What happens to that young black student who would like to participate in a Howard West type of program at a tech giant if they don’t attend one of the chosen HBCUs or one of the companies’ preferred top-tier feeder schools (Stanford, MIT, and Harvard)?
Because they didn’t attend the right school, they are left trying to figure out the best way to gain recognition.
Yes they could apply directly to the company, but Google’s past statistics shows how well they fare when it comes to recruiting black people, generally, in their tech divisions.
What is the solution?
I commend Google for making strides to increase diversity within its ranks; however, I often wonder if they are more passionate about the facade of change versus actual change.
For such a disruptive tech company, I find their solutions to addressing diversity to be the least disruptive, and often lazy attempts at best.
Emphasizing recruitment and making talent pipeline programs are a start, but what is Google doing systemically, internally, to change?
Recruiting at the top HBCU, even though they’d have a much larger pool of the exact candidates they are looking for at lesser-known HBCUs, is a hint that systemically the organization has not evolved.
The solution is not recruitment. What is called for is a complete evaluation and shift of Google’s internal organization and culture.
You can recruit the most diverse talent, but if they constantly feel at odds in the workplace, then the effort of inclusion is null and void.
Is a Howard West program a great step forward? Maybe. It certainly has promise. But was it necessary? I am not sure.
This same type of initiative could have been implemented through the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) which has chapters at varying colleges and universities across the nation (and internationally)— allowing many black STEM students, including those beyond the HBCU network, the opportunity to participate and learn from Google’s elite.
Oh wait, Google has implemented that program. It’s called Code For Success. Have you heard of it? Yea, me neither, and as a former member of NSBE I keep up with most things related to the organization. The program is reduced to a simple coding boot camp, which is a complete missed opportunity to truly tap a broad group of young, black talent nationwide all stemming from the same network.
As it relates to addressing the diversity problems within the company, Google has all the right pieces in place, but the strategic fabric to bring it all together is missing.
Is Howard West and the focus on recruiting at the top HBCUs the best solution to increase diversity amongst black candidates at Google or Silicon Valley in general?
This article was published with the permission of the author.
