AFROTECH Afterthoughts 🌟 Early Career Programs @ Tech Companies

AFROTECH took place in Austin from Nov 13-17, 2022

This week's blog post is written by FutureMap teammate Marion Araque. Marion works on partnerships at FutureMap and is a first-gen college grad who broke into tech/VC after a career in education and nonprofits! Marion attended AFROTECH and learned a lot from the tech employers who are committed to hiring and recruiting Black talent.

WOW what a week at AFROTECH! Over 15,000 Black professionals and allies came together in person to Austin, Texas last week after being virtual for 2 years because of the COVID lockdowns. This conference is the largest multicultural tech gathering in the United States, convening engineers, venture capitalists, recruiters and technologists from all over the world for thought leadership, networking, and community building. This was my first year attending and it far exceeded my expectations. Exhausted is an understatement, along with a renewed feeling of inspiration and motivation to level up our community. 

My personal mission was to meet as many tech companies as possible to learn more about their early career talent opportunities. Below are some of my takeaways from various conversations with recruiters:

🪜 Every tech company is unique in the way they work with “early tech talent,” and in what they offer. Some have developed an 8-10 week internship program; others have apprenticeships; and some have year round rolling applications for internship opportunities. It’s not all one size fits all. Here’s an example of early career roles offered at Box starting in January 2023!

🌟 “Tech” doesn’t mean these companies are only hiring technical people. Depending on the size of the tech company, they may offer opportunities not only to work in engineering but across various departments like: HR, Sales, Marketing and Product. The bigger the company the more they may offer. Tip for college access nonprofits: Encourage your students to consider tech companies even if they aren't engineers!

🍎 Tech companies have started to notice the value of hiring professionals from the education space who have prior experience working with college students, either from higher education or in the non- profit sector. I saw this trend amongst some university recruiters.

🏫 Larger, well-known companies like Dell, AWS, and Intel tend to have more competitive programs where they openly seek "the cream of the crop" talent. On the other hand, smaller companies with early career opportunities have to compete for talent, and thus are sometimes more invested in making sure that they build out intentional programs with curriculum and training for both their employees and recruits. First-gen students must consider the benefits of brand name, large companies vs. smaller environments that may be better suited for learning (similar to universities!)

🗓 Did you know most tech companies open up their summer internship applications between Oct - Nov, close applications around Dec - Jan, and have their set interns determined by the beginning of February? Make sure to keep this in mind as you set your students up for success and the reality of recruiting timelines. This is especially challenging as many of the first-gen students we coach at FutureMap are overwhelmed with academics and work in the fall, suggesting that summer preparation is key.  

A theme throughout my exploration on the expo floor was that it's clear that tech companies have identified the importance of supporting early career talent. For better or worse there is no standardized process, but there are tons of opportunities out there. Most companies are scrambling to find the right formula for success. Depending on the size and resources available at each company early talent opportunities can vary drastically, and just like we help students find a “best fit” school, we can apply the same thinking to employers. Overall, FutureMap's timing is impeccable as we continue to help nonprofits build out employer partnerships to provide their first-gen students a diverse set of opportunities.