/dev/color Is Coming to Atlanta
Ready, Set, Launch!
/dev/color is an organization whose mission is to empower Black software engineers to help one another grow into tech industry leaders.¹ They made a huge announcement earlier this year when they revealed their plans to expand to two new cities: Seattle and Atlanta. To prepare each city for the application process and 2019 launch, they held a series of events designed to introduce their goals and programs to new tech communities.
Here in Atlanta, they held several events, three at the end of August, including a senior engineering dinner, a women’s engineering dinner and an Open House. As a company that understands the value in building diverse, inclusive teams, SalesLoft was thrilled to be a part of /dev/color’s launch events in Atlanta. We hosted both the women’s engineering dinner and Open House. It was such a pleasure to meet the team and get an insider’s perspective of the impact their programs have on their members’ lives.
Women’s Engineering Dinner
The women’s engineering dinner was an evening of great food and conversation that allowed curious attendees to dig into the benefits of /dev/color programs with existing members.
We even had the opportunity to meet local chapter leader, Amani Anai (pictured far left), as she shared her journey in tech and what inspired her to become a /dev/color leader in Atlanta.
Open House
The next evening, /dev/color presented an informal Q & A session with a panel of local leaders, as well as members from the San Francisco chapter. The panel was moderated by Lajuanda M. Asemota, Interim Executive Director at /dev/color and consisted of 3 panelists, including: Jared Jordan, Originals UI Engineering Manager at Netflix and San Francisco A* member; Amani Anai, Partner and Senior Product Designer at Design for Impact and Atlanta Chapter Leader; and Chimére Faison Barnard, Inclusion and Diversity Specialist at MailChimp and Atlanta Chapter Leader.
We delved deep into our panelists stories as they explained the unique opportunities /dev/color presented for them. Jared, being the longest standing member on stage, discussed how /dev/color helped him find and land his job at Netflix and pushed him to start speaking at tech conferences.
What will /dev/color bring to Atlanta?
State of Atlanta Black Tech
Atlanta has a vibrant, thriving tech ecosystem — an ecosystem that is unique among so many others in the country. According to Jean-Luc VanHulst of Write2Market,
Atlanta pairs diversity across race, skills, and industries with a scrappy startup up feel.²
This racial diversity is one of Atlanta’s super powers. For instance, while it’s true Atlanta is a city with world-renowned schools, graduating some of the top tech talent in the country. Those same schools, including Georgia Tech, Georgia State and the HBCUs of the Atlanta University Center (Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University ), are routinely the top producers of Black engineers.²
These conditions have created a large pool of Black engineers here, but Atlanta is a sprawling city with pockets of innovation scattered throughout the metro area. Even in a city with an increasingly large population of Black engineers, we can still feel isolated within our companies and teams. Several local thought leaders saw the value in building a community among local engineers of color.
Marcellus Haynes and Yolanda Davis founded Technologists of Color (ToC)³ in May of 2012 as a a way to connect a variety of technologists — engineers, developers, managers, as well as product and strategy leaders — across the metro. Since its inception, ToC has grown to over 2,400 members. ToC is an engaged community, hosting monthly events ranging from highly technical to more informal and social.
In 2017, ToC partnered with Amplify 4 Good to start a necessary conversation around the state of Atlanta’s Black tech ecosystem. This event attracted a remarkable 400+ local Black technologists on a Monday night in May and kicked off ATLBlackTech.⁴
So we have (1) a large pool of Black engineers and (2) the connections and community that have been fostered over the years by organizations like ToC, Amplify 4 Good, TechSquare Labs, Women Who Code Atlanta, digitalundivided and so many others.⁵
So how do we use this community to fuel and grow future Black leaders in tech?
This is where /dev/color’s A* Program shines.
A* Program
/dev/color’s A* program provides a formula for career growth and mentorship, complete with small accountability groups they call “squads.” Candidates apply to the program in the fall (note today’s deadline!) Once accepted, members kickoff the program in January of the following year with a dinner and squad retreat. After the retreat, members commit to 2-hour monthly squad meetings throughout the year.
These squad meetings provide spaces for goal setting and sharing, career road mapping, planning, execution, networking, and mentorship. Squads also provide accountability and a sounding board for sensitive topics. Squads are based on a peer exchange model — you don’t get someone telling you what to do, but someone being vulnerable enough to share when they went through a similar experience
Alicia Barrett, Support Software Engineer at SalesLoft, was really intrigued by benefits of the A* Program’s squads:
Squad meetings seem like great ways to open doors for each other. That’s personally so crucial for me, this early in my career. I’ve been eyeing /dev/color for a long time because representation is so important. It’s important to see people who look like you working and succeeding in tech. I’m really looking forward to having focused career mapping conversations with other engineers of color.
Sound interesting? Perfect! If you live in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco or Seattle, you have just a few hours to get your application in by tonight’s deadline at 11:59pm PST! Apply for /dev/color’s A* Program here: https://www.devcolor.org/apply/
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