the code to engineer diversity.
Technology companies need to be introduced to diverse people, and that’s the mission of Tech Jobs Tour, a private organization that tours the U.S. helping to connect diverse people — women, people of color, LGBTQ, veterans and people with disabilities — with the tech industry.
It brings representatives from the dominant tech companies and potential
employees together at one spot to meet and talk.
According to Tech Jobs Tour, there are currently more than 500,000 jobs open at tech companies in the U.S. And by 2020, the number is expected to grow to more than 1 million. The tour’s goal is to get people into 100,000 jobs in year one.
Tech Jobs Tour launched at the South by Southwest film, media and music conference in March, and began its 50city tour in April. The San Francisco stop was on Wednesday at the Grand Theater on Mission Street. The Oakland event is Dec. 6.
It was a tech event unlike any that I’ve experienced. The event was open to anyone, and the line on Mission Street looked like what you’d see at a music club before the doors open.
I’ve never seen so many black and brown people at a tech event that wasn’t hosted by black and brown people.
Here’s the trouble facing tech companies: Not only do they need to recruit minorities and women, they also have to create a culture where new employees feel welcomed and eager to stay with the company. Make no mistake, these companies have executives, apparently some of the most brilliant minds in the world, who have the power, influence and access to build sustainable diversity pipelines. So why hasn’t it happened? “Relationships are so important to get that job,” said Leanne Pittsford, the founder and CEO of Tech Jobs Tour. “For people that didn’t go to Stanford or MIT, how do they get access?”
During the “speed mentoring” sessions at the event, where for seven minutes at a time people chatted with mentors sitting face-to-face, attendees were able to speak with representatives from Facebook, Google, Square, Github, LinkedIn and Lyft, among other companies.
I was invited to the event by Angie Coleman, who handles community outreach for the tour. Coleman, an Oakland resident, knows about feeling out of place at a tech company. When she left Dropbox in 2015, she caused a stir in the tech industry when she revealed how she felt ostracized by the company’s culture.
“How could I feel included on a team when my entire team had entirely different lifestyles than me and never wanted to know about mine?” Coleman told me earlier this week when we met at Tertulia Coffee in downtown Oakland.
Leaving Dropbox changed the course of her career. Instead of pursuing an engineering role, Coleman became an activist for diversity in tech.
It was a natural transition, because she speaks her mind and she’s willing to take the hits that others might want to avoid because they fear they’ll become tech’s version of Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49er who apparently can’t get a job because he protested the deaths of black people killed by police.
Diversity reports released by major tech companies show that blacks, Latinos and Native Americans account for only a small fraction of the companies’ employees — and that leadership positions are predominantly held by white men. So there’s no need to be curious about how hegemonic internal office culture is created — and why it’s difficult to introduce and integrate different lifestyles and backgrounds.
At tech conferences I’ve been to in Las Vegas, San Jose and San Francisco, attendees move from booth to booth being pitched products while stuffing their bags with business cards and flyers they’ll never look at again. I can only recall one meaningful conversation from my two years of conference hopping.
At Tech Jobs Tour, I had four in the first 30 minutes when I sat in a session of “speed mentoring.”
The event was an opportunity to discuss our careers and things impacting our lives, like the uphill battle minorities and women face to break into the tech industry.
Mayara Brandao Dusheyko, a native of Brazil who recently earned a computer science degree from San Francisco State University, was looking for connections and tips on what she needs to do to make her resume more appealing.
“You turn your resume in and you never hear back,” Dusheyko, 30, said. “I’d like some feedback, at least.”
Lucas Vasquez, an Android engineer, wanted a job. While he thought Tech Jobs Tour was a cool event, he didn’t feel he got any closer to landing a job offer.
“The fact that so many kinds of people were able to attend was awesome,” Vasquez, 22, said.
Yes, there are a lot of people like Vasquez and Dusheyko who want to get hired. How did Tech Jobs Tour put together a room of so many diverse people?
“You just invite them,” said Coleman, smiling mischievously.
Guys, it really is that easy.