Happy 2023! We thought it would be interesting to update this blog, which was posted a year ago. The blog originally highlighted online communities for Black women in tech, so this time we updated the information with a focus on job boards.
We also added some interesting data about women in the workforce. Whether you are looking for a new opportunity or just want to stay in the know on what’s happening in the world of work for Black women, we want this update to be a resource for you now and all year long.
But first, let’s be real.
It’s not easy being a woman. It’s even harder to be a Black woman. A Black woman who chooses to work in tech? Yikes! But you do it because you love it. You do it to show your kids and other women coming up that they can do it too. The barriers are high for Black women in tech, but mom always said, “Nothing good comes easy.”
How high are the barriers?
The 2022 Women in the Workforce study reported that at the start of 2022, women of color made up:
- 19% of the entry-level workforce
- 14% at the manager level
- 10% at the director level
- 8% at the VP level
In contrast, white women made up:
- 29% of the entry-level workforce
- 27% at the manager level
- 24% at the director level
- 24% at the VP level
Interestingly, the study also found that Black women leaders are more ambitious than other women at their level. 59% of Black women leaders want to be top executives, compared to 49% of women leaders overall. Why are there not more of them, then? Here’s a hint. 1 in 3 Black women leaders says they’ve been denied or passed over for opportunities because of personal characteristics, including race and gender.
At the beginning of 2022, 26.7% of all technology jobs were held by women. About 56% of those women were women of color. In the Hired 2022 State of Wage Inequality in the Tech Industry report, black women still had the widest wage gap in salary data, which showed a decrease from $0.94 to $0.92 for every $1 a white male colleague earns. What’s sad is that the report also showed that Black women EXPECT to make $0.91 for a new tech job compared to a male. Why do we do that to ourselves?
In general, fewer women are in the workforce due to the chaos of the pandemic. This is especially true for women of color. As of September 2022, about 309,000 Black women have left the labor force since the start of the pandemic. About 8.5% of Black women are currently looking for work.
The More You Know…
We are not bringing up these stats to bum you out. We think it’s vital that we all know and understand the current state of affairs for our sisters of color so that we can be allies in their struggle to overcome racial and gender inequalities in the tech sector. There is so much opportunity here for both women interested in the tech industry and companies looking for smart tech professionals. Let’s bring the two groups together!
Black women and allies have joined together to support each other through online tech communities and job boards. Not all of these sites are specifically for black women, but they are all-inclusive and supportive of any person of color interested in a tech job.
The mission of POCITJ is to provide a “place for people of color to thrive in tech! To inspire them, help them enter, level up, and secure the bag.” Love that! The entry-level jobs board offers career opportunities for newbies, while a separate job board lists open positions for more seasoned workers. Employers posting jobs in 2023 include Patreon, Cisco, and Honeycomb. Job seekers can also create a profile and upload a resume so employers can find them. A sister site publishes a ton of helpful articles, interviews with POC working in tech, company profiles, a regular newsletter, and an award-winning podcast. This site should be a regular bookmark that you can visit weekly to check out the resources.
HireBlack.com started in 2019. The mission was simple, to promote the hiring of Black job seekers. All Black job seekers, not just women. The site is a “bridge builder, connecting companies to a diverse group of qualified candidates.” Job seekers can build a profile and search for jobs. The jobs are a mixture of entry-level, management, and director positions in the United States. Remote jobs are also available. Companies interested in hiring can also create a profile on the site. That is helpful for job candidates to research potential employers. Featured employers include Walmart, Color of Change, Peak Design, and Grammarly.
NEW! An exciting new service is coming soon that will connect black freelancers to potential clients. The site is well-organized and easy to navigate. The goal is to develop the largest online diversity job platform. They are well on their way.
This organization differs from the one above, although they share a name and a hashtag. You’ll see the domains are slightly different. The mission is very similar, finding tech jobs and resources for Black women in tech. There is a Slack channel open to members and allies only. The job board is easy to use and has the most search options of all the sites we’ve reviewed. Not all of the jobs are in the tech field. Employers include Harvard Kennedy School, Fractured Atlas, and MoveOn. Job seekers can create profiles and upload resumes for employers to review.
NEW! The organization also offers a “Radically Transparent Salary Database,” which they call “a crowd-sourced database that anonymously shares salary information from diverse individuals around the globe.” You can sort the data by title, city, state, years of experience, career level, and more. It’s an excellent resource for any job seeker. You can also submit your salary anonymously to be added to the database.
HBCU CONNECT was founded in 1999 to provide the first online social network for HBCU graduates. Since then, the website’s mission has expanded into providing a platform for networking, professional opportunities, educational opportunities, and connections with organizations looking to interact with Black students and professionals. Students will find scholarship opportunities, and job candidates will find a robust job board to search for jobs and post a profile. When you post a profile, you can download a toolkit to assist you in your job search. The site posts thousands of IT and tech jobs. There are a ton of healthcare systems, insurance companies, and universities posting on the site. You can also research employers on the site.
The search member function is super helpful if you are looking for a mentor. There are also forums to ask questions, groups to join, and events to attend. This social platform has a ton of good stuff! We think you’ll find support, education, and plenty of job search resources there. Please note you do not have to be a student or graduate of an HBCU to take advantage of the resources on this site.
The name of this community comes from combining the word “tribe” and the Spanish word for work, “trabaja.” The mission is to bring together Black and Latinx people interested in tech and startup careers. The community works with both genders. There are now approximately 6,000 members, mostly Black and Brown professionals, including 1,500 members who reportedly joined in a single month after attending the company’s job fair, Diversitech Summit, in March 2022.
They say their job board network has a 73% referral-to-hire rate. Jobs are available remotely or in person. There are more than 100 companies represented on the job board, including Asana, Capital One, and Google. The talent pool has an average of 5 years of experience. The site says, “They are career changers and experienced hires looking to transition into tech by leveraging their transferable skills.” Jobseekers can create a profile with a scheduling calendar for employers to set up interviews. The network features include coaching candidates in their job search, vetting prospective candidates, and matching candidates to opportunities. Members with profiles have access to all these services, a large Slack community, career accelerator classes, a salary database, and more.
NEW! One of the new features for 2023 is the Tribaja Tribe Thursdays, where members will come together to network and connect as a tribe every third Thursday of the month.
Here’s another community for both Black genders. Blacks in Technology is a “tech-focused community and media organization…dedicated to increasing the representation and participation of Black people in the technology industry.” Their tagline is “Stomping the Divide,” which we love.
There are local chapters all over the United States and internationally. Membership is free. There is quite a list of virtual and in-person events to attend. You can also search the very large job board and upload your resume to be matched with jobs. Employers posting jobs include Princeton University, The Atlantic, and Cisco Meraki. The stories section of the website is chock-full of the latest information on trends, news, and resources about the tech industry and the job market. The organization hosts periodic online career fairs as well. This community may be worth sharing with the guys!
Here’s another community for both Black genders. Blacks in Technology is a “tech-focused community and media organization…dedicated to increasing the representation and participation of Black people in the technology industry.”
There are local chapters all over the United States and internationally. Membership is free. There is quite a list of virtual events to attend. You can also search the very large job board and upload your resume to be matched with jobs. The organization hosts periodic online career fairs as well. This community may be worth sharing with the guys!
This job board is a source of information for mid-career and senior-level Black tech professionals. The site also focuses on helping tech companies build more inclusive cultures through research, education, training, and strategy development. They promote their recruiting services as having experience placing applicants across all skill levels and skill types. Some jobs posted on their board in January 2023 included IT Manager for the Alameda County Community Food Bank, Manager of Software Engineering Services for HCSC, and Director of Engineering – Order Fulfillment and Inventory Management for Staples.
Every Black woman in tech is a trailblazer. You show up daily, demonstrate excellence in your work, and make it just a little easier for Black girls coming up behind you. Representation in the tech industry has a long way to go. But, because of you, we will get there. And you are not alone. There are communities of sisters and allies to support you with conversation, education, information, and guidance. Lady Bird Talent is just one example. We’d love to help you land your dream role. Check out our job board today!
