Why Big Tech is still failing to make significant progress on DEI

As a Black woman and a former Microsoft employee, I’ve been following Big Tech’s quiet deprioritization of DEI. It’s also why I ultimately left the industry.

In 2018, at the outset of my career as a tech sales professional, I found myself face-to-face with a recruiter, and my first question was, “Why should I work for you?” Some might have seen my inquiry as audacious, but it was genuine. As a Black LGBTQ woman, I needed to understand why I should invest my talents in a company that lacked Black leadership. The recruiter had little answer for me, but I believed I could make a difference and accepted the job offer at GitHub, which Microsoft acquired a few months later.