Employers can't keep blaming their lack of diversity on a 'pipeline issue': Porter Braswell

Porter Braswell followed a golden path to success — private school, student athlete at Yale, summer internships at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and a burgeoning career as a currency trader. In 2014, he veered to found Jopwell, a platform that connects black, LatinX and Native American professionals with hiring corporations. He and cofounder Ryan Williams were tired of hearing companies complain that a “pipeline issue” stopped them diversifying their workforce. “That’s absurd,” he says. “We’re part of the community. We know the community exists.” With his new book, Let Them See You, a guide to career strategies for diverse professionals, the 31-year-old CEO is making sure to leave the ladder down. Here’s our conversation, excerpted and edited for length and clarity.

Isabelle Roughol: Where does this “pipeline challenge” you’re trying to undo come from?

Porter Braswell: Organizations across all industries, from small companies to large Fortune 500 companies, would continuously say that, while they appreciate the importance of a more diverse workforce, they had a really difficult time finding professionals of color. When we heard this, which was the narrative for the longest time, we said that that's absurd. We're part of the community. We know that the community exists and that we have backgrounds in all different types of roles and industries and a ton of different interests.

Companies rely heavily on referrals, and if your organization is non-diverse, odds are that referrals are not going to be very diverse. That creates a cycle that’s hard to break. These organizations have historically not been able to focus on a broader array of talent. They’re not actually hiring the best people for the job because they’re not considering everybody.

Why did you take it upon yourself to fix it?

I was very appreciative of the opportunity I had to start my career at Goldman Sachs. It's something that I didn't and I still don't take for granted. I realize how rare that is. I knew what it took to get into and succeed within the organization. I wanted to do something a little more entrepreneurial and to make an impact. I saw a huge problem and a huge opportunity. And so when that perfect storm came together — me being an expert in something, me being passionate about it and solving a real problem — I physically had to take a leap of faith. When your body tells you to do something, you can't really ignore it for so long.

The book is a continuation then, distilling those lessons you learned along the way…

100%. Let Them See You is really written for professionals of color, to help them understand that what could seem like a challenge, being diverse in a non-diverse workforce, truly is an opportunity.

That’s what you call the spotlight effect?

If you are one of the few, if not the only, person of color within the workforce, it is what it is. You're going to get looked at closer. That can mean your work is examined closer. It means people listen more intently to what you say. That creates an opportunity to shine. That spotlight can either paralyze people because they're nervous or it can accelerate their careers.

The challenge in writing career advice for marginalized populations is that it puts it on them to adapt instead of talking about systemic change. It was a major criticism of Lean In for instance…

Absolutely. It's definitely something I thought about while writing the book. The reality is that we're not going to solve all the world's problems through a single book. And so, instead of trying to speak to multiple audiences, I chose for this book, to talk to the individual and to empower that individual.

That’s why you insist you want others to read the book as well?

While I'm talking to the reader about things they can do to be their best professional self, that in isolation is not enough to be successful in corporate America. Organizations have to change, to be more inclusive. Diversity champions that don't fall within that specific demographic need to have more empathy for what professionals of color are experiencing. It's going to take both sides to truly change the narrative and the projection of where we're headed.

You often talk about being “fortunate” along the way.

Luck, as people generally define it, comes to those that put themselves in the right situations. Growing up in an athletic household, I was grinding every single day to be the best athlete I possibly could. It was literally countless hours that I put into my craft that enabled me to go to Yale and be very successful at Yale. And that wasn't luck.

It's a combination of hard work, doors being open, good timing, and luck is an outcome of all of those things. That's why I feel incredibly fortunate and I do feel some responsibility to be working on the things I'm working on. Solving workforce diversity is a huge challenge and we're going to need a lot of help. At the end of the day, if we can move the football down the field and impact lives and the companies that work with us, then we've done our job. But there's going to be a lot more work needed to be done.

A version of this interview is published in the March 2019 issue of Delta Sky magazine. #5MinutesWith