Comments on: Surprise! Silicon Valley Doesn’t Employ Minorities

By: LacWill

LacWill — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:17:51 +0000

First and Foremost, African-Americans need to have a sense of purpose as a result of being connected to God! With God, all things are possible!!

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:43:20 +0000

30 to 40 percent of Silicon Valley workers are from China or India.
They are minorities so that makes the statement that Silicon Valley
does not hire minorities false.

By: omgracism

omgracism — Fri, 28 May 2010 03:41:23 +0000

Weird how homogenous Japan is just that innovative…

By: Rickyeng

Rickyeng — Mon, 10 May 2010 07:40:30 +0000

Silicon Valley Doesn’t Employ Minorities? Asians are a Minority. I am a minority “Filipino American”. I have worked in Silicon Valley for 30+ years. From start ups to mid to large tech companies. There are many Asians in Silicon Valley. Many of the tech positions require specific areas of education or equivalent experience. It has been my experience that opportunities are there if a person has a positive attitude, is willing to learn and work hard. I have held positions as Designer, Manager / Director for many years.

By: A crisis of linkspam proportions (5th March, 2010) | Geek Feminism Blog

A crisis of linkspam proportions (5th March, 2010) | Geek Feminism Blog — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:23:07 +0000

[...] 2.0 has more more commentary on Silicon Valley not hiring [...]

By: mikeydigital

mikeydigital — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:36:50 +0000

Here is the audio I promised: http://bit.ly/8Z3udE

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:20:49 +0000

In my experience of having lived in the Silicon Valley, worked there and interviewed job candidates there, I can only re-iterate that it is a meritocracy. We look at CVs and the accomplishments, irrespective of the name or origin of people. Then we possibly invite the candidates in for interviews. Having lived there for seven years and having interviewed many, many candidates, I can count on one hand the number of black ones that we saw. If they would have sent in their CVs we would have considered them just like everyone else. But there were hardly any CVs forthcoming from black candidates, or at least, good enough CVs to make it to the next round of interviews. We were desperately trying to find good people and we absolutely would not have discriminated against anyone.

I also took courses at university (for a Masters in Computer Engineering). Do you know how many black students I saw during my time there? None! Not a single one in any of my classes. At the same time, those classes were FULL of Indians and Chinese students.

No surprise then that for any open job there was always a large percentage of Asian candidates and also eastern Europeans. Many times I found that white Americans were a minority. Definitely less represented as in the general population. Does this mean that we should start affirmative action for white people, because they were relatively underrepresented? I don't think so.

In general, I think in a field such as this (technology, engineering, invention) where success depends on your inherent skills and merit more than most other fields any kind of affirmative action is a disservice.

From my experience, technology is probably one of the least racially biased fields in their hiring decisions. If you are black, white or pink with green dots: As long as you have the talent and skills you will have the same kinds of chances as any other candidate.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:46:13 +0000

It's a false argument to say "it's all about the education." I know of women and minorities that have their Masters degree or great experience, and after a layoff, they cannot get another mid-career or leadership role. Even with their few numbers. What happens is they go in to interview, and often with technology teams, the team gets to weigh in. And somehow, a woman leading an all man team or a minority guy leading a team of most white or mostly indian will not be hired for vague reasons. In silicon valley and tech, whenever the team gets to be mostly white or mostly indian or mostly asian, they hire like. this happens to white guys too. If it is an all indian crew, they bias towards hiring the indian dude, even if they are American-Indian citizens, and by the way, once a company starts down a path of H1-Bs, they seek to hire H1-Bs for that crew, and will never consider a citizen seriously. I'm sure that kids looking at majors consider that fact. Why train for a coding position when it's like preparing to be a factory worker in Detroit? Because companies don't hire citizens first, as the law requires, it is a self-fulfilling loop that fewer students are interested in being code monkeys. They can see that their parents got more education and certifications, and it didn't help much at all as they got older.

It is not true that Silicon Valley is all on merit. Or that it is due to education. In fact, there are MANY jobs that are not code jobs and people currently hold those positions with business degrees or other degrees. So to measure only on how many computer science majors are graduated is false. What about those jobs? Do you really think that all the board members and executives spent their time coding? All of them? Really? Nope, they don't promote minorities. And it's a self-fulfilling loop - what opportunity do you offer minorities?

And what about all the underemployed women and minorities who are mid or later career in technology that can't get work now? When there is an opening for leadership, why are they never considered?

By: Angela Benton

Angela Benton — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:36:49 +0000

“Offer online math and science education, supplemented with volunteering by engineers and financial people.” This is a very good idea! My daughters school system has online learning however the courses are limited. If someone were to start something like this they'd just need to have a focused effort of going to inner city schools to get the people who really need it to use it. Then again if those people have no access it is back to square one again. Navarrow also always makes a good point, nothing really seems sexy about tech…not like entertainment and sports. The youth need exposure to people who are getting the same kind of money through fields like technology, if not more money than athletes and entertainers.

By: Sheridan Tatsuno

Sheridan Tatsuno — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:22:33 +0000

The big challenges are poor local schools where Blacks and Latinos live and the flight of poorer people (whites and others included) due to rising costs of living in the SF Bay Area. First, we need to establish more charter schools in poor areas. How to do this with state budget cutbacks? Offer online math and science education, supplemented with volunteering by engineers and financial people. Second, offer more telecommuting and remote offices so qualified minorities outside of Silicon Valley can work for valley companies. Where there's a will, there are many ways. Let's get creative and develop plans that can be implemented nationwide. We cannot afford to lose the next generation of young people, especially since they will be the majority of American workers.