Originally published here.

In an ideal world, job opportunities would be equally open to similarly well-qualified graduates, regardless of personal qualities such as gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic background. In the real world, this is not always the case. Prejudice and discrimination do exist, whether explicit or implicit. This may directly affect a person’s chances of getting a job at any point in the career decision making, job hunting, and selection process.   Discrimination on the basis of a person’s ethnicity is illegal, and encouragingly there has in recent years been an increasing awareness of and adherence to equal opportunities regulations (e.g. as set out in The Race Relations Act 1976, and The Race Relations Amendment Acts 2000), amongst employers.

Furthermore, this awareness has gone beyond a simple compliance with legislation: more and more employers are starting to be both proactive in promoting a culture of equality within the workplace, and to recognise the benefits of taking positive action to develop a culturally diverse workforce. Appendix A presents an example of an organisational equal opportunities policy (from the University of Bolton).

Nevertheless, despite such positive developments, prejudiced attitudes may still operate, especially at a subtle level, and may have an impact upon the types of jobs that are accessible to, and the career opportunities available for, ethnic minority graduates. Indeed, research has shown that people from ethnic minority groups, including graduates, do suffer a disadvantage in the UK job market (see further information box 1).    

The purpose of the present guide is to provide information about the types of issues that are relevant for ethnic minority graduates, and to offer advice, resources, tools and strategies for helping to obtain a desirable and rewarding job despite these potential difficulties. In particular, while employers’ attitudes may impact upon an applicant’s chances during the selection process (i.e. application and interview stages), an individual’s own perceptions of prejudice and discrimination may also impact upon his or her career choices and job hunting tactics, possibly to a disadvantage.

The ways in which actual and perceived discrimination may potentially have an impact at different stages in the career decision and job hunting process is summarised in the next section.   The current guide is intended as a supplement to existing general guides, to provide advice specifically aimed at ethnic minority graduates, who may face additional difficulties compared with the white ethnic majority.

It draws upon original data from a linked research  project which asked a large sample of graduates about their perceptions of prejudice in the job-seeking process, and gathered information about their job-seeking activities, in an attempt to try and uncover the ways in which such perceptions may have an impact upon career decisions and job hunting tactics. The findings from that study inform and motivate the advice and guidance offered in this pack. The parts of the guide which follow this introduction offer strategies for raising awareness of, and overcoming, potential barriers related to prejudice and discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity.

You can read the complete article here.