HBCUs Can Become a Key Source of Software Development Talent
Summary
Angie Jones, Vice President of Global Developer Relations, TBD, at the financial services and digital payments company Block Inc., said enthusiastically that companies can find lots of engineering talent at HBCUs! “When in undergrad, I remember IBM taking their recruiting efforts a step further by setting up an industry-level project for the top CS majors at my school,” Jones told The New Stack. “I was oblivious to the fact that the tech industry is largely made up of white males and I’d be in the less than 2% of Black female software engineers,” Jones said. “I’d also conduct workshops, give talks, and write blog posts about software development in Java,” Jones said. “This is how I became the first Black woman to become a Java Champion.” Given her history and experience, “I’d jump at the opportunity to teach at an HBCU.