And as usual with these articles it's always the fault of the evil universites and terrible companies while the people in question are always devoid of any responsibility of getting the right education, having initiative and obtaining the right skills needed for the job.
Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
71–80 of 110 posts
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#72I 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?
If you look at my picture on Linkedin, you would be able to guess my race. Heck, if you looked at my profile on Github which I actively link to, you would instantly know my race.
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
> when really we as a national don't honestly want to see marginalized groups succeed This sounds like a very big statement and probably something that can be a long post in itself. Would you be able to expound on that?
There's a popular theory among the American left that classical liberalism (free speech, freedom of association, "equality of opportunity", etc) is actually an oppressive social structure devised by powerful white men to keep the poor and disenfranchised (minorities and women) from rising through the economic ranks. In the estimation of the American left, the "hands-off" approach of right-wing American politics is ac…
> so I am hated every time I talk about politics.
For what it's worth, I think the U.S. (and the world) could use more centrists!
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#74I'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…
> 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? This is talked about endlessly. Its a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Merely encouraging is not good enough when people don't have role models who are from the same background as you. Never seeing any black engineers cannot be replaced by 'encou…
There was a time when there were no people of Italian descent in positions of success in America. How is it that largely impoverished Italian migrants where able to achieve parity in American society on a level with other groups?
What about people of Asian descent? How have they been able to succeed when at one point in American history they were scorned and shunned?
It's all about culture.
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#75I'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…
Cynically Maxine Waters seemed to be engaged in sociopathic manipulation tactics instead of actually trying to solve anything. It looks like a shakedown. Either they give contributions to shut her up or she gets to try to score points by beating on a boogeyman.
Last I heard the AAAs in the tech were leading the pack in minority hiring of all stripes by sector. If it was mostly company culture to blame one would expect most black workers to be concentrated in small businesses or self owned and operated. Not saying that is a solution for discrimination by any means; self starting isn't easy especially when lacking opportunities but that it is a hint as probably pipeline sourced.
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#76In Poland where I happen to live there are almost no black people at all, I'd guesstimate it's much less than 0,1% of the whole population but we have similar problem with women in tech.
There is only one solution in my opinion - ignore the problem at all, because there is no "problem".
If you're a good candidate no one here will question your beliefs, skin colour or sex.
Focusing on the issue on the other hand creates bunch of other, in my opinion more serious threats - I've been recruiting for a medium* Polish startup a few years ago and one day our CEO decided there is not enough "diversity" so HRs started recruiting women left and right.
Long story short, for 8 out of 10 positions we'd have two or three resumes from very strong male candidates and tens of resumes from much less experienced females. Within 3 years we hired so many women the men became the minority, about 6 months after that the place went bankrupt and everyone ended up jobless.
*medium in this world means up to 40 folks
TL;DR every sane company hires the best workforce they could afford. If there are not enough people of colour it's usually problem with these people, not the employer.
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
"lower their standards to hire more black workers." do you hear yourself? You have linked color with standard. Companies hire based on skill, experience and culture fit.
Let’s assume (correctly imo) that every subgroup (race, gender, origin, sexuality, etc.) is equally skilled. If you apply a technical standard equally, you end up with a market distribution of hires. Companies are being leaned on to over represent certain groups relative to their market distribution. That’s not possible industry wide unless you lower your technical standards for that subgroup.
Industry wide, you are right but top companies do not have to lower their standards, just invest more in finding qualified candidates. You will end up with an industry where the top players have diverse campuses, and small shops are made up of whichever ethnic group is locally available.
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> when really we as a national don't honestly want to see marginalized groups succeed How does that explain the success of Asian Americans?
I think that depends on how you measure success. Strictly in business terms, sure they have more success than other groups, but I don't think (assuming here, no facts) they have over taken White people as the predominant group in leadership roles, high paying positions, or otherwise 'stakeholders'. If that's not true, feel free to correct.
On average they do better than whites financially. So basically on average their quality of life is better.
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
"lower their standards to hire more black workers." do you hear yourself? You have linked color with standard. Companies hire based on skill, experience and culture fit.
Let’s assume (correctly imo) that every subgroup (race, gender, origin, sexuality, etc.) is equally skilled. If you apply a technical standard equally, you end up with a market distribution of hires. Companies are being leaned on to over represent certain groups relative to their market distribution. That’s not possible industry wide unless you lower your technical standards for that subgroup.
First of all, in the technical field you can not lower standards by much. A person either has a degree or necessary experience or they don't. The fact that they are underrepresented is because the talent isn't there.
Now, OP's statement, no matter how much justified it is logically is propagating a nasty stigma associated with black workers -- that they are here to meet a quota or are less intelligent and experienced.
Re: Tech Companies Still Aren’t Hiring Black Workers
#80If tech companies hire globally, shouldn't their racial demographics mirror the world demographic stats?
In my 15+ years of experience in SV, majority of my colleagues were from Asia, which accounts for 60% of world population. Rest were evenly divided between Europe and North America, and some very tiny fraction coming from Africa and South America. In that case, isn't it expected that blacks[1] would account for 1-3% of workforce, since USA itself accounted for 10-15% of the workforce? If Democrats are open to immigration, then a consequence of that is going to be an under representation of blacks and Latinos.
[1] black is hard to define in many places. Eg. Who is "black" in Asia?