Walker said she was influenced by her mother, who said, “I want my children to be adults in the classroom, and not just doers.”
After that nonprofit, Walker worked as an engineer for the US Department of Justice and Energy. In her early 20s, she traveled the country and around the world, designing and building networks and training American Marshall.
Following leadership roles at some of the major technology companies, she was recruited by Microsoft and returned to her hometown four years ago.
Walker is a watchdog not only in the technology world but in the corporate world as a whole. According to Mercer Manpower Consulting By 2020, African American staff will have a 12 percent share of support staff nationwide, but only 2 percent at executive level.
And by 2020, according to Lynn, a women’s workplace advocacy group, only 1.4% of black women hold C-suite positions, and only 1.6% hold the vice presidency. The report is based on an annual workplace study by Lynn and McKinsey and the company. He calls himself “the largest study on the situation of women in corporate America and the largest study on the experience of working women.”
At Microsoft, black employees will have 4.5% of their workforce by 2020, which is in line with other major technology companies. A.D. In 2015, 88% of senior executives were male in Microsoft.
Microsoft has said it is committed to hiring and retaining black workers in the wake of protests following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Walker says there is still a long way to go in the industry. Despite her experience, she still has obstacles that her white friends do not face.
Some of these relate to attitudes toward black women, says Walker.
She says: “When you are angry with something, you do not have the grace or the gift to get angry. “Or the question of why or how you got there, despite the rich experience of the most famous, amazing, and credible testimonies.”
In 2017, according to the Kapor Center, such misconceptions lead to more and more trade-offs with harassment and ill-treatment of men and women of color.
Early in her career, Walker stated that she did not feel the same respect as her white male or female partners.
“The rewards she received were very different from what I had experienced,” she says, and sometimes she thanked someone for her work.
She said she was not part of the “club” and wanted to get opportunities.
“And to be a member of a club, someone has to be in a club like you or they want you to have a difference of opinion,” Walker said.
Walker said it was an uphill battle with C-suite venues, and we could not bring others with us because of that lack.
As one of the smaller seats on the table, she advises young black women entering the workforce. Seek out a consultant and sponsor.
She described the sponsor as an executive who was advocating for you. If there is no one like you in that room, it is the place where the partners come in, ”Walker said.
“Ali, for me, is a verb?
Another tip: Be your own best lawyer. That comes with knowing your worth, says Walker, who cannot be identified by your title or salary, “He must come with you first.”
“Know your own worth. Come with the real.” She said.
at last “[make] Fear of failure, fear of failure, fear of taking risks, fear of not being seen the way you want to be seen, refusing to go to the next job, or promoting what you want, or wanting to ask for more money, ”Walker said.
But she also pointed to company officials. Walker said it is the organization’s responsibility to create an environment that embraces accuracy and allows its employees to thrive without fear of punishment.
She said leaders need to be responsive, responsive and valued by their employees.
“If you look back, you will not be able to lead without someone. right? You are not a leader, ”said Walker.