Early in the fall of 2021, the Bloomberg Black in Tech (BBIT) Accelerator Program was launched with 30 pairs of mentors and student mentees from diverse backgrounds. The goal of this six-week program was to help add equity to the interview process for Black tech talent studying computer science and engineering at bootcamps, colleges and universities — including the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) — or that our team members had previously met at targeted events and conferences like Black is Tech or Black Women Talk Tech (BWTT). The program also aims to build candidates’ confidence and provides actionable feedback to improve tech interview outcomes.
This one-on-one mentoring program, which up-skills Black students by improving their coding fluency and interview readiness, followed a similar model to the one that Bloomberg’s recruiting team successfully organized in the summer of 2021 together with the Bloomberg Latinx Community’s tech group (BLC Tech) that focused on Latinx candidates at four Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in Puerto Rico, and which resulted in multiple hires.
The program’s success was summed up by two of the computer science students who shared how going through the BBIT Accelerator Program helped contribute to their successfully getting hired into full-time roles with Bloomberg:
Terrence Crossdale
Senior Software Engineer, Consumer Web Marketing/Lead Generation
“Having the opportunity to be a mentor was very self-reflective and fulfilling in a variety of ways. It allowed me to realize and appreciate my own career path, while also being able to correlate it to my mentee’s in a more personal way. I was proud and inspired of the way my mentee embraced all of my tips and advice that I shared, while demonstrating consistent growth throughout the program.”
Publisher:
Date:
Press Release:
