SnackWalls

E51 Marie Smith: The First Inch In A Mile

• Mike Roberts • Season 1 • Episode 51

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On today’s show, we interviewed the wonderful Marie Smith. As the Co-Founder of Data360, she shares the wisdom she has learned while starting up and running a business.


The reason companies cannot find diverse talent is due to systemic and infrastructural issues. The potential to build out talent pipelines exist, but HR departments need systems and practices in place to create a diverse workforce. Marie holds a bachelors in Arts, but is a full blown engineer and believes that dropping the CS degree requirement for software roles is the first inch in a mile towards getting more diversity in the tech workforce. Marie has seen how successful the apprenticeship model can be. It really works because it creates both structure and intimacy for the candidates to be able to explore and not feel as vulnerable as they do in internships. Additionally apprentices have more job security than a temp or intern position and are taught how to earn a spot at their company. Once a company has recruited diverse talent, they can retain those employees by creating safe spaces that work for the whole organization. Companies must create processes or workflows to properly resolve tensions and issues arise. 

Marie Smith is Co-Founder and Chief Information Officer at Data 360, an organization dedicated to leading the development of AI and machine learning solutions for marketing, sales and human resources. She specializes in developing predictive KPIs, optimization of organizational, department and customer information systems, and architecting custom UML, BI, Hadoop, and mobile/social media platform systems.


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