Today, I was invited to talk to 30 students from the university of Saint-Louis in Brussels about #CareerOrientation 🙂
Always a nice experience.
If you have never been in front of a younger crowd and feel ok with being transparent, vulnerable, I recommend you give it a try.
One thing to keep in mind though: You can’t fake it when #AllEyesOnYou !
How can I describe theses moments? « Pure », « authentic », « fresh »…
I enjoy(ed) this when young people assess your story, your body-language and in one instant, you lose them (‘He is full of BS’) or you connect with (some of) them.
As a student in last year of High School, I recall vividly a session when a professional was invited to talk to us. Right before saying a word, this man started crying I remember, without any clear reason to me. After he had gathered himself, he shared that he was touched by the « innocence » at that age compared to what he was living and had become in the corporate world.
I do not remember his name. This man served as example, others will follow later on, of the type of professional and ultimately parent, that I did not want to be. Back then, I did not know who / what I wanted to be(come). For sure, not follow his footsteps in professional advancement.
As a kid growing up, I told myself to give back when / if I managed to build a platform and pay it forward.
That is why I do participate in these activities, meeting up with young professionals and answering their questions.
At that age, they have to make decisions on their future career and many do not know who they are, their goals, their ‘identity’, which corporate culture(s) will suit them, which type(s) of companies, etc.
One young man, today, shared with me that his family’s background is in accounting. He tried one year and that is not a pathway for him. But he does not know how to select from the different options he has following the Master curriculum.
Now, it is about building that fortitude to manage parents, friends, family’s expectations and discover what makes him / you happy.
Since a month, I started a mentoring relationship with a mentee via the mentoring programme of Be.Face ‘Bright Future’.
From the couple of sessions I took part in with several young professionals and students, the typical questions from youth are:
- Your background: studies + current job?
- Your motivation for #mentoring ?
- Expectations or need from your current #mentee ?
- I am lost. How do I chose my future career?
Via your company or community organizations, do you have access to a mentoring programme ?
If not, would you be interested?
Let me know.
« Ray Lewis: Knowledge is to be gained and passed along. »
G.
The author
Grégory Luaba Déome
Contributing to more inclusive workplaces
Follow: Twitter @cvs_congo | Blogs: LinkedIn and Talent Has No Race
More from me on Ethnostratification and Talent Advancement:
People Analytics when the N is too small
Multiculturalism in Europe failed?
What makes a great team?
Delivering through diversity
The 6 main obstacles to the hiring of talents of non-EU origins in the Brussels job market
The third Socioeconomic Monitoring (Employment & Origin, 2017)
Corporate Belgium – Europe: Ethnicity = Law of Inverse Relevance?
Born in Congo, I am committed to developing more inclusive workplaces. My passion is to enable others to achieve their potential and to advance equity in corporate Brussels.
About eight years ago, a friend told me something like « in my company, they consider me as a high potential. I participated to the annual event of our industry, 500 people – la crème de la crème – and I was the only non-white in the room. A journalist even came to me and discreetly asked « what about upward mobility »? The problem is that in our industry, the majority of the workers at the bottom of the pyramid are non-whites. The higher you go in the hierarchy, the whiter it becomes. »
How to increase racial diversity at the top of corporate Brussels?
What is the diverse makeup or diversity demographics of your team overall? And of your management and board teams?
