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What's the best path for Diversity and Inclusion? Marketing?
I'm part of the LGBTQ+ community. Person of Color. People intent. Community based. I want to advocate for more accessible learning and career paths for low-income students. As well as leading companies into taking more action in their social responsibilities. #career-paths #experience #career
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Jessica’s Answer
Hi Josh! This is a great career aspiration! There are a few different ways you can get involved - you can go in to University Recruiting where you can influence which schools and partnerships your company aligns with to help hire students from underrepresented groups. You can also go in to HR which helps come up with strategies for career pathing. And finally. many companies have Diversity & Belonging or Inclusion teams that do just that! Additionally, many colleges have different diversity programs to help attract underrepresented high school students to college. There are many different paths but these are some great places to start!
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Vanessa’s Answer
There are many organizations whose mission it is to advocate for systemic change and equality, particularly in the education sector. I would recommend researching organizations that are currently doing this and see if they have any internship opportunities or job openings so you can get a real foundation in the best ways to implement and educate others on these topics. Also, depending on where you are at in your education/career I know particularly in larger cities many schools (private, independent, public etc.) are currently hiring roles specifically for educating their community/staff on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) work. The amplified call for social justice and change we have seen in recent months/years is finally starting to make a dent in the eyes of the employer who now feel the necessity (and pressure) to hire roles dedicated to this work. If you are not at a position in your life yet to apply for one of these roles definitely do your research, find a mentor, get an internship etc. that will set you up for success when you’re ready to enter the job force.
To understand what qualities you need to work on you can read through job descriptions for DEI roles and work backwards. Idealist.org has a lot of DEI positions listed right now
Vanessa recommends the following next steps:
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Megan’s Answer
If you are wanting a job where you can advocate for all of these areas I highly recommend social work. Social work is based in advocacy and advancing and ensuring the rights of individuals. As a social worker your goal is to help those who need it. I feel that with what your goals are this field would be great for you.
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Travis’s Answer
Hi Josh, this is such an impactful and important field of work! As others have mentioned, there a ton of avenues you could take with this - corporate social responsibility roles, working at a nonprofit focused on inclusion, or working in a diversity recruiting position at a company or university. At my own company, the team working on DEI come from a wide range of backgrounds - some studied human resources, communications, and one even majored in finance but got involved through the Employee Resource Groups (https://www.greatplacetowork.com/resources/blog/what-are-employee-resource-groups-ergs). One thing you could do to learn more is see if you can volunteer or intern with a nonprofit in your community doing community organizing or other diversity-related work. If you're in college, you could see if there are opportunities to get involved with the campus Center for Diversity and Inclusion. It can also be good to sign up for a LinkedIn account if you don't have one so you can look at people who work in DEI and see what they studied, past jobs that they've had, and read articles that they are sharing to see what's going on in the field. You can even try to connect with them and start building a professional network!
Research nonprofits in your area doing the kind of work you are interested in
Sign up for LinkedIn and look for content related to DEI
Travis recommends the following next steps: