Put out your hand in the air and slap me five. Welcome to the 5th episode of the SnackWalls Podcast.

I spoke with the fabulous and talented Maira Benjamin. 

Maira works at Pandora, which was recently bought by Sirius. Mike’s looking forward to what that acquisition brings as a SERIOUS Sirius XM radio listener. According to Maira finding talent has a lot to do with the way companies are recruiting and where they're recruiting. A lot of companies think they need to find the best engineers and then they go to the same highly ranked universities and colleges. She suggests also starting looking at talent that's coming out of coding boot camps.

Maira Benjamin has a wide range of interests within and beyond the software development industry. Maira is an Engineering Manager, Project Manager, Database specialist, Java/Ruby/C#/C++ Programmer, Author, Poet, Forum Administrator, Certified Scrum Master, Lyricist, Novelist, Angel Investor. She wears a lot of hats ;) Maira is also the co-founder of the Tech Intersections Conference. This is the first conference of its kind directed with a focus on women of color in technology.

• Tech Intersections: www.techintersections.org
• Pandora: www.pandora.com
• Maira Benjamin: www.linkedin.com/in/mairabenjamin/
• More episodes of the SnackWalls Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1280951

SnackWalls is powered by San Diego Code School: https://sdcs.io

Please share like and subscribe for more reach 🙌🏾

Welcome to the 4th episode of the SnackWalls Podcast.

I met another Karen but this one is definitely breaking the mold for 'Karens' these days.

Karen Walsh mentions one of the things companies have to do especially as we're moving towards a more remote workforce is for companies to change how they're doing things. She said this is a moment where we can actually reach out to people and change how we're doing things. Karen posed some pretty important questions for employees including: What are you doing? What are you asking for? What do you want in an employee? A couple of other suggestions include following the #blacktech on twitter and go out to where people are at.

• Karen Walsh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geekykaren/
• Allegro Solutions LLC: https://allegrosolutionsllc.com/
• More episodes of the SnackWalls Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1280951

SnackWalls is powered by San Diego Code School: https://sdcs.io

Please share like and subscribe for more reach 🙌🏾

Welcome to the 3rd episode of the SnackWalls Podcast.

I spoke to my man Gil who has a huge heart and thinks deeply about employees.

Gil takes a hard look at diversity and challenges management to analyze their organization’s underlying reasons for diversifying the talent pool. Once identified, is the organization truly structured to encourage and maintain a diversified workforce? Only then will companies successfully attract and retain diverse talent.

Gil Cohen is the Founder of Employee Experience Design (EX). He helps people-centric leaders and HR Outliers co-create inspirational employee experiences. Gil has helped numerous companies articulate the behaviors for success for their unique situation. Gil helps organizations focus on improving EX in ways that increase productivity, customer experience, retention, safety, and profitability.

• Employee Experience Design: http://employeeexperience.ca/
• Gil Cohen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilzcohen/
• More episodes of the SnackWalls Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1280951

SnackWalls is powered by San Diego Code School: https://sdcs.io

Please share like and subscribe for more reach 🙌🏾

Welcome back for episode 2 of the SnackWalls Podcast.

In this episode, we talk with one of my favorite local conduits for change Lean Chukoskie.

Leanne shares that there is plenty of diverse talent available, but in order for companies to find the diverse talent they seek, they will need to do things differently - including looking in different places and changing the hiring practices. Also, factoring retention into the strategy, employers will have to take a serious look at the workplace culture and determine if the culture supports diverse new employees for the long term.

Leanne is a trained neuroscientist and an associate research scientist at the Qualcomm Institute, UC San Diego. She is also Co-founder and Chief Science Officer at BrainLeap Technologies.

• PoNG: http://pong-center.ucsd.edu/
• BrainLeap: https://brainleaptech.com/
• Leanne Chukoskie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannechukoskie/
• More episodes of the SnackWalls Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1280951

SnackWalls is powered by San Diego Code School: https://sdcs.io

Please share like and subscribe for more reach 🙌🏾

Welcome to the 1st episode of the SnackWalls Podcast.

In our premiere episode, we talk with Bevon Joseph who is doing amazing work in Chicago.

Bevon’s recommendations for solving the reported diversity in the workplace issue...look for your talent in different pools and be intentional about it. But companies cannot be satisfied with increasing diversity. The real difference is measured by making everyone feel welcome and retaining the expanded workforce.

Bevon connects diverse student talent with career opportunities in financial services, fintech, and other industries. Bevon introduces minority high school and college students to the trading industry via summer internships, and/or creative partnerships with trading firms.

• Greenwood Project: http://greenwoodproject.org/
• Bevon Joseph: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bevon-joseph-greenwood/
• More episodes of the SnackWalls Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1280951

SnackWalls is powered by San Diego Code School: https://sdcs.io

Please share like and subscribe for more reach 🙌🏾