Mason Soiza To Lead Diversity In Tech Initiative By 2020

In 2018, diversity has been a battleground across industries. With the release of Google memos, new diversity programs popping up, and more, one man is looking to the future of tech not as a challenge but an inspiration.

 

“I see what has been happening regarding more inclusive hiring and training in programming and digital marketing and think it been overcomplicated,” said Mason when asked about his thoughts on diversity and its impact on his industry.  

 

Who Is Mason Soiza?

Mason Soiza is an entrepreneur and philanthropist with a background in launching platforms and websites that employ people from a range of backgrounds.  His hiring process has been predicated not only on capability at the time of hiring, but also the potential of employees to be developed.

 

“There are people with skill sets that have yet to be tapped that can be highly beneficial in the progression of technological development, and for some reason, they are constantly overlooked due to minor problems or lack of access to opportunity. Honestly, it’s tragic.” He continued.

 

A Man With A Plan

Mason’s goal is to launch a program that will focus on reaching out to and onboarding tech-interested as well as well trained individuals from a range of locations and backgrounds through an online portal that will pair them with companies and teams that they can potentially work or train with.  

 

He intends to recruit from a range of sources, from online job boards to local universities.  The companies, he believes, will benefit tremendously from being presented a range of applicants that can offer a potentially refreshing perspective on problems.

 

“Diversity of thought, not only of background is the key to solving problems that until now have remained unsolved.  It’s no secret that some of the greatest inventors and other minds of history have come from interesting backgrounds, and it goes beyond just socio-economic status”.

 

Mason believes the only way to move forward is to build upon the foundation of good skill sets with a team that has a varied range of perspectives due to their interests as well as background.  Whether he’s right or wrong is yet to be seen, as his initiative is set to launch by 2020 fully.

 

What Has The Problem Been Thus Far?

 

In regards to tech diversity, the biggest impetus has been providing access to minorities and women to opportunities outside of their normal jobs/educational track.  It’s harder to recruit and train those that have yet to be exposed to the potential of what technology is capable of beyond science class early on.

 

The older many people are, the harder it is for them to find a way to get invested in training and the tight-knit community that many tech cities thrive on. In some cases, it’s more who you know than what you know that leads to opportunity.

 

Beyond that, it’s a matter of the cost of training and its usefulness in practical circumstances.  Just because someone has a background in computer science does not mean they are a capable web developer.  A degree may get your foot in the door, but actionable, practical skills are the only way to get a job.

 

More often than not, individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds don’t have the mentorship nor game plan to develop programming skills to a hireable end effectively.

 

What Solutions Are There?

1. Mentorship programs that pair veteran coders and beyond with junior level programmers as well as tech interested students.
2. Establishing grants and scholarships that help lessen financial burdens during training.  
3. Opportunities to observe and intern with companies and see how their teams work and what kind of practical things coding is capable of.

 

These are just a few of the starting points that the initiative will focus on.

 

The Effects

Initiatives such as these have made progress, but the limitation is in their ability to scale. Mason Soiza claims to have found a way to make it both financially feasible as well as sustainable as it grows over time.  No doubt, time will tell, but the biggest question is how he will address the challenge in maintaining the diversity overtime without sacrificing one group for another.