Honest questions: Why are there disproportionately so few Black and Latino people in consulting in the US? How can we increase diversity?

likefunny
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Hot take/partial answer - it can be hard to know what these jobs are and how to apply/recruit for them, if you do not have any experience with this world. I wouldn’t have except I had one peer who somehow figured it out and I followed them.

Not to discount bias problems but others may be more qualified to comment on those.

likesmart

Completely relate and agree with your post.

Just look at the numbers - blacks make up 11% of the population. Of that 11%, firms will only recruit you if you have a college degree. Now only 20% of that population has college degrees. So now you’re down to 2% of the population can even pass the basic sniff test to get into any firm. Of the 2%, how many have relevant degrees that would fit consulting? Maybe half? So now, you’re looking at <1% of the population is even recruitable. Oh and every firm wants them so they have “diversity”. It’s a mess.

likesmartuplifting

D4, it’s semantics.

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I believe what the others were trying to say is: Structural Racism

You know how wordy consultants can get.

likefunny

There is a bit of a need to accept reality in order to solve for it. There is a grassroots problem and we are trying to blame and fix the wrong causes here. Instead of setting ludicrous goals to match demographic proportions at the workplace (which unless you are delusional you know can’t be achieved under current circumstances) can’t we force our companies to ensure they sponsor enough children to educational programs such that this becomes a lesser of a problem with every passing class? Let’s admit that the current goals that we set up are just a cop out measure. Instead can we force our companies to do something like offset the disproportion in the workplace by sponsoring an equivalent number of underprivileged kids to education. How wonderful would that be?

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We made offers to 6 HBCU grads this year and only one male applicant accepted. Other five female applicants declined our offer and told us that they are in high demand because everyone wants to hire black women now a days. On my LinkedIn feed, I see that black women being promoted or appointed at senior executive levels almost every other day now. Maybe they all deserve it or they don’t, I wouldn’t know but it feels like the corporate world seem to go from one end of the spectrum and other end of the spectrum when something terrible happens in the society like GF’s death.

likefunnysmarthelpful

Amazon1: I understand that a system based in strict merit would be a great goal. But I’ve heard that in some other colleagues from URM just like me.

I don’t fully agree. I believe that is taking the issue up and saying, the partners or the “decision makers” are wrong, if they could see clearly, they would give promotions based on merit and URM would be better. I don’t think that would solve the problem. It is more structural than that and many time URM are not even given the opportunity to prove themselves, much less to show all their merit.

This issue comes before that, it comes from the base. If the URM do not have the base and they start from behind it is impossible to show any merit directly, there should be something to “balance” things now and eventually this whole issue will be solved. But now, these balancing actions are needed

likesmart

I’m black and recently decided to leave BCG. I’m joining a top hedge fund next month.

For me, it was primarily about the ridiculous lack of WLB for “okay” money compared to other options.

But I also noticed the massive benefits the white men had over others.

Being promoted to Managing Director & Partner is entirely through having a sponsor. White men have hundreds of potential mentors who looked like them and acted like them.

It’s human nature to like people who are like us. So it’s harder to rise in a professional context that relies on subjective evaluations.

At the hedge fund I’m joining, it is far more diverse. The majority of the staff are Indian, Asian and Jewish. There are a lot of Africans too.

I decided to leave because in the hedge fund industry, you can look at objective performance and you are rewarded based on that.

likeuplifting

You are right BCG1. This is the “familiarity BIAS” I was talking about. Not only because of someone’s looks, but also because of their educational background, cultural interests, accent and way of living.

It is human nature to feel closer to those that are more similar to you and to praise more those who give importance to the same things you do... then, the only way is to stop using so subjective ways of hiring and specially reward or give performance ratings. It should be done in a different way.

likesmart

The lack of a good public education system in the US. Access to proper education is where it all starts imo. These D&I efforts by firms are all superficial measures that don’t actually address the problem.

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I went to a "bad" high school (3/10 rating on Greatschools). The teachers were all fine, if unspectacular. Most of the students had little interest in being there, nor did they take education all that seriously. Just suggesting that the schools are bad is stopping short of the root cause of educational underperformance.

In addition to important things above (like role models, old white men running the show, lingering racism), I’d note that you don’t see a lot of poor white kids from Appalachia etc. in consulting either.

You gotta fix the roots. In no particular order:

Fix underperforming Pre-K through 12 education in poor neighborhoods. (Which involves exiting a load of under-performing teachers and principals, which is difficult for lots of reasons).

Address cultural shifts resulting in catastrophic loss of family formation among poor demographics.

Address cultural shifts resulting in low aspirations, and defeatist attitudes among most poor demographics.

Etc.

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Two big reasons in my opinion.

(1) A big portion of it, especially for people who have graduated 10, 20, 30 years ago and are in the consulting today, is that the supply of diversity was very limited to begin with. That of course has to do with a variety of societal issues at the time, which continue to plague us today - structural racism takes a long time to overcome. As an example, I started 20 years ago. There was no diversity in my STEM classes in college - I was the only woman. My consulting starting class had one black man and one other woman. That’s one of the reasons why we have so few diverse leaders at senior leadership levels and why the demand for them is so high - they’re unicorns.

The problem continues - the entry into MBA and STEM for example in colleges are still lower for women and minorities. Finance is a bit better. Accounting is fairing the best but problems are still there. This of course starts in high school and even earlier - you need to be interested in these fields and subjects to continue. This is why so many consulting firms are focused on supporting programs targeting younger kids. We need to develop interest in these subjects so we increase diversity of college grads and in turn our incoming classes.

(2) Lack of support for the existing diverse consultants. Lots of reasons for that - everything from not enough diversity to understand and cater to diversity to unconscious biases to flat out racism. Importance of programs and targeted support and mentors is critical. Education of everyone on unconscious biases and how to identify and work through them is critical. Zero tolerance policies for unacceptable behaviors are critical.

We are making progress. The face of consulting is changing and becoming more diverse but there is still so much work to do.

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One thing any study of demographics and bias overlooks is personal choice, and at least part of that comes down to name recognition and awareness of the overall consulting industry.

When I was in undergrad, I had no idea what consulting was and had never heard of any of the big names. I was vaguely aware of B5 at the time, but knew them only for tax and accounting stuff, not for consulting. MBB and T2 were names that meant nothing to me, and so on.

Fast forward 10 years and I ran the campus recruiting for my brand name consulting firm at my alma mater for a few years. Blacks and Latinos made up approximately 12% and 10% of the student body, respectively, for the 4 years I ran recruiting there, but we never cracked higher than 5% applications, let alone hires, from either of those two demographics during that time period. We did two in person career fairs per school year, did in person presentations to students in the business program once a year, and I made myself available for informational interviews. Myself and 2 of the other 4 people on the recruiting team there were minorities, so we definitely weren't white washing the firm in our presentations.

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I support a lot of our campus recruiting efforts.

One thing that we've tried to do is focus on getting to people earlier in their college career while they still have the opportunity to prepare for a career in consulting.

It takes a while to find the right student groups and the right forums to present, but it's starting to pay dividends a couple years on as the students we reached as freshmen are now getting to be juniors and seniors.

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I'd implore you to look at the demographics of your firm's target schools. Very hard to find URM candidates when your target schools' average 70% white students.

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Sorry A2 - you’re in the wrong here and SPM1 is right. To your point of international students - all consulting firms hire international students. MOST international students who come to the US to study come here with the intention of working, not of returning to their home country. So again you would have to include them in the statistics.

Everyone is kind of dancing around the terms “structural racism” or “subconscious bias”, but I’m not sure how else to explain it when at my firm we routinely have qualified black and brown applicants yet somehow only end up giving offers to white boys. 🧐

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Other than the lack of outreach from companies... Representation - you don’t know what you don’t know. Your knowledge of your options is limited. You think of future jobs you’ve seen people you know or look like you in. You don’t even think you could go into consulting or IB because you’ve never met anyone doing it. You don’t choose a relevant major and you never seek the job. I know this because most programs that help underrepresented students are in humanities and liberal arts. Some science as well... I was an Econ major at a big 10 and I never met another black woman in my major. I went to a STEM high school and still never knew what a finance major or major In information systems and information tech could get me. I made it here because someone from my high school invited me to info night for a business fraternity when I was freshman in college. Without that, I never would have made it to this point.

It’s about teaching students that there are options in this life other than what they push to you (be a lawyer, be a doctor, be a nurse, study science, study engineering) ... no one tells young minorities to go into business or finance.

There are more programs now that are trying to open up students’ eyes to more... but it’s going to take time. Let’s not forget that the civil rights act was signed 57 years ago... that’s not even three full generations. Opportunities for education, obtaining wealth, and getting ahead are stifled. These diversity initiatives are a result of the world needing to play catch up because of its egregious acts. That’s why it’s so hard.

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Succeeding in consulting is based off of a system originally designed by white men for white men. The characteristics and expectations of what we set for our leaders are often asking them to fit into a mold more than I think we realize. I think in consulting that mold is defined by personality traits, what big words you use to communicate (not fun if it's your second language), how many extra hours you can put in to strive for that five, and it's largely set up for people that have more luxuries than others. A lot of minorities are first generation professionals who come from backgrounds where they aren't exposed to all of the opportunities out there for them or have mentors guiding them in professional firms. I also think this is true for women in general. While some may not be first generation professionals most of their mentors are likely men who succeeded in generations before them who give them counsel based on the world as they see it. I think we are striving to be better.

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I’m black and female. In undergrad I almost joined a consulting firm but didn’t think I could succeed since I only met white men the whole interview process, so turned down the offer. I might have considered it if there were one or two females or anyone even remotely diverse, but at the time, I didn’t want the extra pressure of being the only one. I chose industry which was great at the time.

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Looks like the NBA is the only non racist entity in the USA 🤣

likefunny

I know this is not the context you are looking for but if in case you are: NBA exploits the structural racism in our society where black people’s Hope of getting into college is based on select few sports based seats. Essentially, black people were only allowed to access one path. That doesn’t make this any kind of great equalizer.

likeuplifting

What about other minorities? No one talks or gives a damn about them.

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How about we forget race and focus on merit? Seems like the best approach. I expect this post to be reported.

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Show us how you measure merit. Maybe we can talk about it.

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Taking the opportunity to shift focus from how to get more into the industry to figuring out how to make it tolerable once they’re in. Increasing numbers is futile if you have no plan for retention.

Honest answer: wrt Black people, read a book. Try Stamped from the Beginning.

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Pray more ... sacrifice more.... help more.... and then you are happy with what you do !!!

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Because although we talk a good game about recruiting we truly are not going after black and brown people and showing them an experience that can make sense for them.

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