Today’s tech industry is not just booming—it is booming with robust talent of diverse backgrounds. There are programming professionals from every walk of life. Tech professionals come from a wide array of cultures and ethnicities, as well as from different ages and genders. If you are looking to diversify your development and engineering teams, then there are some great recruiting avenues to explore that will help you do just that. You are sure to find that hiring people from all over the world, and across the entire background spectrum, will result in a cohesive team rich in an independent and unique thought. This, in turn, will lead to more creative ideas and a better work environment.
Code2040
One of the greatest tech diversity awareness and advocacy organizations is Code2040. This organization has a mission that is driving positive change for Black and Latinx tech professionals. Its main focus is to help 150,000 Black and Latinx programmers break into tech management roles. Black and Latinx programmers make up 15 percent of the tech industry’s workforce, but very few people serve in management positions. Code2040 is breaking the roadblocks that hinder Black and Latinx programmers from serving in management positions through their two main program initiatives—an Early Career Accelerator Program and the Code2040 Fellowship.
Code2040’s Early Career Accelerator Program (ECAP) is a mentorship program in which Black and Latinx tech professionals in the first two years of their career are paired with a more senior mentor, usually someone who is currently serving in a management position in the tech industry. With the help of their mentor and the diversity advocacy work of Code2040, these young tech professionals are primed for promotion into a management position.
The Code2040 Fellowship is a diversity program that places Black and Latinx tech students at their undergraduate and graduate levels in intensive, nine-week internships at the top tech companies in the San Francisco Bay area. If your company is headquartered in the Bay Area, this could be an excellent partnership for you to explore, as it would benefit your own company through connecting with diverse emerging tech talent, as well as the greater tech community as a whole through the inclusion of great tech potential that may otherwise go untapped.
Coding Bootcamps
Coding Bootcamps are another rising tech institution that is working to propel diversity in the tech industry by teaching coding skills to people from all walks of life. Coding bootcamps are short-term, hyper-focused programming courses that take students from no experience to industry-ready programming pros in less than a year. In fact, through online and self-paced bootcamps offered by schools like Kenzie Academy, many students graduate in just 10 to 24 weeks.
Coding bootcamps are quickly becoming the preferred method for career switchers—season industry professionals with an entire previous career behind them—to learn the necessary programming skills for their newest venture into the tech industry.
AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the fastest-growing fields in tech. Many AI professionals come from diverse backgrounds, and many have learned their programming skills by attending a coding bootcamp.
AI is the process of coding machine learning programs that enable computers, smartphones and other devices to operate in a way that mimics the thoughts, actions and behavior of humans. AI uses programming languages like R, Python, Java and C++. Aided by data science, business intelligence development, and research science pertaining to machine learning, AI professionals are helping to bridge the gap between humans and computers.
A subset of AI is Natural Language Processing (NLP). This is the process of coding the software programs that help machines learn human languages and understand them for the purpose of voice activation prompts.
Through coding bootcamps and nonprofit organizations like Code2040, you are bound to find the diverse tech talent that can foster creative productivity in your team.