A variety of companies recently announced that they joined the tech hiring company Karat in support of increasing opportunities for Black software engineers.
Announced in a press release, Uber, Unity, Zillow, DocuSign, Electronic Arts, Snap and Unity have all joined in on Karat’s “Brilliant Black Minds” program. Through the program, the hiring company is dedicated to providing mentorship and networking opportunities to Black software engineers who want to enter the tech field.
“Brilliant Black Minds” also prepares the participants with job interviews by offering practice interviews as well as ways to improve.
With the latest announcement, the companies join previous partners such as Duolingo, Citi and Flatiron Health.
Previously, in 2022, tennis legend Serena Williams also invested in the company through funding to improve and add to the program. With the partnership, the aim of the program is to get more than 100,000 Black software engineers into the tech field within a decade.
According to Karat, the “Brilliant Black Minds” program has already expanded exponentially, marking a 150% growth from 2022. Currently, more than 6,500 Black software engineers, or about seven percent of all Black software engineers in the U.S., are part of the program.
“We’re focused on shifting the conversations about diversity in tech from activity to impact,” said the VP of Brilliant Black Minds, Crystal Moore, per a statement.“Brilliant Black Minds is about ensuring candidates are equally prepared, starting at the job application, recruiter screen, and interview levels, so they truly have an equal opportunity to succeed. We’re seeing the impact with every new member who joins our community, every new partner who signs on and ultimately, every Black engineer who lands a job in the world of tech.”
As of now, the software engineer aspect of the tech industry has the least diversity and representation.
Per a research report by Zippia, only approximately five percent of all software engineers currently working in the tech field in the U.S. are Black Americans. The percentage reflects a small downward trend as Black Americans made up six percent of all software engineers in 2010.
For those that are in the field already, Black Americans have the least payout of every demographic in the tech workforce, signaling a wage gap. While white software engineers received an annual pay of $123,111, Black software engineers received a lower pay for the same work, earning $117, 954 each year.
“The current approach is to source talent from the same talent pool over and over again, which reinforces the industry’s lack of diversity and makes it harder to find technical talent,” said the co-founder of Karat, Mohit Bhende, per a statement. “The Brilliant Black Minds program helps solve this major business challenge by giving organizations access to a deeper, interview-ready talent pool. More engineers ultimately unlocks more engineering time, driving diverse and powerful innovations.”
