SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Karat, the only end-to-end partner for technical hiring, today announced a significant expansion of its Brilliant Black Minds program with the introduction of seven new Partners of Brilliance: DocuSign, Electronic Arts, Intuit, Snap, Uber, Unity, and Zillow. This cohort of new Partners join the program’s inaugural members, Amazon Prime Video, Citi, Duolingo, and Flatiron Health, to form a coalition of leading companies who are committed to building a more inclusive future for tech by engaging with, supporting, and hiring Black software engineers.
The Brilliant Black Minds community has grown 150% over the last year, recently surpassing 6,500 members -- nearly 7% of all Black software engineers in the United States. Operating at the intersection of human + tech, Brilliant Black Minds works to increase representation of Black software engineers by leveraging Karat’s expertise in technical hiring.
"We’re focused on shifting the conversations about diversity in tech from activity to impact,” said Crystal Moore, VP of Brilliant Black Minds at Karat. “Brilliant Black Minds is about ensuring candidates are equally prepared, starting at the job application, recruiter screen, and interview levels, so they truly have an equal opportunity to succeed. And we’re seeing the impact with every new member who joins our community, every new partner who signs on and ultimately, every Black engineer who lands a job in the world of tech."
Brilliant Black Minds' unique ability to drive impact over activity stems from Karat's years of experience helping top companies hire engineers. With unrivaled insight into the technical interviewing process and a network of professional interview engineers, members learn and grow within an authentic environment that prepares them for future interviews. This expertise also benefits Partners who trust Karat's ability to identify candidates who have the right technical skills and are ready to be brought onsite.
"One of the challenges we see with DEI partners across the industry is that a lot of companies are not working with talent very closely to ensure candidates are vetted," said Rodney Tabares, Director of DEI Partnerships & Accountability at DocuSign. "With the Brilliant Black Minds program, Karat is not just vetting that talent, but they're helping candidates get ready to come in the door ready to interview."
“We chose to partner with Brilliant Black Minds because the program’s focus is well-defined with a clear and pragmatic approach to delivering real, measurable outcomes,” said Mala Singh, Chief People Officer at Electronic Arts. “I’m confident that we can not only increase our representation of Black software engineers but in the process also contribute to the ongoing development of this community for years to come.”
“There’s no secret that there’s a lack of representation in the tech space,” added Damion Wright, Global DE&I Talent Programs Leader at Intuit. “We want to ensure that our customer base and our employee base reflect each other. If you’re building products that reflect your customer base from an engineering standpoint it creates this synergy that’s unmatched.”
"At Uber, we strive for our workforce to be representative of the communities we serve and hire in globally," shared Eve Lewis, Sr. Director of Global Inclusive TA at Uber. “To that end, we've partnered with Brilliant Black Minds to help us increase equitable opportunities for employment for diverse talent to develop and build our global platform. We believe that diversity makes us stronger and enables us to create a more equitable and inclusive environment to reimagine how the world moves for the better. Karat and Brilliant Black Minds are key partners in helping us realize this mission."
The theme of hiring software engineers who understand the impact of their work on underrepresented communities resonated across several of Karat’s new partner organizations.
“Zillow is working to make home a reality for more people. To accomplish this, our goal is for our employees to be as representative as the customers and communities we serve across the country,” noted Roz Francuz-Harris, VP of Talent Acquisition at Zillow. “The Brilliant Black Minds program is one of the many ways Zillow is working to increase representation across our growing workforce.”
"To innovate for an increasingly diverse creator community, we need representation from the best and the brightest minds,” said Tai Wingfield, Sr. Director, Diversity & Inclusion at Unity. “Unity is thrilled to partner with Brilliant Black Minds to improve the representation of Black software engineers within our workforce and advance the careers of the next generation of leaders."
“More diverse teams create better products,” added Brittany Mitlo, Director of University Recruiting at Duolingo. “People with different backgrounds and experiences make for not just a more productive place to work, but a more enjoyable place as well.”
Karat’s Champion of Brilliance, Serena Williams, shared similar sentiments when she invested in expanding the program last year, saying, “The technology industry is focused on solving some of the world’s biggest challenges. My focus is ensuring the solutions to those challenges are developed by all of us.” In the year following Williams’s investment, the community has grown tenfold, as have the opportunities presented to those involved.
Members of the program have access to free technical interview practice and feedback, development workshops, professional mentorship, career matching opportunities, and other resources for successfully starting or growing their tech careers.
“Hearing from an experienced Interview Engineer about what you are doing well and what you need to work on is like having a personal trainer,” shared Brilliant Black Minds community member, Ryan Barner, who recently accepted a software engineering position at Netflix. “The feedback and practice helps you focus on developing your next steps in a way you don’t get from studying interview questions alone.”
If your organization is interested in learning more and joining the movement to unlock opportunities for Black software engineers and build exceptional engineering teams, visit https://karat.com/partners-of-brilliance/ and contact the team.
About Karat
Karat makes it easy to hire great engineers. From application to offer, Karat is helping the world’s largest companies improve the quality, efficiency, and equity of their technical hiring process. Through innovative assessments, live expert-led technical interviews and unmatched talent insights, Karat makes it possible to hire quickly and confidently while giving every candidate an equal opportunity to show what they can do. Learn more about why global leaders like Walmart, Atlassian, and Citi trust Karat to help them hire top talent and build exceptional engineering teams at karat.com.
