Author: Brittney Oliver
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Karen Williams started her career in human resources, working for Paramount Staffing and Exel. She then carried her six years of experience with her from Memphis to Nashville, where she would eventually start her own talent agency, MinTech Agency, to help place Black and Latinx tech professionals into high-paying roles.
Nashville has experienced significant population and tourism growth in the last decade, but it’s also becoming a growing tech scene, particularly for the healthcare sector. The city is even attracting big-name companies like Lyft, Postmates, Asurion, Smile Direct Club, and most recently Amazon. Facebook also announced plans to make a presence in the greater Nashville area with the construction of a $800 million data center in Gallatin.
According to Middle Tennessee State University’s 2019 “State of Middle Tennessee Tech” report, more than 79% of tech positions in the Greater Nashville area are filled by white professionals. The report also showed that compared to the general working population in Middle Tennessee, the tech workforce has a lower percentage of Black (-6.3%) and Latinx (-2.5%) employees.
It’s one of the reasons why Williams has found fast success with her company. In a year since starting her business, which launched in August 2019, she’s brought in over $250,000 in revenue, thanks in large part to the commitment companies were slowly making toward diversifying their talent.
“I figured, let’s see if I could be a solution, because I always wanted to be an entrepreneur but I didn’t know where I would fit in,” she told Insider. “It took a lot [of] figuring out who I was and what I wanted,” she added.
A speaking opportunity at the Nashville Software School, a vocational school that trains adults in software development, UI/UX design, data analytics, and data science, where she spoke on a panel about the lack of diversity in the software space, led her to her first client. She gained the opportunity to speak on the panel through networking with other members at the local entrepreneurship center where she was learning how to build and scale a business. William’s passion for diversifying the tech industry caught the attention of a member who hosted the panel.
“The CTO of Centauri Health Solutions, a healthcare technology and services company, came up to me and said, ‘I want to be that advocate for you. I want to be that first client or clients to help bring in talent. And I won’t go cold,'” Williams said.
While she got comfortable managing her new client, she also started cold pitching other businesses her services. She sent a LinkedIn message to the chief technology officer at Dollar General and was quickly able to secure a meeting with him.
“He replied and was like, ‘Sure, I’d love to hear more about what you do and what makes you all different from other recruiters,'” she said. Williams then replied with a comps sheet of services and a list of her clients, which included the CTO of Centauri, who happened to be his colleague.
“It’s not everybody’s story when it comes to recruiting, but that company is probably the only company I went after, and everyone else has come to me,” Williams said. Other clients that eventually came on board included The General Auto Insurance and Fisk University. Because of her low overhead costs due to working out of her home instead of an office, she said, MinTech grew and made a profit faster than expected.
“A lot of people, when they start a business, they want a nice office,” she said. “They want all this fancy stuff. I didn’t need any of that because I needed to make sure that I could pay payroll and I could put money up for development and growing our team.” The agency now has two employees and an intern.
Williams spoke with Insider about how she finds diverse talent for her clients and her secrets to getting poached by a recruiter.
The process for seeking out and vetting diverse talent
Finding talent, she said, hasn’t been as easy as finding new business.
“Being able to find people of color in tech is definitely a job,” she said. “If you think you’re going to just put a job on LinkedIn or Indeed and they’re going to flood your inbox, that’s not how it works. You have to really go look for them and meet them where they are.”
Williams spends her day searching LinkedIn and finding minority tech groups and minority-owned recruiting firms to partner with to find talent across the country.
“What we do is we go after those people that aren’t necessarily looking,” she said about her strategy. “You really have to look because the majority of the time, they’re already working, and they’re pretty much happy or content and don’t want to stir the pot.” MinTech, she said, doesn’t take an aggressive approach to candidate outreach. If a prospective candidate says they’re not interested, Williams always asks them to share the position with their network — and has seen an increase in referrals as a result of this tactic.
“We are in the business of building relationships, so we keep in touch with them just to stay top of mind,” she said, so when they’re ready to look for jobs or come across someone who’s looking, they think of her.
She added that they often join in on conversations online to provide tips and resources. MinTech, Williams estimated, reaches out to 50 to 75 potential candidates per role to find the three to five people who are actually looking or interested in a new opportunity.
Williams doesn’t believe there’s a pipeline problem for Black and Latinx tech talent. Still, she does find recruiting them difficult when companies are very particular with what they’re looking for. Williams believes many companies have high expectations of an ideal minority candidate and said they need to be open to developing candidates if they don’t fulfill every requirement.
“The unicorn is not coming; adjust what you’re looking for,” she said.
Filling roles becomes a challenge in the pandemic
MinTech had found its groove coming into 2020 until the pandemic hit, Williams said. In the beginning, some clients started pulling their job postings and went on hiring freezes, but her retail clients like Dollar General continued to grow.
Candidates today, she noted, are afraid to leave their roles amidst a shaky economy and job market. Her clients are also looking for mid- to senior-level tech candidates and wanting talent to relocate, which has been a turn off for many. Candidates haven’t seemed interested in changing jobs unless they thought their job was in jeopardy or their contracts were ending, and for minority candidates she found this to be a rare occurrence.
“The pandemic put a lot of fear in people, as far as, you know, trying something new or starting a new opportunity,” she said. “It was more so like, ‘No, I need to stay here where I feel safe.'”
She said she started to see renewed interest in June as companies decided to make commitments to diversity hiring. The demand for racial equality in the wake of George Floyd’s death also created new business for her. “We picked up at least three or four new clients after that happened,” she said.
Tips for navigating today’s job market
Williams believes now’s the time to ask the important questions that will determine if a company or role will provide job security.
For those still looking for a job, Williams advised getting a recruiter who can help relieve the stress of finding the right roles for you and bring in new leads. She suggested narrowing your search to 10 companies and targeting your ideal positions instead of spending time applying to hundreds of jobs.
“Don’t be afraid to reach out to people,” she said. “If you find out who the hiring manager is, send a LinkedIn message.”
When searching for talent on LinkedIn, one turn-off for Williams is when a resume doesn’t match the LinkedIn profile. She advised that both items should match with the correct jobs, companies, titles, and lengths of service. Other items your LinkedIn should include, she said, are a clear photo, links to all your online profiles that show off your skills and experience, a video to show personality, and a list of skills and tools you’re proficient in.
“Tell a story with your job duties,” she said. “Tell us what you did and how you were a benefit to the team, not just the duties from the job description. I want to feel like I just interviewed you when I finish reviewing your Linkedin profile.”
This article was originally published on Insider December 20, 2020.
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