Black people still few and far between in San Diego's biotech industry

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An industry known for tackling tough problems still hasn't cracked one: diversity.

Tech companies are famous for moving fast. Yet despite calling diversity a priority since 2014, they remain mostly white and mostly male.

Lewis has spent over a decade helping organize an annual meeting held for Black chemists and chemical engineers. Participants get to share their research and interview with representatives from pharma giants such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Merck. Even when Black candidates apply, their applications often get weeded out because they don’t fit the mold hiring managers expect, said Ava Mason, who was often one of the only Black women at the biotech and pharma companies where she worked for 20 years. She now runs a nonprofit that exposes underrepresented children to science, technology, engineering and math.

Other times, biases aren’t so subtle. Lewis remembers applying for jobs early into his career without any luck. A human resources manager offered to look over his resume and, noticing sections that identified Lewis as a person of color, suggested he remove them. That’s when Lewis’s fortunes started to change.“It’s amazing how the script kind of flipped,” Lewis said. “The phone started ringing. You’re getting emails back saying they want to follow up.

 

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YOUR POINT?

BiotechSweden The Biotech industry doesn't care what color you are .... jump through the hoops like everyone else.

HealthyCarnivor Really?

We must force them to go into Biotech.

you get there by earning it not Black Self Entitlement .................. if you dont have the skills why should you be there ?

maybe they dont want to be 🤷‍♀️

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