Black woman goes IN on the black-in-tech scammers who are really just recruiters in HR, not in key roles

[CapitalforCapital]

Listening to the set on social media. Thinking you can go from hustling smoking scamming to walking on Apple's campus over night.

That’s the dream they selling nikkas man

 

[Nigerianwonder]

No lies told. I hate when people say they are in "tech". There is working in IT and there is working at a tech company. 2 different things. And there is working at a tech company and working at a FAANG tech company. Again 2 different things. way different pay scales and work types. People need to specify what they are talking about cause most times they are refering to being "in tech" as simply working an IT role at a non tech company.

I'm a technical manager at a FAANG and most black folks I meet are in non technical roles. There are very few black SWE's. My team is almost all indian. Most black folks are in marketing, business and HR roles. They get paid very well but the real money is always on the technical side.

I wouldnt say its neccessarily hard to break into tech. But it takes a level of discipline most people dont have. Most people are looking for shortcuts but there are no shortcuts. You only get better with time and practice. The interviews can be brutal and you really have to know your stuff.

 

[RareAirBorne]

I've worked at 2 FAANG companes in technical positions without a CS degree or any formal coding experience. She is 100% right based on my experience. Of the black folk I know at these companies, most are in recruiting, HR and marketing though I am noticing more in PM/TPM which is great.

I went to black in tech conference one year and the amount of recruiters, "entrepreneurs" and rah rah was telling me all I need to know

Just cause we run IG, TikTok and make the trends don't make us tech savvy, it just makes us social media savvy while others capitalize/monetize off us with the tech

 

[kevm3]

Recruiters are going to say it's easy to get in because they're not the ones having to deal with 5 rounds of interviews, coding challenges, take home coding projects etc. They just want as many bodies as possible in the hopes they can place someone because that's how they get paid. Tech is tough to get into and you better be skilled at DS and Algos are have an awesome portfolio if you want to get in.

 

[StretfordRed]

Working in tech roles for tech companies is overrated. Take me back to to the finance industry…with none of the BS politics though

 

[null]

Most computer science grads these days aren't even on the same skill level as a recent long term bootcamp grads tbh (6months - year) people are leaving camps knowing JavaScript, Python, C- and already worked with react native etc with decent projects

Not real languages and "C"?

 

[High Art]

They all went into careers that they didn't enjoy and wanted to make the switch to tech. Had this one dude who got his law degree from the university of Chicago and his mba but he made the switch to tech.

But naw I don't work for that company anymore because covid messed up a lot things for the business. Im currently work as a contractor for the c.i.a.

So that's what @The Hon. Stringer Bell is up to these days.

 

[Spence]

I’m in tech as a recruiter and ngas are out here masquerading as though they are tech workers themselves?!

 

[null]

 

[BushidoBrown]

I've been seeing this scam.

Black women talking about "how I broke into tech" when they're really just recruiters/onboarding/hr or some project management role working for a tech company and are not doing real higher paying tech jobs. But then they'll use the real tech jobs when referencing potential salary earnings smh

smh social media etc is oversaturated with these type of ppl who embellish everything they do to make it seem like much more than what it is. everyone so full of it

 

[Luke Cage]

At the end of the day if you want a career in tech the children need to start coding by the time they are 8-10. On top of that it would probably help if Black children had access to top math teachers and coders. Its a process and a mentality

Write code not rhymes.

Yep,

I intitially went into tech for my college major. First programming class i took, i was the only one there who didn't already know how to program or code or whatever.

 

[GhettoTeK]

I went to a "tech bootcamp" but to a degree she is right. Programming is hard and when I was at the school I was definitely the worst student. I was so bad that I had to start over twice (almost 3 times). My classmates varied but most of them were white or asian...mix that in with a good number of them went to schools like Stanford and M.I.T it was very intimidating for me. But I was at school from 8am until 9, 10 or 11pm just grinding

However even though I was the worst student I was the first one to get a job. The people I went to school with had too many expectations and a good number of them felt that since they finished the school that they should be able to get a job pretty easily...me I just wanted a opportunity to change my life. As soon as my classmates couldn't find jobs or get into Google they started to complain (they got the school to close via a lawsuit)....I felt that a lot of them had a sense of entitlement but for me I was used to failing so anything for me was just a positive.


Now I'm 5-6 years in and I rarely use recruiters. They are just trying to fill their numbers which I get but I've been blessed with amazing job opportunities on my own

Which language you learned? I’m in that same boat this stupid arrogant mf told me coding is easy it’s a lot to take in

 

[kevm3]

Anyone that tells you coding is 'easy' either has been coding since they were 9 and likely with a family that helped them or they are on easy projects. It's not impossibly difficult but it is fairly challenging. I'd recommend starting with javascript since you can do front-end, back-end, robotics and much more.

 

[desjardins]

In tech and can confirm this is a real thing, at least on linkedin
I started noticing it during the pandemic. a ton of black people claiming to work for xyz company, go to their profile and they are recruiters
I didn't mind if since they literally DO work for those companies and as recruiters they are the first contact to getting into those companies but the messaging was kind disingenuous. Then I noticed many of these people leveraged the demand for highly coveted jobs to basically become influencers. They started selling courses and giving talks to people who were sold an unrealistic dream

 

[RiffRaff]

She’s 100% right. Thanks for linking OP going to jump in the DM’s