I respectfully disagree that the comment is terrible, though as its author I may be biased. The gist of my comment was to ask questions. CTRL-F "?". This service is not necessary if a company wants to hire diversity, all they have to do is look at the candidate to see that the candidate is non-white (again, if hiring diversity is the goal of the company). That just seems racist though.
I do agree with your point that companies can source from wherever they want, but using a service that excludes one or more races is really not a favorable solution. As I mentioned in a previous comment, I cannot recommend this solution to my clients, as it has too much potential for litigation. If Jopwell simply allowed all candidates to apply, regardless of race, and let the client company apply a filter like "Black" or "Native American" or search by photo, if that is the criteria or purpose of their search, then it would make a bit more sense.
> This service is not necessary if a company wants to hire diversity, all they have to do is look at the candidate to see that the candidate is non-white (again, if hiring diversity is the goal of the company).
The purpose of this is not for companies who want to (illegally, I might add) make hiring decisions based on race.
The purpose of this is to provide an additional component to the funnel for companies that want to increase the diversity of the pool from which they are drawing candidates, so that their (hopefully, already race-blind) hiring process ends up producing a more diverse pool of selected employees.
Of course this is for companies that want to make hiring (or at least interviewing) decisions based on race.
Applicants can apply directly for race-blind selection.
The advantage this service provides to applicants is identifying them as members of underrepresented groups for special consideration; the advantage it provides to companies is identifying these applicants to improve corporate "diversity" (in the narrow identity-politics sense).
There are many problems that cause the population of tech candidates to be skewed, but one you may be overlooking is literally not knowing job openings exist or who to talk to.
I grew up in a small town, did not know anyone in the tech industry, and was largely self-taught. Once in college, I got lucky and got to know hackers on irc, and that led to jobs in the security industry. My first security job came from being recruited over irc for a company in Atlanta I had barely heard of and certainly never would have applied to without them contacting me.
I see Jopwell as like that recruiter, connecting with people that may not be as well connected so they even know a job exists to apply to. The candidate must still be good for the job, which is why companies hire.
I do agree with your point that companies can source from wherever they want, but using a service that excludes one or more races is really not a favorable solution. As I mentioned in a previous comment, I cannot recommend this solution to my clients, as it has too much potential for litigation. If Jopwell simply allowed all candidates to apply, regardless of race, and let the client company apply a filter like "Black" or "Native American" or search by photo, if that is the criteria or purpose of their search, then it would make a bit more sense.