Removing Systemic Barriers to Tech

Tech companies struggle with employment practices that are biased, unproven, and exclusionary, which results in a privileged workforce, still relatively homogenous even in 2021. In the meantime, women and BIPOC adults have been largely shut out, unable to access the wealth it has created, or contribute ideas and solutions. Pursuit's empowers talented, marginalized adults to transform their lives by becoming software engineers. Our three-sided market model stands out as being one of the few to solve for a market disconnect between diverse, blue collar workers and tech employers, while also finding a way to finance it. We are on track to serve over 900 people by the end of 2021, but our goal is to share our model with all other workforce organizations so it can be adopted on a larger scale. In doing so, we can solve for systemic inequities and improve lifetime wage gains for millions of Americans.

Over the next ten years, the software engineering field, with a median annual salary of over $106,000 (Glassdoor), is expected to grow 22% whereas the average growth for all industries is only 4% (BLS) indicating massive opportunity and growth. However, the hiring for these roles tend to exclude minorities and entry-level candidates. Minorities and women tend to underperform in high-pressure technical interviews, which include problem solving and questions that are not relevant to the job responsibilities or day-to-day activities (WSJ). Another barrier for this talent pipeline is unnecessary degree requirements, which disqualify 70% of African Americans and over 80% of Latinx candidates (NPR). Over standardized hiring practices coupled with exclusive tech networks (The Atlantic) are biased, unproven, and end up excluding diverse and talented candidates from access to high-paying jobs. At the same time, the pandemic has a disproportionate economic impact on women, and BIPOC individuals, who are more likely to hold lower-paying, lower-skilled jobs that are increasingly getting automated. Low-income individuals also struggle with accessing post-secondary education due to cost and debt. 

Pursuit is a social impact organization that transforms the lives of adults with the most need and potential by training them to become software developers, launch careers in tech, and become leaders in the industry. On average, our Fellows increase their annual salaries from $18,000 to $85,00, which amounts to about $2M in additional lifetime earnings. We do this through a model that addresses the three-sided marketplace of marginalized individuals seeking training, employers looking to hire tech talent, and funders, both philanthropic and impact investors.

Through our curriculum, we create a supportive, community-based learning model. Through our Employer Partnerships, we work with companies to redesign their hiring and retention practices to be inclusive. Through our Bond, we have created an innovative financing model that so that the organization can expand and sustain itself without relying solely on philanthropy.

Pursuit works directly with historically marginalized communities to provide economic opportunity and create the next leaders in tech. Our solution has the most impact on low-income minorities and women that are pursuing careers in software engineering. Tech careers have historically been out of reach for minority populations. Even as recent as 2020, women only comprise 19.6% of software engineers. Black/ African Americans and Latinx communities are markedly worse as they only comprise 6.2% and 5.9% of software engineers (BLS), respectively. One of the largest barriers to entry into the tech field for marginalized communities are college degree requirements. As a result of being underrepresented in high paying career opportunities these communities also have the lowest median family wealth. Black/ African Americans have $24,100 in median family wealth and Latinx families have $36,100 in median family wealth compared to $188,200 in median family wealth held by White families (Federal Reserve).  

Pursuit’s solution is driven to produce economic opportunities for marginalized communities to build generational wealth through procuring high-paying jobs. We intentionally serve individuals from groups underrepresented in the industry. Our Fellows are 46% women, 95% minority (including 63% Black and/or Latinx), 36% immigrants, 59% without a college degree, and 100% low income individuals. On average, our Fellows increase their annual salaries from $18,000 to $85,000, which amounts to about $2M in additional lifetime earnings.

Our Fellows are incredible people who face incredible systemic and individual obstacles perpetuated by sexism, racism, and classism, and know that their hard work and persistence will be key to their success. Simply teaching our audiences how to code is not enough to help them succeed, which is why Pursuit's program and approach is deep, long-term, and multi-faceted. We equip our Fellows with not only the technical and soft-skills, but also the confidence to persist and believe in themselves. 

Our employer partnership work was created in response to our Fellows sharing the prejudices they have faced while looking for a job. It is heartbreaking to hear from Fellows giving their all during the Core curriculum, applying for jobs, and then giving up after a year of being turned down, because of systemic failures in hiring that favor connections and class over talent.

One reason why our country struggles to create equitable workplaces in tech is not because of a lack of technology. Hiring, especially for software engineers, is supposed to function as a meritocracy, however that is often not the case. More often, the process is muddled by signalling, sexism, racism, and classism, which excludes the population Pursuit recruits and serves. Pursuit's Employer Partnership solutions solve for this, and Pursuit's training and career support equalizes access to career and personal transformation, resulting in pipeline of highly-talented, diverse, entry-level software engineers.

Pursuit has spent the last three years learning and iterating on our hiring partnerships. We have successfully executed Pursuit Commit at Citi, Union Square Ventures, Twitter, Thumbtack, Andreessen Horowitz, Moody’s, and several other companies. Pursuit LevelUp has been executed at Blue Apron and Uber, with the latter renewing its contract year over year. We on track to secure commitments with 20 companies this year, securing over 100 allocated hiring spots in total. 

We have defined the employer partnership solution and how it can be marketed and operationalized. We have been able to monetize these partnerships to a small degree to help offset costs to Pursuit. However, funding to execute the marketing and operations would be catalytic in helping Pursuit scale these partnerships to other companies and industries, getting exponentially more Fellows hired, and more importantly, igniting a trend across industries.

Pursuit is well positioned to transform the systems and mindsets in the tech industry for women and POC, because our program is designed for deeper support, our staff reflects the experiences of our Fellows, and we have proven, industry-leading results that are ready to be scaled. Our program design centers all activities around the Pursuit community, which consists of staff, alumni, and Fellows. Our Fellows tell us it’s like being part of a family. This sense of belonging is critical to fostering persistence and success throughout every part of a challenging journey.

Our experience developing these programs was led by the community we serve. Many of our instructors are also “non-traditional” talent, and several are Pursuit alumni. Our leadership team are all first generation immigrants of color. Pursuit’s staff overall reflects the diversity of New York City and the Fellowship; 42% are women or non-binary, 39% are non-white, and 50% are immigrants.

From these experiences, we’ve been able to demonstrate impressive outcomes. Our Fellows have a graduation rate of 84%, with 77% being hired into the tech industry. Once hired, 76% are retained long-term. In the last 12 months, 100 of our Fellows have been hired, almost half through our Employment Partnerships. This has resulted in $19M in increased wages. We have partnerships with 20 employers, and are aiming to secure guaranteed roles for 100% of our graduates by the end of 2023.

Most companies want to be more diverse and inclusive, but only some have set clear goals, and ever fewer have allocated the resources and buy-in needed to overhaul current employment practices. Pursuit’s employer partnerships solve this by providing actionable steps and industry-based knowledge that enable companies to 1. gain the buy-in needed internally to let go of exclusionary hiring practices, and 2. operationalize new inclusive hiring and retention practices. 

Pursuit’s model is unique because unlike recruitment firms, we have vertically integrated the Fellow selection process, training, employment, and career advancement (for up to three years after employment). Therefore, we are able to adjust each step to meet specific needs of an employer partner.

Pursuit has been able to successfully implement Commit and LevelUp to dozens of leading companies, and this year we are on track to secure about 100 spots for Fellow alumni and those set to graduate this year. From 2021-2024, Pursuit will train nearly 1,000 Fellows, with a goal of securing allocated spots for each Fellow, using our employer partnership solution. This will unlock $1BN in lifetime earnings for just Pursuit Fellows. As more companies see what’s possible, competitors across the industry are more likely to follow suit. The Commit, LevelUp, and Dev Shop models also have the potential to be adjusted for industries beyond tech into other sectors, allowing for widespread adoption. Doing so will allow for more opportunities for racially-diverse talent to be hired and retained into high-paying, business critical careers, across all industries. 

Pursuit’s employer partnership solution is a new business model and process that allows employer partners to successfully recruit and retain talented engineers from all backgrounds. Our three solutions are Commit, LevelUp, and Build.

Through Commit, Pursuit partners with companies on several models, including integrating our Core curriculum with existing internship/apprenticeship programs. We also offer a three-year track from junior to mid-level engineer, comprising two phases—Push and Merge. Push helps our Fellows contribute to their new teams in the first year. Merge provides progressive responsibilities that align with internal engineering standards, driving toward a mid-level role in two years. During Push, Pursuit is involved in the hiring, interview process, mentorship program, onboarding, and performance management design. During Merge, we provide three years of monthly coaching and professional development support for engineers, while maintaining regular engagement with company stakeholders.

Through LevelUp, we partner with companies to identify, recruit, and train their blue-collar and non-traditional workers to become software engineers. Upon completion of Core and passing the partner companies’ hiring processes, LevelUp Fellows are offered full-time positions as software engineers. 

Our newest way of partnering is through our Build offering. We collaborate with employers to scope their tech project needs, and hire recent Pursuit recent graduates and alumni to execute. Foundation and government partners are able to meet their objectives, such as build websites for small businesses, and Pursuit Fellows can add projects to their engineering portfolio, making them more attractive to prospective employers.

Pursuit’s model is effective, evidenced by our outcomes across our cohorts. Our Fellows complete 1600+ hours of training in technical, professional, and soft skills. After graduating and getting hired, Fellows more than quadruple their salaries on average, and over 75% who are hired stay in these jobs long-term. Based on this income jump, a Fellow will earn an estimated $2 million more in their lifetime than they would have otherwise. 

Over the past three years, our employment partnerships have played an increasingly significant role in Pursuit’s model. It is our hope that these partnerships will create a demand-driven model that ensures our Fellows are not only trained and job-ready, but also consistently hired into high-paying software engineering roles. 

While the previously stated jump in earnings is compelling evidence of Pursuit's impact, there is an opportunity to impact public policy on a national scale if we can prove our outcomes through a randomized control trial (RCT), the most credible method for determining causal impact. For this reason, Pursuit is partnering with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL) at MIT to analyze the impact of the Pursuit Fellowship on Fellows’ career paths, earnings, and other life outcomes. 

Through the RCT, this 5-year study will compare outcomes for individuals who are accepted into Pursuit to those who were similarly qualified but not accepted due to capacity constraints. This evaluation will contribute to the body of evidence on workforce and sectoral training programs, and create generalizable evidence to enable refinement of the model at Pursuit and for similar programs.

No

Pursuit’s currently serves nearly 700 Fellows and alumni. To adjust to the changes brought by the pandemic, our 7.0 cohort was halved last year to two classes. Our standard class size is 36 Fellows. Cohorts over the next three years will be 5 classes of 36 in 2021 (Year 1: 8.0 cohort), 8 classes of 36 in 2022 (Year 2: 9.0 cohort), and 11 classes of 36 in 2023 (Year 3: 10.0 cohort). In Year 1 we will serve 180 Fellows. Year 2 we are projected to serve 288 Fellows and in Year 3 we will serve 396 Fellows. We will serve about 937 Fellows from 2021 to 2023.

We will be projecting cohort sizes for years 4 and 5 over the next year. 

Create a nationally scalable model for workforce development by expanding Pursuit’s training model in NYC to serve more low-income New Yorkers, create over $1B in lifetime wage gains, and achieve financial sustainability. 

As Pursuit expands its program, we are strengthening the organization in NYC to achieve stronger outcomes, create over $1B in lifetime wage gains, and achieve financial sustainability.

We are doing this through:

1. Improving the quality and consistency of program outcomes: doubling down on the experience of fellows and employers, building upon the Pursuit Fellowship offering, investing in new staff positions, putting in place a dynamic system of performance evaluation, and moving to a larger office. 

2. Strengthening neighborhood-based partnerships to ensure more low income New Yorkers have access to Pursuit’s program. 

3. Implementing Pursuit Bond 2.0 in New York City to achieve financial sustainability and deeply align the program with its outcomes. 

2. Establish a demand-driven solution to workforce development by creating and securing job opportunities through innovative employer partnerships. 

3. Create a roadmap for national expansion of Pursuit’s operations including the creation of a Staff Augmentation B-Corp.

Successfully expanding nationally using this approach will demonstrate that the American dream is not just limited to major cities and enables new pools of talent that would otherwise be limited by geography. This also creates 1) wealth for our Fellows 2) provides real world work experience and exposure 3) deeper trust with employers.

1. Serve more low-income New Yorkers and achieve financial sustainability: We are measuring this through the quality and consistency of program outcomes, neighborhood-based partnerships, and Implementing Pursuit Bond 2.0. 

2. Employment Partnerships: Pursuit intends to grow this initiative to achieve the following outcomes:

• Grow the number of hiring commitments from partner companies from 20 to 100 annually

• Increase the hiring rate of Pursuit Fellows from 80 to 85

• Increase the industry retention rate from 75 to 90

• Increase salaries of fellows - average of 85 (starting salary) to 95 (after the end of 4 years)

3. Roadmap for National expansion: In the near term, Pursuit has planned what expanding the Fellowship training model nationally would look like, while piloting and testing the Staff Augmentation B-Corps in NYC. Based on the lessons learned for each of these phases, we envision expanding the training and staff augmentation B-Corps together to locations that lack a skilled workforce and careers in technology.

Pursuit’s solution team is composed of 39 full time staff members and 4 part time contractors.

Pursuit’s team is well-positioned to deliver this solution because of our unique experiences and background. In 2011, our CEO Jukay Hsu, a second generation Chinese-American immigrant, launched Pursuit as a community advocacy group focused on increasing economic opportunities in technology for low-income communities in Queens, New York, the most racially diverse county in America.  

With this vision, Jukay and his co-founder Dave Yang, begin engaging community groups, elected officials, and local stakeholders to advocate for the benefits and opportunities created by tech. Through these conversations, they learned that many people in New York City have talent, grit, and heart, but existing pathways into tech sector jobs were out of reach for most. In response, Pursuit began experimenting with workshops featuring high-quality tech education and skills for low-income adults. What we learned shaped what would become the Pursuit Fellowship. 

Pursuit Team is made of passionate individuals with a wealth of different experiences and knowledge that reflect those of our Fellows. We are immigrants, women or non-binary, Black, Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, from low and middle income backgrounds, and former Pursuit Fellows. All of our instructors have been through educational experiences similar to the Fellows they are teaching. These diverse perspectives give every department, including our Program Team and Instructors firsthand perspectives on executing the programs we deliver to our Fellows.

Pursuit aims to bring in diverse candidates for roles at all levels we are looking to fill. The decision depends on the hiring manager, who is encouraged to consider candidates that are women or non-binary, non-white, and come from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. Pursuit does not require a college degree for any of its roles. 

As a result, of the 14 colleagues at the Director level and above, 50% are non-white, 29% are women, and 57% are first or second generation immigrants.  

Pursuit is also currently searching for a Director of People who can build on and grow existing efforts within the company to see and recognize backgrounds and cultures that reflect the diversity that is present in the staff, and our headquarters of Queens, New York City, the most racially diverse county in the United States.

Pursuit is applying to the Digital Workforce Challenge to receive access to funding in grants and investments, join a powerful network of peers, for validation on the impact of Pursuit model, and to gain exposure in the media and at conferences.

Regarding the Employer Partner solution in particular, the funding would be critical in helping us scale our efforts to diversify software engineering. The exposure, funding, and networking could inspire more companies to see that it’s possible to redesign exclusionary hiring practices, and move them to action.