Facebook made headlines in November 2018 for its alleged treatment of black employees. Among multiple other allegations, a former Facebook employee said the company had more Black Lives Matter posters than black workers, according to the Guardian.
Will McNeil pointed to that incident as an example of what can go wrong without people of color within an organization. So, McNeil, former board member of Black Tech Mecca and Black Tech Jobs’ founder and CEO, launched a Chicago-based tech recruiting platform that wants to add more black tech talent to the mix.
Since its founding, the startup has worked with tech firms like Basecamp and Sprout Social. A Sprout Social spokesperson confirmed via email that one of its business resource groups, "Black@Sprout," sponsored a Black Tech Jobs event earlier this year and the company’s recruitment partner is working with Black Tech Jobs to host an event in the Sprout Social office this year. A Basecamp spokesperson confirmed via email that it posts its openings on the Black Tech Jobs platform.
Founded in January 2018, Black Tech Jobs aims to connect black job seekers with tech positions. The company is hosting a hack-a-thon on August 7 for black women job seekers, followed by similar events in Atlanta, on the West Coast and the Midwest between now and next spring, McNeil said.
The tech industry in Chicago continues to be one of the city's fastest growing employment sectors. The city was home to more than 3,900 tech firms and those firms employed about 48,000 people in 2017, per a 2019 Black Tech Mecca report.
The startup, which has a staff of 20 recruiters plus four additional staffers, not only compiles open tech roles but also hosts events open to active and passive job seekers. The event will center on both technical and tech-adjacent jobs like legal, sales or marketing roles, he said, noting that tech-related positions could be an area where black tech job seekers could make the most gains.
The speakers for the upcoming hack-a-thon have not been announced yet, but the event will connect black tech job seekers and examine how companies make hiring decisions, as well as the impact of technology on the job search process, McNeil said.
“As a male, I wanted to be a contributor to the black women’s movement,” McNeil said. “My goal in this event is to help black women with real actionable skill sets ... and crack the code on why they’re not getting jobs, or why they’re not getting interviews and they’re not the finalists getting the job offer.”
Tech firms typically struggle with four obstacles when hiring and retaining black tech talent: Overcoming bias, lack of time, lack of money and indifference toward the need for diverse tech teams, he said.
To find companies seeking black candidates, McNeil said Black Tech Jobs reaches out to tech firms, some of which decline their services for several reasons, ranging from the company not being ready yet and the staffers within the company can’t get approval from higher-ups, to the lack of diversity commitment within the company, he said.
If black tech job applicants lack contacts within the hiring company, they don’t have as much of an edge that could land them the job, McNeil said. That’s a problem because black job seekers often apply for positions online, which is why Black Tech Jobs hosts events in addition to hosting its online recruitment platform, he said.
“If you only use technology and digital platforms as your sole source for attracting black tech talent, you’re gonna struggle,” McNeil said. “No platform is ever going to solve this problem alone.”
