Inclusion Revolution

Introduction

Sitting at a sleek white conference table at Google's equally gleaming Silicon Valley headquarters, surrounded by some of the most credentialed HR executives in the world, a humming laptop in front of me and a free chai latte from one of the ubiquitous Google cafés in my hand … I’d felt as if I'd finally arrived. I was hired specifically into a newly created global diversity recruitment role—a role that was elevated to an executive level to recruit me specifically—with an ambitious charge to “hire the most diverse talent.” As a Dominican Puerto Rican woman in a leadership position at arguably the world's most powerful company, here was my moment to achieve the type of change I'd dreamed of since growing up in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

My team's mission was to build a workforce that better represented our world and users by increasing the hiring rates of female, Black, and Latinx Googlers. We enthusiastically set out to redesign how to find, cultivate and convert a robust and steady stream of female, Black, and Latinx candidates. We based our recommendations on detailed analysis of the experience of Black and Latinx software engineers. These included solutions for reducing bias in job descriptions and the interview process and expanding our talent markets beyond traditional target schools and companies largely lacking in racial and ethnic representation.

Minutes before I unveiled my biggest, boldest diversity hiring initiative yet, I ...