How your ethnic background can enrich your professional journey

February 24, 2022 NewVIc

Embracing diversity within professions

Having unique personal qualities is what makes you stand out from the crowd. Similarly, having unique experiences or different perspectives can make you shine to new employers, friends, social groups and more.

One particular part of you that can work to your advantage is your ethnic background. This may not always seem obvious to you and here are some ways your background can enrich your career journey and the experiences of those around you.

Being a bilingual or multilingual speaker

If you are a bilingual speaker, also known as having learned your mother tongue language, you will improve your competitiveness in the job market. There is now a greater demand for people who speak more than one language and this heritage advantage can propel you into careers within government, business, medicine, law, technology, military, industry and marketing and more.

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
― Nelson Mandela

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Global opportunities

Being of a particular background, also means you know more about certain cultures, traditions, customs and behaviours and hence you will have a greater advantage in the global job market where opportunities abroad will be more open to you.

This is not just leverage for the travel and tourism industry, but also with organisations and companies that operate internationally in politics, business, technology and more.

For example some of these organisations may seek employees that understand certain cultures to create culturally sensitive products and services for certain groups. They may also require staff that can communicate effectively with local people, clients and businesses and represent their company on an official basis.

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Empowering others

You can use your cultural, and even religious understanding, to provide different perspectives on work practices and share new ideas. This can support business decision-making and help promote your skills and knowledge.

Others will also benefit from your inputs by increasing their knowledge, creating diversity within their thinking, and empowering them to share newer ideas of their own. This can help to support their own career development and progression.

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“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
― Maya Angelou

Diverse-rich professional settings

Many organisations seek to employ more BAME staff for a variety of roles, so that in itself is a benefit for you. A diverse working environment helps companies and organisations be more inclusive and work with people of different backgrounds, skills and knowledge. You will feel included and receive equal opportunities to contribute, hence thrive in an environment that supports your professional growth. You may be able to progress to leadership and management roles in the future.

You will also be able to learn from other colleagues from ethnic backgrounds, enriching your own knowledge of different cultures and backgrounds.

Recruitment opportunities for graduating BME students

As with every journey in life, you will need to work hard and be ambitious to achieve your best. Be proud of your heritage, ethnicity and culture and use this to your advantage as this is a unique position to celebrate and honour your individuality.

Create new opportunities for yourself, by seeking out roles, careers and options that can enhance and showcase your skills, talents and abilities.