Headhunters, also known as recruiters, are power brokers in the tech industry. Yet there are no sociological studies of recruiters that have examined how they adapted to the demands of remote work during the COVID pandemic. In 2022, the technology sector saw the highest increase in resignations of any industry. In June 2021, LinkedIn saw more job openings for recruiters than software developers. The hiring landscape in the technology industry changed dramatically during the pandemic. Drawing upon interviews with forty recruiters who match job applicants to open positions in the industry, this talk examines the challenges recruiters identified when they attempted to ‘place’ candidates from underrepresented groups in what are referred to as the “superstar” metropolitan technology hubs. The superstar tech labor markets are concentrated on the coast, and include the five top innovation markets: Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and San Diego, which accounted for more than 90% of the innovation sector growth prior to the pandemic.

France Winddance Twine, is a native of Chicago and grew up in Black and Irish American working class neighborhoods on the Southside. Twine earned her undergraduate degree at the age of 20 from Northwestern University and worked as a mental health professional in inpatient psychiatry before entering graduate school at UC Berkeley. Twine is Professor of Sociology and the Founder of the Technologies for Justice Lab at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Twine has previously held tenured professorships at Duke University and the University of Washington, Seattle. In 2020, Twine received the Distinguished Career Award from the Race, Gender & Class Section of the American Sociological Association. A feminist ethnographer and critical theorist, Twine has conducted field research on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Global North and Global South. Her areas of teaching and research include: digital sociology, gender & sexuality, sociology of race, racism & anti-racism, sociology of reproduction, sociology of work, and feminist technology studies. Twine is the author and editor of 11 books. Her recent publications include Geek Girls: Inequality and Opportunity in Silicon Valley, which was published by NYU Press in 2022. Twine is currently writing a book on recruiters in the technology industry.

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