In August, Snapchat released an inarguably racist "anime" filter, a buck-toothed image that looked not at all like anime and very much like cartoon yellowface caricatures from the early 20th century.And in July, Facebook released their annual report on employee diversity. The numbers were abysmal. Facebook is hardly alone in reporting numbers like these and does not deserve to be uniquely castigated for this failure. They just provide a recent, and big, example of a continuing problem.
These two issues are not unconnected. That neither Snapchat's release of an offensive filter or Facebook's lack of diversity are all that surprising is because they're simply what's expected at this point. Despite industry-wide rhetoric about changing the world, tech has an abysmal record when it comes to hiring diverse workforces, particularly in leadership roles (where someone might notice and stop development of, say, a racist photo filter), performing no better than the industries they seek to disrupt.
Can this be fixed? Or are these problems, which you may not notice if you're white, male, and from even a mildly privileged background, simply going to stretch on into forever?
"I think we've made huge progress in talking about the problem," says Susan Mernit. "And naming the problem is the first step towards addressing it."
Facing a Long-Standing Problem
Mernit is CEO and co-founder of Hack the Hood, a non-profit that, in their own words, "introduces low-income youth of color to careers in tech by hiring them to build websites for real small businesses in their own communities." Starting off with a small grant from Google Ventures, Hack the Hood went on to a $500,000 win in the 2014 Google Impact Challenge, and over three years has grown from a single six-week boot camp in Oakland to a year-round program with a presence in seven Bay Area and Northern California cities.
Mernit doesn't approach this issue as an outsider. She has been in tech since the 90s, working as VP of Product Development for Netscape/AOL and Senior Director of Product for Yahoo Personals (back when Yahoo was still a thing) among several other roles across the industry. And though it's a non-profit, Hack the Hood is the fifth startup she's launched.
"The tribal nature of the industry, the networks, the hiring of friends, that hasn't really changed because everyone is hungry for top talent," she says, comparing the present moment to the industry's earlier days. "There's pressure to hire the best people, who are going to ship and show a return. Tech is for profit. That's not going away. People can't slow down and change to fit their values all the time. And that's a real problem."
But she adds, "A problem that's a lot less real is that people in tech can have giant judgments when it comes to hiring what one recruiter called 'non-traditional' candidates."
In an industry long dominated by men, usually white men, "non-traditional" quite simply means women, people of color, and older people. If you're a "traditional" CEO running a startup, how can you break the hiring cycle that created tech's monoculture? Here are five ways to be the change:
Mernit doesn't approach this issue as an outsider. She has been in tech since the 90s, working as VP of Product Development for Netscape/AOL and Senior Director of Product for Yahoo Personals (back when Yahoo was still a thing) among several other roles across the industry. And though it's a non-profit, Hack the Hood is the fifth startup she's launched.
"The tribal nature of the industry, the networks, the hiring of friends, that hasn't really changed because everyone is hungry for top talent," she says, comparing the present moment to the industry's earlier days. "There's pressure to hire the best people, who are going to ship and show a return. Tech is for profit. That's not going away. People can't slow down and change to fit their values all the time. And that's a real problem."
But she adds, "A problem that's a lot less real is that people in tech can have giant judgments when it comes to hiring what one recruiter called 'non-traditional' candidates."
In an industry long dominated by men, usually white men, "non-traditional" quite simply means women, people of color, and older people. If you're a "traditional" CEO running a startup, how can you break the hiring cycle that created tech's monoculture? Here are five ways to be the change:
1. Start Caring Early
If you're just getting started and have only a couple of employees, diversifying your workforce may feel like something to put off until you're established. Not so.
"If you care, it's great to care early on," says Mernit. "Starting with a diverse team from the beginning is much easier than bringing people in later, who may then feel like isolated, token hires."
Building a diverse team right from the start shows future employees and interviewees that your company is one that will value their contributions. You're not simply hiring them for the sake of checking a diversity box.
"If you care, it's great to care early on," says Mernit. "Starting with a diverse team from the beginning is much easier than bringing people in later, who may then feel like isolated, token hires."
Building a diverse team right from the start shows future employees and interviewees that your company is one that will value their contributions. You're not simply hiring them for the sake of checking a diversity box.
2. Recruit Outside Your Network
To make diversity happen, it'll likely be necessary to look for employees outside your own circle. As Mernit says, "You have to make a pledge to interview a certain number of people outside of your network, people who fit those 'non-traditional' criteria."
When you're putting all your time into building a business, investing tons of energy into acting like a hiring manager is probably not an exciting prospect. But it can really be as simple as putting roots down in your community.
“How can you be a good local neighbor to your neighborhood and your city in ways that really go beyond having a beer blast once a year or tutoring poor children?" Mernit asks. "Reach out to local universities and community colleges that have computer science departments. See what kind of talent they have and what kind of pipeline you can build. And don't only contact the top schools. All schools have top candidates."
Women and people of color graduate with technical degrees at over twice the rate they're employed in the industry. Plus, engineering is not the only department you'll be hiring for. Establish relationships with local schools and you'll find people who likely would never have known how to find you.
When you're putting all your time into building a business, investing tons of energy into acting like a hiring manager is probably not an exciting prospect. But it can really be as simple as putting roots down in your community.
“How can you be a good local neighbor to your neighborhood and your city in ways that really go beyond having a beer blast once a year or tutoring poor children?" Mernit asks. "Reach out to local universities and community colleges that have computer science departments. See what kind of talent they have and what kind of pipeline you can build. And don't only contact the top schools. All schools have top candidates."
Women and people of color graduate with technical degrees at over twice the rate they're employed in the industry. Plus, engineering is not the only department you'll be hiring for. Establish relationships with local schools and you'll find people who likely would never have known how to find you.
3. Tweak Your Technical Interview
Culture fit can also be about how you discuss technology. "The technical interview is a giant issue," says Mernit. "So many people who aren't traditional candidates will do very well up until the technical whiteboard interview. The irony is that they might bomb and then they'll go on to some other company and do great. So it's not that those people aren't qualified, it's that the interview succeeded in screening them out."
This is hardly controversial. A potential employee's encyclopedic knowledge of terminology or ability to write code out with a magic marker isn't directly connected to their abilities as an engineer. In fact, companies that have moved away from tech interviews have reaped benefits from doing so.
This is hardly controversial. A potential employee's encyclopedic knowledge of terminology or ability to write code out with a magic marker isn't directly connected to their abilities as an engineer. In fact, companies that have moved away from tech interviews have reaped benefits from doing so.
4. Make Workforce Diversity a Serious Goal
If a product was buggy and causing complaints, it's unlikely you'd just put on your serious face and say "we need to do better" while slowly spending years trying to fix it. What you'd do is throw time and resources into making sure it didn't bog your company down for years to come.
But before you scale your efforts, you must make sure you're ready to do so. Just as you must plan, for example, to have enough servers and bandwidth to handle anticipated increased traffic, you also need to work out first how you'll build a diverse workforce before you start adding more people. Otherwise your team won't scale its diversity in the way you need and you'll be just another tech company dealing with the same issues.
Mernit understands that slowing down expansion isn't easy. "I've spent a lot of time in my career getting people to say yes. With Hack the Hood the need for a program like this, to work with the young people of color we serve, is so acute that I actually had to learn how to say no, which was a shocking adjustment for my style. We could have a hundred Hack the Hood partners, but we couldn't do a good job and have real impact if we expanded that fast."
But before you scale your efforts, you must make sure you're ready to do so. Just as you must plan, for example, to have enough servers and bandwidth to handle anticipated increased traffic, you also need to work out first how you'll build a diverse workforce before you start adding more people. Otherwise your team won't scale its diversity in the way you need and you'll be just another tech company dealing with the same issues.
Mernit understands that slowing down expansion isn't easy. "I've spent a lot of time in my career getting people to say yes. With Hack the Hood the need for a program like this, to work with the young people of color we serve, is so acute that I actually had to learn how to say no, which was a shocking adjustment for my style. We could have a hundred Hack the Hood partners, but we couldn't do a good job and have real impact if we expanded that fast."
5. Seek Partners
Organizations like Code 2040 work with companies to improve their hiring practices and diversify their workforces. The Recurse Center trains junior engineers and helps tech companies recruit them. Women Who Code has a job board. The Last Mile trains "traditional" and "non-traditional" candidates alike as programmers so they can build a successful life for themselves after prison. And there are many other groups you can partner with who are dedicated to ensuring everyone has equal opportunity to succeed in the industry.
Studies show that companies with greater diversity perform better than their rivals, so you're doing more than creating a better culture when you focus on building a team with a wider range of backgrounds. You're also increasing the chances you and your team will succeed. Any startup would be foolish not do that.
Studies show that companies with greater diversity perform better than their rivals, so you're doing more than creating a better culture when you focus on building a team with a wider range of backgrounds. You're also increasing the chances you and your team will succeed. Any startup would be foolish not do that.
