UBC's Faculty and staff members play important roles as influencers informing students' career journeys in both formal and informal ways. While navigating career is complex and layered for all of us, students from *equity-seeking groups may face experiences related to systemic barriers in the workplace.
These supplemental resource guides, co-developed by the Centre for Student Involvement & Careers and the Hari B. Varshney Business Career Centre, have been produced to operate alongside new content published for students. They are offered here to support you to build a toolkit equipped with relevant and up-to-date practices to ensure effective coaching and advisnig of students. This content has been designed to answer common questions and point you in the direction of further information and resources.
Career navigation is intersectional. Students may belong to more than one equity-seeking group, resulting in multiple experiences of oppression depending on the equity-seeking groups, sites of oppression and privilege, visible and invisible identities, disabilities, and differences.
The development and dissemination of these resources, including committee meetings, consultation, and other collaborative efforts, has taken place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam people.
- Resources for Career Conversations with Students of Colour
- Resources for Career Conversations with Students with Disabilities
- Resources for Career Conversations with LGBTQ+ Students
TIPS TO GET STARTED
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Appreciative inquiry is an effective way to explore and ask students questions about their career navigation in a way that fosters open communication, reduces bias and assumptions, and creates a more inclusive environment where coaching and advising is individualized to the student’s needs, goals, and strengths.
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Intercultural communication is an essential skill for staff operating in cultural diverse environments. Understanding how to navigate cultural differences and communicate in a way that is inclusive is key to supporting students and providing individualized career coaching. Coach and advise from a place of openness and curiosity (check bias/assumptions). Ask questions like: how can we support you? and what resources do you need that you’re not getting now?
- Just as you would with any other student, respect the individual’s knowledge about their experiences. Take a strengths-based approach and seek to support the student to identify and leverage their talents
We encourage you to further enhance your ability to create an inclusive campus community by participating in the Equity & Inclusion Office’s educational opportunities, such as:
- UBC’s Positive Space Workshop
- UBC’s Really Campaign (Active Bystander Workshop)
*Equity-seeking groups are historically and systemically disadvantaged based on their identities and confront barriers to full access to employment. Equity-seeking groups can include, but are not limited to: Indigenous peoples, women, people of colour, people with disabilities, and members of LGBTQIA2S+ communities such as queer, transgender, non-binary, and gender-variant individuals. We recognize “Equity-seeking” as a term is contested. Indigenous peoples are original inhabitants of this land, and therefore, Indigenous peoples are not just another equity-seeking group, but rather seek equity in the context of colonization, truth and reconciliation.
ABOUT US
Authors: These resources were developed by the UBC Equity in Careers Committee, comprised of staff at the Equity & Inclusion Office, the Centre for Accessibility, the UBC Sauder School of Business and UBC’s Centre for Student Involvement & Careers. To develop the resource guides, the Committee consulted with UBC students and alumni, UBC’s Equity & Inclusion Office, Centre for Accessibility, expert community partners and members of the community with lived experience as racialized, LGBTQ+, and individuals with disabilities.
This work is iterative. The Equity in Careers Committee welcomes feedback and suggestions for updates, resources, and ongoing content additions. To provide feedback, please fill out our anonymous feedback form here.