Minorities in tech: A vastly under-tapped market

[Blue_Tires]

As the economy gets stronger, jobs in the tech sector continue to boom. Every month around 9,600 technology-related jobs are added. Which is why teaching technology — be it MOOCs, code camps, meetups — has become such a popular entrepreneurial endeavor over the past few years.

But not everyone has been catching the wave. Minorities and women represent a tiny fraction of the robust technology economy. The good news, I suppose, is that there are advocates and leaders out there trying to fix this. And, well, they have their work cut out for them. South by Southwest held a fascinating, albeit depressingly under-attended, panel on this issue with a few of these leaders.

To give you a sense of the inequality gap Laura Weidman Powers, co-founder and executive director of the minority engineer advocacy program CODE2040, says the average income of a computer science graduate equals the median income of one black and one latino family combined. That is, one engineer rakes in more cash than two entire families.

That’s why she views her role as so important. “There’s a deep need for technical talent,” she told the audience. “There will be a million jobs in tech unfilled by 2020.”

A great deal of what she does is to seek out universities that have top minority engineers of which most companies aren’t aware. CODE2040 has mapped out and connected with institutions it considers underserved by current recruiters. “[Tech companies] think they’e tapped the talent pool, and what we’re saying is ‘no, you have not,”" Powers said.

http://pando.com/2014/03/10/minorities-in-tech-a-vastly-under-tapped-market/

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I would agree with her

And I find it very disheartening that the young minorities (specifically African Americans) that are starting to come into my company take the safe aka Finance route/path as opposed to even trying their hand at using their advanced math skills in Network Ops /Management/Optimization.

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. I know ...

But I see what you see as a huge improvement over what I see. In my mentoring capacity, I speak with high schoolers who can do anything on a computer; but know nothing about Network Ops /Management/Optimization, as career paths. But they are high schoolers, what do they know?

But I'm also involved in a program that mentors College students, starting in their first year. I absolutely lose it when I ask "So, what's your major" and the response is, (some variation of) "Business" or "Business Management".

My response t that is, "What's that?"

I, then, tell them I have don't anything about the field; but I can teach you everything you need to know managing people in about 2 hours ... But I can't teach you how to analyze a balance sheet and P/L Statement with an eye to identifying redundant or underperforming units and I darn sure can't teach you how to write code or build a computer network based on what a non-computer person thinks they want. So tell me ... which skill do you think will get you in the employment door?"