Hispanic IT Leaders Work To Close the Gap
Hispanic and Latinx representation in IT remains low, but thanks to the efforts of Hispanic and Latinx professionals and their forward-thinking employers, the future looks brighter.
By Sarah K. White, Senior Writer, CIO
Mentoring to make a difference
The value of mentorship and sponsorship can’t be understated when it comes to fostering and growing your career. But for underrepresented groups in the tech industry, it can be difficult to find mentors and sponsors inside and outside the organization. Mentorship is all about creating connections that help professionals better understand what it takes to go to the next level, says Tim Grijalva, president of GoDaddy LatinX technology and director of learning.
“I think that individuals that have opportunities, whether that’s been through academic, or they’ve had mentors in their life, they’ve had more exposure to understand” what it takes to develop a career, he says. “It’s about conversations. It’s about asking questions to understand how you become manager or director. For folks in the Latin community itself, it’s a challenge because I think not everybody feels that some of those higher achievements are available to them as a Latino. And it’s often hard to understand who you can ask and who you can have the conversations with to understand [a path forward in tech].”
In fact, there was a time when Grijalva himself wasn’t sure if he’d be able to land a job at GoDaddy without a background in engineering. But after getting a job in learning and sales, his career grew with the organization, putting him on the path to leadership.
