How to encourage a diverse tech mentorship program?

September 22, 2016 8:41 AM

There is a tech mentorship program that lasts a few months and the pool of mentee applicants seems to be diverse but the pool of mentor applicants are mostly white cis males. It's important to have mentors who are also diverse. How can we make that happen?
posted by bleary to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Best answer: Are the mentors being paid for their work? If not, I can completely understand why you'd have an applicant pool that is statistically less likely to need some marginal extra income and is statistically more likely to have the available time to pursue the mentorship program.
posted by saeculorum at 8:44 AM on September 22, 2016 [10 favorites]

Best answer: You may have to deliberately reach out to potential mentors, and possibly think of a way to make it more appealing to them (money or prestige, I would think). I work in a field (academic medicine) where senior leadership is largely male and white. My African American and Latina friends in that field have spoken occasionally about the fact that, although they feel a responsibility to promote diversity in their departments and mentor students/junior faculty of color, often they are the ONLY person of color in their department or division. This often means that 1) They get asked EVERY time someone wants a "diverse" pool of faculty. 2) They end up with a lot of "service" commitments (committees, mentorship programs) that aren't necessarily helpful to their careers, because the metrics for promotion are mostly based on other things like research, publication, and curriculum development. So they can only take on so much of that stuff without actually damaging the very career they're trying to help others achieve, plus they get tired of being asked EVERY time.

It's not clear whether this is mentorship program is within an organization, or whether it's independent. If it's within a company, is there a way to compensate mentors either with money or time, or have their successful participation be included in their job evaluation in a meaningful way?
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 8:57 AM on September 22, 2016 [10 favorites]

Identify mentors who don't fit this description, approach them, and explain why it would mean a lot to your organization to have them mentor others. Make sure you hear their concerns about mentoring and provide support resources or guidance if needed. I'm sure you could create incentives or numerical goals, but having someone ask directly and privately will be the most successful. It could be that some of them never considered being a mentor, or felt intimidated by the lack of diversity of current mentors.
posted by beyond_pink at 8:57 AM on September 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: It's a mentorship program that is part of a user group, not a company.

headsmack. I didn't think of the payment thing, even despite reading essays about people not getting paid for diversity work.
posted by bleary at 9:11 AM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: the payment part is probably 80 percent of this but also consider that the mentees are your next source of mentors. diversity is getting better but the old hands are not so much (myself included)
posted by lescour at 9:49 AM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

You definitely have to reach deliberately to POC. Most tend to have networks within their race and so if you are using those avenues to find mentors you're going to find people of your same race most likely. Also, I'd start by reaching out to minority professional groups and sending out a tweet at organizations like People of Color in Tech. They usually ret weet available opportunities.
posted by CosmicSeeker42 at 2:18 PM on September 22, 2016

Best answer: I'm a POC who does some diversification work.

1. Payment is THE most important thing. Economic issues aside, for many POCs it can be really exhausting/offputting to be constantly asked to devote time and energy without getting anything back.

2. Look in unusual places, and also consider how your advertising is written. Make it EXPLICITY clear that you're looking for POC, and that (hopefully) you're paying real cash money. Reach out to mentees and ask them to spread it around via their own networks. Do you have any local universities who might have Diversity and Inclusion offices you can tap for ideas?

3. I would, in the unlikely event you have an excess of POC mentors, match some up to white folk, too. People tend to fall back on what's familiar while hiring and you could wind up enacting some serious change down the road.
posted by Tamanna at 2:31 PM on September 22, 2016

Consider recruiting in places where tech is used but not the focus. Like, I don't know many black software engineers but I sure know a ton of game devs, electronic musicians, clever art hacksters & skilled tradesfolk.

Are you advertising on twitter and facebook? I'm queer and I belong to a ton of invaluable FB groups where insiders share job leads, events, even housing and sale items before they're posted publicly. I'm sure it's the same for other communities.
posted by fritillary at 10:43 PM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you very kindly everyone who is participating. I've shared the page with the organizer of the program. We are in the Chicago area, and I don't know many people to introduce him to from organizations in the area. We've got friends participating from PyLadies already.

I've reached out to a friend in TransHack asking if she has people would be interested in participating.

I know there is a Black Girls Code chapter in Chicago, but I don't know anyone involved so it is a cold-call. I don't have knowledge of many PoC groups or organizers to share with the organizer, unfortunately. (I am part of the problem).
posted by bleary at 7:19 AM on September 23, 2016

Response by poster: Btw, I don't have a lot of personal ability for setting up physical meetings and meeting with people in person. This is due to many reasons including health*. My main ability right now is sharing what I've experienced, gathering advice, providing references to read, and introducing people I know to each other. I've provide a few references about diversity and recruiting, and have only introduced a few people to each other since I don't have a big pool of friends nor do I have a big network of PoC friends and professional peers.

That is an explanation for why I can't take all of the advice here for expanding my own personal network by doing footwork. I do think that is important, but I will convey the homework to the organizers. In the future I'll be better equipped to help out in person?

* I just got a diabetes diagnosis and have to learn new life skills, plus I am generally anxious whenever I met people, even if they don't perceive it. On top of that I am very introverted. This post is amazing and I completely identify: Hitting The Wall: Dinner with friends is an endurance sport.
posted by bleary at 8:21 AM on September 23, 2016