Recruit More Diverse Mobile Dev Talent with These Three Organizations

When you think about the mobile industry you probably picture tech hubs like Silicon Valley, New York City, and, increasingly, Austin, Texas. Tech companies based in New York and San Francisco — the two most expensive cities in the entire United States — can typically pay salaries as high as 30% above the national average for programming professionals like Mobile App Developers — and national averages are already in the six figures, according to ZipRecruiter.

Career Karma’s State of Bootcamp Coding Market Report 2020 found coding bootcamps have allowed for other secondary tech hubs to emerge in cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, and Chicago. These new tech hubs are churning out more and more solid tech recruits, giving Silicon Valley and New York-based tech companies recruiting pools inside other metropolitan areas where the cost of living is lower. The decreased cost of living in the new remote tech hubs gives tech companies the ability to hire top talent at competitive salaries.

Not only is hiring a remote employee potentially a budget-friendly move, it allows companies to explore a more diverse pool of candidates — which coding bootcamps have also been integral in creating. Bootcamps allow for a lower bar of entry for both young people looking to break into their first career and seasoned professionals looking for a change. Coding bootcamps have broken the mold for tech education by offering students a much more efficient and economically viable avenue of learning programming skills as compared to the traditional routes of earning a computer science degree from a four-year university. Instead, the hyper-focused nature of a coding bootcamp takes students who have never coded before and transforms them into tech industry-ready, programming pros in less than a year.

With many schools hosting online and self-paced bootcamps, many grads knock out their bootcamp in just 10 to 24 weeks. These programs often focus on practical skills that will be used in the workplace, and offer tuition financing options like deferred tuition payments and income-sharing agreements that allow students to pay back their tuition at a later date, after they have landed their first job in the industry. That being said, it’s important to vet the claims made by bootcamp operators — or any for-profit educational institution.

Hiring top tech talent is always tough, so what resources can companies employ to find mobile app developers from diverse backgrounds? Fortunately, there are several organizations that companies can partner up with to foster a more diverse app development workforce.

Code2040

Code2040 is a nonprofit on a mission to dismantle the barriers keeping Black and Latinx people from entering the tech industry and reaching management positions, Code2040 can be a great source of diverse mobile app developers. The organization connects techies in early professional stages with mentors, prospective employees, and peers.

Its Early Career Accelerator Program (ECAP) aims to boost the careers of young Black and Latinx that are just getting started, while its Fellows Program is a career accelerator where students intern with the top tech companies in the country.

Black Girls Code

Founded in 2011, Black Girls Code is another not-for-profit organization that aims to end the underrepresentation of Black women in tech by providing education to girls. Black Girls Code has programs in computer programming, coding, and website, robot, and mobile app development. Its ultimate goal is to equip young Black women with the skills they need to become successful tech professionals.

Code For America

Driven by the values of openness, participation, and efficiency in government, Code For America aims to close the gap between the public and corporate sectors when it comes to the effective use of technology. By promoting the creation of open-source software, Code For America aims to make local governments more efficient.

Creating a diverse and welcoming atmosphere is about more than just hiring a few developers — it’s an ongoing process that may mean you need to create programs aimed at grooming your new hires for leadership and supporting them as they enter a new industry. But it’s a goal worth striving for, and organizations like those listed above are a good start.