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For ages, Black employees have been underrepresented in the otherwise geeky world of the tech industry. According to research, in 2018, Black workers accounted for 12% of the entire U.S. workforce, but only 8% were tech professionals. A 2021 report indicates that Black employees have much shorter tenure in tech organizations than non-Black employees, and they also tend to move more between companies than their non-black colleagues.
Due to the low representation of Black People in the field, Black tech employees have few visible role models to aspire to, learn from, and emulate in the tech sector. Because of this, there are far fewer lived experiences to draw from, and organizations continue to use procedures that are more effective for others.
So enters Jermaine L. Murray, aka ‘The Jobfather,’ the founder of Toronto-based job consulting firm JupiterHR, creating opportunities for Black people in tech by helping professionals secure jobs and recruiters diversify their hiring practices. Jermaine is a recruiter and career coach dedicated to getting more Black people involved within the industry. He specializes in making things transparent while connecting people with inclusive environments where they could have great careers.
Jermaine went to school for Broadcast Journalism to become the Black Larry King and got a brief stint on a Sirius XM radio show for 6 months before it was axed. After multiple failed attempts, he started JupiterHR, a resume-writing business that slowly evolved into a Recruitment and Referral business for Black candidates.
Increasing the Representation of Black People in Tech
JupiterHR is a Career Coaching and Recruitment platform focused on increasing the back representation in the world of technology. Since 2019, the company has helped over 351 Black people to get their next job within the tech industry.
Under Jermaine’s leadership, JupiterHR focuses exclusively on placing Black community candidates. Over the years, the organization has built up a community of over 10,000 Black professionals worldwide and adds more daily to its community. It has launched a Recruitment Academy that trains people from all over the planet to become full-fledged tech recruiters with a guaranteed paid internship.
It also has plans to facilitate the hiring of 12 people from Jamaica and the Caribbean to get Remote Recruitment jobs that can pay at least $50k, which is 5x the average salary for residents of the Caribbean Islands.
Ensuring A Smooth Sailing Process
Jermaine is fascinated by seeing all the opportunities for people to make a living. Witnessing what the market is offering and then using that information to empower people by making them aware of all the employment opportunities available if they know where to look and how to position their skill sets.
As a career coaching and recruitment platform, JupiterHR believes in centering its goals, processes, and execution around prioritizing what is best for its community members. This ensures complete transparency from the onset, starting from salary to the DEI makeup of an organization. It also informs its candidates that it’s okay to withdraw from an interview process if they feel the role is not suitable or what they expected before the interview.
Navigating Challenges
Jermaine believes identifying organizations that haven’t thrown DEI to the wind because of the recession is one the biggest challenge for JupiterHR.
“It, unfortunately, seems that for many companies, the first cuts they made were to their DEI initiatives. It is of the utmost importance that we vet our partners and companies interested in working with us because we don’t want to put our community members in positions where they’re set up to fail,“-he said.
Additionally, Jermaine is also witnessing a lot of pushback on the Work from Home models from employers and an even stronger backlash from candidates and employees who are ready to walk away from their jobs that don’t offer flexibility.
Looking at the Future
In the future, JupiterHR will continue to grow from just helping Black people get jobs in tech to assist them in getting jobs in all industries, starting from healthcare to construction to education and several other critical sectors.
As an advocate for Black talents in tech, Jermaine wants to see more Black Recruiters, Black Hiring Managers, and Black Leadership in every sector to ensure a diverse talent pipeline.
