Tech Talk

16 Nov A blueprint for solving technology’s diversity problem

I was 19 years old when I met the mentor who gave me my big break in tech. At the time, I had a few years of IT experience on my resume – which I’ll cover more later – but they weren’t nearly as critical to my ultimate career path as a serendipitous meeting with an executive. She read my applicant questionnaire and no doubt saw lots of “wrong” answers, but she also spotted something – analytical thinking and hands-on experience – that she felt was worth nurturing.

13 Nov On a Scale of 1 to 10, Silicon Valley’s Lack of Racial Diversity Is a 7

According to a recent survey of elite U.S. and Canadian universities, black people earned 4.1 percent of all computer-science bachelor’s degrees in the last few years. Yet blacks only make up about two percent of recent hires at tech firms.

11 Nov Hacking The Pipeline: How Black Colleges Are Taking Tech’s Diversity Issue Into Their Own Hands

Leslie Tita’s tone grows oddly anxious as he curls into the back of a Lyft, and speeds away from Howard University. Tita is a successful entrepreneur who owns a co-working space for entrepreneurs from Africa. He’s strikingly tall and sturdily built, with long fine dreadlocks and an infectious grin, and doesn’t seem the type to be worried about anything. But ask him about the “pipeline problem” in tech — the notion that tech companies don’t hire enough people of color because there is not enough available talent — and you’ll see his brow furrow.