Fear of speaking in public. Fear of being rejected. Fear of being late. Fear! If there is one common denominator that most clients feel when launching a job search or preparing for an interview, it is fear.
After 20+ years working in higher-education career services, I have helped numerous clients prepare for interviews and coached them through job searches, including providing the emotional support many need to courageously launch into the world of work. In most cases, the fear induced by preparing for an interview is easily remedied by sharing coaching strategies – for instance, map out your route to the company beforehand, try not to use filler words, send a thank you letter afterward, etc.
But there is one fear that I have heard repeatedly from underrepresented groups that is not easily remedied: the fear of being one’s authentic self and facing rejection because of unconscious bias.
The fear of facing rejection because you choose to be yourself is oftentimes revealed in client questions such as:
- Should I wear my hair natural?
- When should I share that I will need an accommodation?
- Is it OK to share my personal pronouns if I am not cisgender?
- If I am expecting, should I wait until after I get the job to disclose my pregnancy status?
- How do I minimize my accent?
- Will they think I am too old or overqualified?
On the surface, these questions seem like basic job search preparation questions; however, if you dig deeper, jobseekers are really asking what they need to do to minimize their identity or if they should hide a part of their identity to secure employment.
Unconscious bias, also known as implicit bias, is defined as “unconscious forms of discrimination and stereotyping based on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ability [or] age.” It is the “unconscious” behavior that jobseekers are fearful of when applying for a job or interviewing. Typically, these fears are felt by underrepresented groups who have been historically marginalized or oppressed by dominant views of professionalism.
Unfortunately, the fear of facing unconscious bias in the workplace is validated by the countless workplace discrimination cases filed by workers in North America. In 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an agency seeking to remedy employment discrimination, received 73,485 new discrimination charges from jobseekers. The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) – an agency that has faced allegations of systemic discrimination from its own employees – reported accepting 763 complaints in 2022. One can assume that numbers of jobseekers and employees facing discrimination are higher in both countries, if you account for people who chose not to file a complaint and for the cases not accepted by CHRC.
Fear of unconscious bias is real and should not be overlooked by career practitioners. For our clients, finding work in a global society is much harder than we sometimes convey. I have concluded that we do not send our clients into a fair or just world; therefore, our employability training should be culturally relevant, equipping jobseekers to face and address unconscious bias. Instead of glossing over the issue of unconscious bias or encouraging our clients to hide their identities, career practitioners can support and empower clients by educating them on their rights, using a strengths-based approach to bolster self-esteem and self-efficacy, and advocating for diversity in the workplace when working with employers.
“Fear of unconscious bias is real and should not be overlooked by career practitioners.”
Whether our clients ultimately decide to hide or minimize their identities during a job search is their choice. Our ethical duty is to help them face the real world, which differs based on their diversity variables.
The United Nations has released 17 Sustainable Development Goals – also known as SDGs – focused on facilitating peace and prosperity around the globe. Five of the goals are relevant to our work in career development:
- Goal #4: Quality Education
- Goal #5: Gender Equality
- Goal #8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Goal #9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Goal #16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
How are these goals relevant to our work in career services? First, if we are unable to help our clients navigate unconscious bias, they will continue to face challenges with attaining employment and finding career success. And if we choose not to advocate for equal employment opportunity policies, our clients will continue to face significant challenges with accessing quality education, overcoming pay inequity for women and finding opportunities for advancement, which affects the global economy.
Where can we start? By recognizing that we are not sending our clients into a fair world of work and by having meaningful conversations with clients to address their fears of facing unconscious bias during the job search.
