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Diversity is a touchy subject. As a black engineer myself I've worked at three companies where I've been the only black technical worker and it's hard some time

Diversity is a touchy subject. As a black engineer myself I've worked at three companies where I've been the only black technical worker and it's hard some times. I've gone to conferences where I've been maybe 1 of 5 or 6 engineers out of hundreds. i don't do any hiring but I often wonder if there is a lack of qualified black male or female engineers or what but sometimes I do feel isolated.

atdt 11y ago
You may like "The darker side of tech", a talk Bryan Liles gave at Velocity 2015 in New York: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ5wYZqHQGo> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ5wYZqHQGo>.
hablahaha 11y ago
Also, this is a great perspective from Twitter's only black engineer in a leadership position: https://gimletmedia.com/episode/52-raising-the-bar https://gimletmedia.com/episode/52-raising-the-bar
humanrebar 11y ago
> ...I often wonder if there is a lack of qualified black male or female engineers or what but sometimes I do feel isolated. FWIW, my anecdata shows that less than 1 out of 20 technical interviews I do are with black applicants. I do wonder why that is.
noelsusman 11y ago
You'll see pretty much the same numbers at top American engineering universities. Most of the race/gender disparities we see in tech companies are a direct result of the same disparities seen in tech universities. The problem starts before freshman year of college.
- xtracto 11y ago
  In the case of black, latinos (I am one of them myself) and other minorities I think it is partly a matter of numbers. Black people account for around 13% of the population in the USA. So in theory, a "natural" number would be to have around 13 black students for every 100 at every university. If it is less, then it may be due to either a) Lack of opportunities or b) Lack of desire enroll in specific subjects. Here in Mexico face a similar issue with the lack of Women in technical careers (programming in my experience). The fact is that for some reason less women enroll in Soft. Eng. or Comp. Sci. courses... And from the few that enroll, several get out after the first or second "filter subjects" (Data Structures, Programming I, algorithms). Given that there are more females (61 million) than males (58 million), in theory there should be roughly the same number of both in schools.

atdt 11y ago

You may like "The darker side of tech", a talk Bryan Liles gave at Velocity 2015 in New York: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ5wYZqHQGo> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ5wYZqHQGo>.

hablahaha 11y ago

Also, this is a great perspective from Twitter's only black engineer in a leadership position: https://gimletmedia.com/episode/52-raising-the-bar https://gimletmedia.com/episode/52-raising-the-bar

humanrebar 11y ago

> ...I often wonder if there is a lack of qualified black male or female engineers or what but sometimes I do feel isolated. FWIW, my anecdata shows that less than 1 out of 20 technical interviews I do are with black applicants. I do wonder why that is.

noelsusman 11y ago

You'll see pretty much the same numbers at top American engineering universities. Most of the race/gender disparities we see in tech companies are a direct result of the same disparities seen in tech universities. The problem starts before freshman year of college.

xtracto 11y ago
In the case of black, latinos (I am one of them myself) and other minorities I think it is partly a matter of numbers. Black people account for around 13% of the population in the USA. So in theory, a "natural" number would be to have around 13 black students for every 100 at every university. If it is less, then it may be due to either a) Lack of opportunities or b) Lack of desire enroll in specific subjects. Here in Mexico face a similar issue with the lack of Women in technical careers (programming in my experience). The fact is that for some reason less women enroll in Soft. Eng. or Comp. Sci. courses... And from the few that enroll, several get out after the first or second "filter subjects" (Data Structures, Programming I, algorithms). Given that there are more females (61 million) than males (58 million), in theory there should be roughly the same number of both in schools.