Yes and no. I work in tech. I am not an engineer. There are plenty of jobs in tech for liberal arts majors and whatever general stuff there is. Yet few of these jobs are filed by black people (and other people of color). Why? Tech is cliquey. Let me sum it up for you, and how institutionalized it is.
Think of your favorite recent startup now powerhouse tech company (you can use Google or Facebook.).
The average "unicorn" startup is founded by a few friends, engineers, who met in college. Maybe they are still in college. Or maybe they are recent grads. They have time, and some family resources to help then seed their idea. They can afford to work on this side project, because they aren't super concerned with money right now. Family support or otherwise.
They go and look for some funding, the VCs like 20-something white guys who went to a good college. They get some money because they match the pattern.
Now they need to hire their firrst few engineers. They call their friends, roommates, maybe former coworkers if they are older. As we know, most people are friends with people like them.
Now fast forward, the company is getting more successful, they need new employees. At this stage everyone is working late and spending a lot of time together. They need people who will fit in. They ask all of the employees to refer their friends. The next wave of hires look pretty similar to the first batch. They are all friends.
Now they need more people. The friend circle is tapped. So they go back to their alma mater, because they have connections. Our startup wants to be super successful, so they only recruit from the "top tier schools," and they have an intensive interview process. Keep in mind the schools that graduate the most Black and Latino engineers are not UC Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford and MIT (Also Wisconsin). But this is the list that gets recruited from. If you are in the Bay Area, you might stop by San Jose State.
So you come in for the interview. And maybe you even know about the
whiteboard interview. You are all prepped. You went to Stanford, you kinda match the pattern. And then there is the cultural fit. Which is code word for "do I want to hang our with you at happy hour and on the weekends."
Now let's remind ourselves that most people hang out with people who are like them. And these engineers are a little more likely to be socially awkward than other professions. So the odds are good you won't pass the cultural fit interview. You need to like skiing (maybe snowboarding), craft beer (or perhaps craft spirits). Or rock climbing. Don't forget about that. And maybe bicycling. And "indie" music. Here is another point of exit.
Now the average "unicorn" startup doesn't even think about having HR until they hit 50 people. And these first 50 got all of the good equity. And the HR is pretty understaffed, the company is growing fast. They are still relying on internal referrals, now you get a cash bonus if your friend gets hired. They keep going to the same old job fairs.
So a few years ago I worked on a project to get tech companies to recruit at HBCUs. Here are some of the rejections we heard:
1. No budget to travel for recruiting so we only recruit locally (Stanford, UC Berkeley and San Jose State)
2. I don't know anyone from those schools, how will I know if they are good engineers. I'd rather recruit from places with guaranteed quality.
Now let's pretend said tech company is at the next phase. They need experienced people. And the people with the right experience come from other tech companies that have already passed that stage. So suddenly, for my startup, I only want people who have come from the big name companies (Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, whatever). And keep in mind all of them grew up the same way: picking pools of candidates from their friends, roommates and former coworkers who look like them.
And that is why tech isn't diverse.
Now let's pretend you somehow got around all of that and made it in the door. You were the only person who looks like you. And suddenly you are either the token <insert identity here> or you are supposed to speak for your group all the time. You don't feel very included. And you leave. Opt out and find another industry.
Here are a few more stories:
Twitter engineer resigns due to lack of diversity
Non tech, but stories of black c-level executives
CNN features on being Balck in tech (tons of good stuff in here)
Missing Black women led startups (good study about black female entrepreneurship)
In a nutshell:
1. insular networks
2. retention once you get in the door
a. feeling isolated
b. have to represent for all people of your group
c. diversity, inclusion, retention are not prioritized
d. without full participation in the "clique" it is hard to get ahead
Personally, I am not doing badly in my career, but not being in the "clique" has hurt my opportunities for advancement. My network was not big enough at all. And tech companies use the same recruiting techniques to recruit non-engineers as well. They still come in via the personal networks. But what is different in the the idea of "who you know" in tech, there is an added layer of "can we be BFFS because we will be working long hours, hanging out after work, and basically spending all of our time together." Makes it a lot harder to get in the door.
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