Porter Braswell, CEO of Jopwell here. Really excited to be connecting minorities with job opportunities in tech and other industries. Lots of work to be done but our team is eager to help make the workforce a bit more colorful! Happy to be a part of this discussion.
What would you recommend for companies interested in doing better here?
If there is institutional bias (and I think there is, if not overt), then under represented people on average will have less experience. I've been thinking companies focusing more on training and development could help offset this issue. My startup is really small and lacks resources to develop something comprehensive here. Any thoughts or recommendations?
edit: let me give an example. I'm using Hired.com for recruiting. I've noticed some people have a coding bootcamp + internship vs others that have CS degrees and more experience. The latter will be better prepared to take on the challenges as a software engineer at most startups. I haven't done a comprehensive study, but it seems like there are more women in the former.
> The latter will be better prepared to take on the challenges as a software engineer at most startups.
Are you sure? As a non-CS degree holding senior engineer who constantly has to tell recent grads very basic things that I taught myself in high school, I think this is the biggest and most problematic institutional bias.
It's essentially cutting people out of the industry at like 14 years old - an age at which it was explained to me that I wouldn't be able to afford college and would otherwise not get in without nearly perfect grades in classes that didn't stimulate me at all.
As I framed it, the former has less experience, not just no CS degree. I agree that experience means more than a degree. As someone at Dropbox (full of MIT alums) once told me: "just because you graduated from MIT doesn't mean you're good"
I was surprised at how good it sounds. These things are usually handled so very badly. But I am curious why women were not included in this effort as an underrepresented group in tech. Are there plans to do so at some point? Or is the intent to only address racial issues?
Great questions! While there are certainly other underrepresented groups - including women, the LGBTQ community, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and other racial groups - we set out to be "everything for someone" rather than risk being "something for everyone." We hope that Jopwell's success with our initial target demographic allows us to expand the range of individuals whose lives we impact.
As an added note, Jopwell doesn't just serve the tech community. We are focused on connecting individuals with opportunities in a wide range of industries, including tech, healthcare, consulting, finance, and not-for-profits.
This is not an answer to your question, nor is this site the same as Jopwell, but it may still be interesting if you haven't seen it before: https://fairygodboss.com/
It's basically a company review site for women. While this won't help women get matched with a new role, it may help them avoid toxic work environments, or target positive ones.
