Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#31

Post by empath75 » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

weiming wrote: post #4

I'm not originally from America, so I seem to be missing something in articles like this. Why does no one talk about the "pipeline problem," that is, encouraging many more people from "minority" groups (black, women, and so on) to pursue coding from young age? (Edit: or encouraging these groups to enter the field at any age, such as through the community college system/Coursera/etc.) It seems like examining the end o…

My experience is that most tech companies are falling all over themselves to hire minorities of all kind and the problem is more with high schools steering black students away from stem and just generally segregating black students in general.

I don’t know how much has changed but when I went to a high school that was at least 30% black and I had 1(!) black student in any of my classes in 4 years. Honors and so-called ‘gifted’ programs have often been used as a way to resegregate supposedly integrated schools.

That kind of bullshit has repercussions for generations. You can’t just say ‘oh my bad’ and expect things to turn around on a dime.

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#32

Post by Talyen42 » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

spoiledtechie wrote: post #18

Talyen42 wrote: post #12

I hired about 10 junior dev/qa/pm positions over 3 years as a manager in a SaaS tech company of 50-100. We posted on every job site and received 1,000+ resumes which I reviewed, in a city with ~30% african american population. Maybe 3 out of 1,000+ resumes were submitted by african americans, and none met most basic requirements for the position (either a relevant degree, or at least 1 year of related experience, or…

You could have offered apprenticeships to the black population.

I'm not a teacher, and i'm not running a university, and I have a budget with requirements i've been hired to deliver for clients. How is this even a possibility for me to pursue? I'm not socrates.

I set the job requirements to the absolute minimum of having any relevant anything, including interest, of which there was zero.

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#33

Post by JoeAltmaier » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #23

spoiledtechie wrote: post #7

Im gonna be the antagonist here and say, black people still aren't getting the degrees required for such work. Now, ONLY if these tech companies would drop their requirements for university and college, they might see more applicants. Tech companies should sponsor universities or even create their own. I can see some of the major companies saying "hey, we have this university, which you can attend for FREE only if yo…

> Tech companies should sponsor universities or even create their own. I can see some of the major companies saying "hey, we have this university, which you can attend for FREE only if you work for us for 6 years." Sign up? Who do you think would the tech companies recruit for these positions? I think you just described a large scholarship with strings attached. I don't think a company would be willing to foot the bi…

Such programs exist already. The SMART program for instance, which links college scholarship to a job. Companies do it all the time.

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#34

Post by sb8244 » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

I try to avoid conversations like this rather than engage directly because I'm likely to question results until things are more proven. However, I'm seeing things like this more often and want to become more informed.

When looking at the percentage population of Americans with bachelor's degree (general req for software company), should we see a reflection of that pool in tech companies? I found some census information which shows that the pool of black or African American workers might only be about 5% compared to white. Should the industry reflect this or do we somehow expect to have an unnaturally high diversity?

Someone else pointed out here, but putting the chart at 100% makes me feel like this is a piece for views and not information. It doesn't make sense when showing relative improvement.

https://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acsbr10-19.pdf

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#35

Post by JoeAltmaier » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

nutdip wrote: post #19

spoiledtechie wrote: post #7

Im gonna be the antagonist here and say, black people still aren't getting the degrees required for such work. Now, ONLY if these tech companies would drop their requirements for university and college, they might see more applicants. Tech companies should sponsor universities or even create their own. I can see some of the major companies saying "hey, we have this university, which you can attend for FREE only if yo…

My manager once told me that when a position is open, majority of applicants are either Chinese or Indians.

Heatmap? There are more of them.

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#36

Post by sumeno » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

Talyen42 wrote: post #12

I hired about 10 junior dev/qa/pm positions over 3 years as a manager in a SaaS tech company of 50-100. We posted on every job site and received 1,000+ resumes which I reviewed, in a city with ~30% african american population. Maybe 3 out of 1,000+ resumes were submitted by african americans, and none met most basic requirements for the position (either a relevant degree, or at least 1 year of related experience, or…

How do you know whether someone was African American based on their resume?

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#37

Post by spoiledtechie » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #27

spoiledtechie wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could have offered apprenticeships to the black population.

Not his job to do so. His job is to fill a position, not create a new one and fill it. Also, the applicants knew they were unqualified and didn't ask for an apprenticeship.

Um, he can offer input. He is the manager of hiring. Open your eyes and stop thinking "I was just doing my job". Get outside the box...

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#38

Post by spoiledtechie » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:33 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #33

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tech companies should sponsor universities or even create their own. I can see some of the major companies saying "hey, we have this university, which you can attend for FREE only if you work for us for 6 years." Sign up? Who do you think would the tech companies recruit for these positions? I think you just described a large scholarship with strings attached. I don't think a company would be willing to foot the bi…

Such programs exist already. The SMART program for instance, which links college scholarship to a job. Companies do it all the time.

They do it for black kids? Do they go into the inner cities and ask around?

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#39

Post by dep_b » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:33 PM UTC

weiming wrote: post #4

I'm not originally from America, so I seem to be missing something in articles like this. Why does no one talk about the "pipeline problem," that is, encouraging many more people from "minority" groups (black, women, and so on) to pursue coding from young age? (Edit: or encouraging these groups to enter the field at any age, such as through the community college system/Coursera/etc.) It seems like examining the end o…

> It seems like examining the end of the funnel (and placing blame squarely on tech companies) is all too easy, and is much easier than addressing a root cause (not enough people of these groups studying CS to begin with.)

If you wouldn't blame companies then the problem wouldn't be fixable by the market. Which would go against the religion that true capitalism solves all problems.

Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers

#40

Post by BitterAmethyst » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 1:34 PM UTC

weiming wrote: post #4

I'm not originally from America, so I seem to be missing something in articles like this. Why does no one talk about the "pipeline problem," that is, encouraging many more people from "minority" groups (black, women, and so on) to pursue coding from young age? (Edit: or encouraging these groups to enter the field at any age, such as through the community college system/Coursera/etc.) It seems like examining the end o…

The meme that you need to start programming from a young age to be successful is dangerous and needs to die.