According to a study by Edward J.W. Park, published in 1999 in Qualitative Sociology, the tech industry have always had a problem with racism where white candidates always received more favorable treatment.
If you are a person of color or identify as non-white, you will learn in this article about the sad trajectory that tech is going and potential solutions. If you felt imposter syndrome by countless rejections, this article might help you feel better. Please note that while rejections due to discrimination are real, it's not always the case and there could be many more factors that come into play such as market saturation, skills gap or simply vacancies being canceled or frozen.
If you identify as white and this topic resonates with you, you'll learn how to hold your peers accountable for discrimination and recognize stereotypes and biases. I will not shy away from using term "White" because I have strong belief that white privilege does exist and have seen it throughout the years globally.
Few years ago, there was a serious attempt for the first time ever by corporations to be more diverse and inclusive by implementing DEI programs. while these programs were far from perfect, they enabled more people of color to get a fair chance and to grow.
Last year, unfortunately, many corporations specially in the US rolled back all their DEI programs citing financial reasons without offering any meaningful alternatives.
There is a strong narrative among the majority in Western nations that people of color had been given opportunities not based on merits but based on quotas. According to study, this narrative doesn't hold merit and instead appeals to confirmation bias.
If you're a minority or person of color, and you suddenly notice that organizations have become toxic or you're being treated unfairly, you are not imagining it. Between mass layoffs, market panic and also reversal of DEI programs, what you experience is how things used to be before DEI towards minorities and people of color including women who have always struggled to get fair opportunities in tech.
The problem becomes even more pronounced the more senior you become because unless you fit their stereotype of the low skilled labor, you'll face huge resistance and lots of rejections specially in organizations where leadership have severe lack of diversity.
If you go to LinkedIn and browse through the people in leadership positions in most tech companies specially in Western countries, you'll rarely find minorities or people of color in leadership positions. I do not have unfortunately the data but based on general trends and my own observations, I concluded this as the reality.
If you are a minority or person of color, you'll always be held to much higher standards for the same role that a white applicant got in just 1 hour interview with low effort.
There is nothing wrong with you, the problem has more to do with the hiring managers and recruiters who have untreated biases; you may ask, why would they bother calling you if they perceive you as low skilled?
If you look at the call back rates, it's actually much lower compared to white applicants in the market. Those who called you, did so because they want to seem fair but without disclosing the fact that they're exercising a double standard (which is illegal in most states). This helps them reject your job application without feeling guilty. At the same time, they do this sometimes to protect themselves legally. The whole interview process for you is about building a case to reject your job application.
For me for instance, when I used to get a rejection, I used to ask for a feedback and many times, the feedback seemed to be either untrue or made up. There were genuine cases where the hiring manager had very high standards for the role but most of the feedback I received was subjective and projecting certain stereotypes that are not based on objective factors.
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What's The Solution?
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Honestly speaking, unless we see DEI coming back with more energy and more effort, I'd recommend that you seek self employment and be extra cautious and selective about companies you'd like to work with. Ideally, via networking and making connections you might meet a hiring manager or client who is like minded or with whom you have positive rapport or relationship with.
You have a better chance landing projects as a freelancer than finding an employer who will give you fair treatment without DEI.
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The Consequences Are Severe for Western Tech
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The tech industry specially in Western countries still have a long way to go to address all of those challenges to create a more fair and equitable workplace environment that is blind to skin color, nationality or biases. Western companies are expected to struggle in the long-term if those issues remain unresolved or if policy makers won't create policies that are enforced and hold people accountable for not following them or abusing them.
According to Chicago University study, talents mis-allocation have led to a cost of 16$ trillion dollars and roughly 6 million jobs loss over 20 years. Another study in 2024, concluded that homogeneous teams are 66% less likely to outperform and persistent bias exacerbates skill gap that is costing the UK economy GBP 63 billion per year; and this is even more pronounced in AI/cybersecurity fields.
Racism and discrimination not only hurts minorities and people of color but have a long-lasting negative consequences on the entire economy if left unaddressed.
Will policy makers and corporations recognize the threat of bias and create meaningful enforceable frameworks or will talents find opportunities elsewhere?
What are your thoughts?
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