> Do college educated people of color with tech skills currently have trouble finding work in the industry,

Compared to similarly-educated, similary-skilled white people, my impression is, on average, yes. (Where "people of color" is taken to mean "from groups underrepresented in technology"; there are certain non-white groups for which I don't get the impression that this is the case.) Largely because of network factors.

> or is the problem that there simply aren't enough people like that?

That's also a problem. The two are not mutually exclusive.

This is absolutely right. While there are unquestionably fewer black, hispanic / latino, and native american individuals with STEM backgrounds (another problem that needs to be solved at an educational level) there is still an uphill battle to be climbed even for individuals who DO possess the necessary skills and experience.

Hiring systems, especially in tech, are largely based on referral models and the "who do you know who can do X?" approach. Despite the many benefits of this approach, one danger is that it often inadvertently leaves underrepresented ethnic groups on the sidelines.

Having the skill set is not always enough.

> Compared to similarly-educated, similary-skilled white people, my impression is, on average, yes.

Is that based on personal experience, data, or ?

Its an impression based on personal experience, immediate-circle anecdotes, and other non-structured, potentially non-representative data, as well as various bits of more structured research I've seen that is not directly on point (e.g., not tech-specific, but general to hiring, such as on responses to ethnic names in hiring processes) but seems to suggestive in the absence of more specific, field-specific research.

I'm Randy, CTO of Jopwell. Thanks for the question! The problem is that companies are having trouble finding minorities with technical backgrounds. But they are there. We're trying to solve this by building a place where companies can find diverse individuals, and in turn, be able to consider a diverse pool of candidates when looking to hire.

how much of this is companies companies think "we want X" when really, they don't need X?

i ask because for a long time google said "we only hire from top schools" and then they looked at the data and found the school they hired from didn't really matter.

What are minorities with technical backgrounds doing now?

I'm just wondering if they're already working in technical jobs, and you're only moving them around.

There are many talented individuals working across a range of industries, but the reality is that in industries where hiring is very referral-based, such as tech, these talented individuals would not know where to reach out in their networks to have access to the many promising tech opportunities. Our value add is to give these talented individuals access and exposure to opportunities that they did not have before.