Just watched 📳 this https://www.twitch.tv/videos/639188945.
It's 🔊 right now and the speakers are discussing black people in tech'.
Gain an insight like me 🧘.
How do you feel about diverse tech teams?
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Top comments (9)
I feel that any group which fails to fill the offices in the tech environment need support, warmth and understanding in order to improve.
When I built up a production team many years ago I found that the more diverse the group of developers that could be in the team, the better chance of success we had, and the greater level of bonding there would be between those team members.
Members of the team excelled and the others were quick to follow. They all did well.
When I look back at it now, there was no 50-50 split. No minorities, no groups... Just a development team of people who showed empathy and respect to each other.
One of the difficulties in trying to diversify is that in my company's case, for example, we very seldom get (say) a black coder even applying for an internship. The unfortunate result of this is that our team tends to still be largely white male, but only because they also represent the largest portion of applicants! (P.S. We're in the unique position to not have to do competitive hiring for the internship, so bringing on one person doesn't actually close the door on another. At worst, they have to wait for the next hiring round if the current cohort is full, and that's just a byproduct of "first past the post".)
However, our actual hires are representative of the population that applies, so there's no bias that I know of...I only somewhat notice race, gender, or what have you when hiring, and simply don't factor it into my decisions. I look for strong character and a willingness to learn more than anything, and that has an equal chance of coming from anywhere!
In terms of black applicants specifically, I only recall four in our six-year span. I interviewed three (one never contacted back to schedule an interview), hired two, and one of them washed out of the year-long program. That's average for us overall: half of ALL candidates qualify for an interview (or bother to show up), half those interviewed get spots in the internship, and half those hired make it through the program.
Right now, though, I'm trying to find new ways to reach developers in "minority" groups to let them know about the program, to hopefully increase the diversity of the candidate pool! I really appreciate diversity, but it's surprisingly hard to build in this industry.
I can understand that. In my hiring days some candidates that would fill the group with diversity simply didn't apply when the roll was advertised.
What you could do is advertise your opportunities here on dev.to 📢.
I already do! ;)
Did you get many responses. Well that's a silly question. Did you check the target audience on the post settings?
Employed Listings, as is the typical convention for job posts here on DEV, so there's no way to "target" anyone. Anyway, yes, I did get a number of responses.
Well that's a start. What's the company called? Maybe you could write an article about it.
Already did an AMA previously, and I'm doing a series on one of our projects. I hesitate to leverage DEV posts for marketing; as a tag moderator, I'm usually the guy referring things back over TO listings! ;)
Anyway, it's MousePaw Media. I already have plans worked out for this autumn's hiring, though, so no worries.
Oh ok. That's good to know.