What do you do if your career decisions are influenced by biases?

Maya Angelou once remarked, "We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color." 🌍 Recognizing bias in career decisions is the first step. Everyone has biases; it's human nature. By acknowledging biases like confirmation or cultural biases, you open doors to challenge them and widen your career opportunities. Keen to discuss more on overcoming biases? Let’s connect! 🤝🚀

The biggest bias is the 'Curse of Knowledge' - The belief that I know it all is a bias that keeps us away from different perspectives and experiences, hence restricting our growth. So the first step towards acknowledging biases is to accept the fact that it's human to have biases and we need to keep a check on the negative ones. Biases that can hinder our career growth: 1. Confirmation Bias - focusing only on information that is aligned with to beliefs. It can keep you away from opportunities. 2. Cultural Bias - holding prejudice against a community or culture, hurts team work and trust. 3. Dunning Kugar effect - overestimating your abilities. 4. Gender Bias 5. Age Bias 6. Authority Bias Identify yours and write them down .

If your career decisions are influenced by biases: 1. Acknowledge and reflect on your biases to increase self-awareness. 2. Seek feedback from diverse perspectives to challenge your assumptions. 3. Utilize decision-making frameworks or tools to mitigate biases. 4. Engage in ongoing education and training on diversity, equity, and inclusion 5. Take deliberate steps to counteract biases in your decision-making process.

The biggest bias is the 'Curse of Knowledge' - The belief that I know it all is a bias that keeps us away from different perspectives and experiences, hence restricting our growth. So the first step towards acknowledging biases is to accept the fact that it's human to have biases and we need to keep a check on the negative ones. Biases that can hinder our career growth: 1. Confirmation Bias - focusing only on information that is aligned with to beliefs. It can keep you away from opportunities. 2. Cultural Bias - holding prejudice against a community or culture, hurts team work and trust. 3. Dunning Kugar effect - overestimating your abilities. 4. Gender Bias 5. Age Bias 6. Authority Bias Identify yours and write them down .

Accordingly to me as I am dealing with Asia based students and parents ,Biased counselling process is a big challenge as of now because it’s not a mistake of students or parents or teachers actually the counsellors or narrative created by big education institutions who called themselves as unbiased but they are selling the unrealistic dream and push everyone for study Abroad. As they are getting commission or revenue from this model. Parents should check the background of every inputs getting from counselling whether it’s from school, teacher or counsellor.

Remember that bias is natural and understanding your own is the first step to being more objective. Draw on the opinions of others too. Adding diversity of thought will improve the results of your decision making.

Mitigate biases in career decisions by exploring diverse options. Don't limit yourself to the familiar. Research industries, roles, and companies. Gain firsthand experience through shadowing, interviews, or internships. Challenge assumptions and reflect on personal interests and skills. Seek diverse perspectives and expand your network. This process leads to informed decisions and helps uncover new passions.

É fundamental reservar um tempo para avaliar nossas decisões de forma objetiva. Ao refletir sobre nossos caminhos profissionais, é essencial identificar quais fatores estão influenciando nossas escolhas. A lista de prós e contras mencionada no texto é uma ferramenta valiosa para esse processo. Lidar com vieses na tomada de decisões de carreira é um processo contínuo. Ao adotar uma abordagem objetiva e consciente, podemos maximizar nossas chances de fazer escolhas que estejam verdadeiramente alinhadas com quem somos e o que valorizamos em nossa vida profissional.

A way to challenge your assumptions is to trace your thoughts. If you find yourself making declarative statements about your career, ask yourself why you believe that and where that belief stems from. You will be surprised by what you uncover about your beliefs' source. After the reflection, you may keep the same belief, but there is a good chance your beliefs will begin to evolve.

Understanding When does it qualify as Championing a career / domain/ knowledge/ cause/ sector and when does it tip to being a Bias is equally important. Inclusion and respect for other perspectives and individuals beyond any boundaries of identified domains may help us overcome our biases. For me it’s always a work in progress as having come from a domain at the time when the resources were a rarity, there did come a point when one believed one had knowledge bias overcoming which is a humbling & liberating experience as well for biases are a burden to shoulder and carrying and defending them a waste of time & energy that can be utilised for self improvement & exploring new realms- opening many exciting doors if one shuts one bias window.