The Importance of Representation in Tech

Tuesday, 16.03.2022

Well. Well. Well. If it isn’t another ‘Diverse Hiring Pipeline’. Another ‘Women in Tech’ event, or another job post that screams how diverse a company we are…

I remember my very first week in recruitment and sitting in on a session on D&I, now known as DEI. As if there were not enough acronyms in the world. But D&I, well that was an acronym I had heard of a bunch of times. 

Why? I asked myself. Why was it so important to discuss DEI?

Fortunately for you, this isn’t another post on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Moreover, a post about my misunderstanding of Tokenism in Tech, well life, and why I don’t believe it is Tokenism, but rather Representation in Tech. 

Let me take you back to my first day of recruitment. I remember sitting down with my new team, chatting about our weekends. I never really noticed I was the only person of colour until I heard a group of lads in suits cracking up about a bird (girl) they had met over the weekend. Instantly, I felt a rush of intimidation, anxiousness, and displacement. I was reminded of all the places I would naturally avoid because I didn’t feel comfortable. Pubs, football games, gyms at peak times - you name it. As time passed, my views and feelings towards the stereotypical recruitment industry ‘boys in suits’ did not, and I started eating at my desk more and more. I avoided certain situations or social settings because I didn’t want to feel like the odd one out or worry about what to say. I’ve heard similar anecdotes on this too. Individuals and groups are afraid of situations they cannot control because they are afraid of racist, transphobic, sexist, ableist, and homophobic behaviours.

What comes to mind here is the 43-second video, produced by a recruitment firm (the company is no longer around), showing six young white men - a montage of the men walking into a meeting room, waltzing around the office, playing ping-pong, exiting a luxury car, and then, concludes with the men boarding a private jet.

As much as I would love to say I managed to change and enjoy their company, I cannot. What I can say is that I didn’t feel alone in this, and as time passed, I felt like I gained allies. These allies turned into a committee and that committee was known as our Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and it felt so good to not be alone. 

Let’s fast forward a few years. Where education and representation became key in my decisions to join, partner, or even work with certain companies where normally I'd felt alone and often, Tokenised. I’d ask myself, “Why was I asked to be the DEI Ambassador”, “Why was I the only person of colour working as a recruiter?” (It felt so), “Why was I hired or asked to present at a new business meeting and not another ‘boy in a suit’?”. 

I remember interviewing for Amazon last year, and really considering if Amazon was the right place for me. 

1. Was there anyone like me?
2. How much did I know about their team and company ethos when it came to DEI. 
3. Am I good enough?

In the end, I decided to proceed and to my surprise, I was offered a position as a Technical Sourcer. A huge milestone in my career. Not just because of the brand, but also because this was the first company I had applied to without a referral, and totally on my own merits. Then, it dawned on me. Did I get the position because I was another conscious figure, another box ticked?

I am not sure how many people I spoke to about this position (Josh Williams, Sharina Aziz, Ricky Rowling to name a few). I think I was suffering from a cocktail of the pain of Black Lives Matter, Imposter Syndrome, and of course, representation in the workforce. 

Why did I join Amazon? I said it before, an absence of diversity and I’m tired of it. I told myself, "Why couldn’t I be the representation within the European recruitment team?", "Why couldn’t I stand as a figure for others to see themselves working within a company?" This is by no means a bash on Amazon. Throughout the interview process, I was interested in the leadership principles, their values, and the considered responses during the interviews. We were on the same page about celebrating viewpoints and perspectives. 

Within Amazon, I joined an employee-led Diversity and Inclusion group, known as ‘DEI Coffee Chats’, that took place every Friday at 11 am. It was great, I was amongst an amazing group of individuals from all walks of life; colour, race, ethnicity, disabilities, and gender. It would be something I would look forward to at the end of the week. Being able to share key insights and ideas with everyone on how we could become more accessible and inclusive. We kept sharing ideas and these ideas never really amounted to anything. We could not do much in terms of overall diversity because European equality laws prevent us from looking at diversity as anything but gender-specific. Personally, if I am asked to bring about change, it doesn’t start and stop at gender. We shouldn’t be granted the authority or the agency to make it happen. We should do it anyway - consciously, in all our hiring.   

Here I wanted to recognise a woman, an incredible black woman, Vanessa Kingori MBE (another acronym; Member of the Order of the British Empire), and her career. Who was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. She is the first female publisher in British Vogue’s 103 year-long history (she’s the commercial counterpart to the magazine’s first male editor, Edward Enninful, and also happens to be black). She said:

“There’s always a new way of communicating. There’s always a new trend with brands and so on and so this is where the whole idea of diverse perspectives is so important. It’s about having people around the table who can tell you new things, who can bring new ideas because they haven’t all gone to the same schools, they don’t all holiday in the same place, their family structure is not the same, their hobbies are not the same, their outlook on the world is different. Diversity of perspective is really integral for the future-proofing and I think just agility, this whole feeling of, we’re doing this now but tomorrow this may not be as important, and there might be something else.”

"Edward and I were on the same page about not wanting to create something that looked different, but that was different, where many different viewpoints were celebrated, and we could create this amazing cocktail of different perspectives.”

Powerful words and an honest thought-provoking view on the versatility of difference. 

2022 saw me move on from Amazon to Gorillas. Founded in May 2020 by Turkish-born, German citizen Kağan Sümer. One of the best career moves to date (bold statement, I know). For the first time, I saw representation not only during the interviews but across the brand, in the way the team spoke, in their authenticity, and in the way they hired. It was a real pleasure. Before joining Gorillas, I interviewed with a few companies, and to my surprise, I was offered by all, some with great benefits and salaries, others with great working life balance and the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world. Gorillas was a marry of everything I asked for and more and to my excitement, I was offered a Lead position. I felt valued and seen. 

"For far too long, the conversation around race has centered so much around language and not enough around action, improvement and empathy.” Vanessa Kingori MBE

You never really know if an offer/description is all it seems until you are actually working the position and in the company. It’s been a month now (perhaps a little early to share, but it’s how I feel) and it’s everything I wanted. A position to make an actual impact on the recruitment efforts. To build a team of what I like to call, 'Sourcers of Inspiration'; that offer more than experience; perspective, viewpoints, and of course, representation. We’ve been able to work really closely with the wider company, in particular, the engineering teams, and cherry-pick collaboratively to decide on our sourcing, recruitment, and candidate attraction and engagement policy. We are always open to new perspectives and ideas and that is why I truly believe in Vanessa's point on agility and viewpoints.

It’s so good to be able to genuinely share that our company is centered around collaboration, culture, and commitment to equality. A fun fact that surprises candidates is that our Engineering team is a genuine representation of gender diversity and we are wholeheartedly committed to championing representation across the company. I know this because I am and it is deeply rooted in our conversations and delivery.