Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We do a lot of work to help students as they figure out which career is right for them. You can make an appointment with a Career Coach to help you during your career search.

• If you are still in the early stages of their career discovery, we encourage you to make an appointment with a career coach to help you identify your skills, values, and interests through self-assessment, explore options for your major, and investigate different career paths.

• If you have more of an idea of your career direction, make an appointment with a Career Coach to explore a specified field or industry, search for full-time and internship positions, prepare for interviews, and evaluate job offers.

We encourage you to make an appointment with a Career Coach to have your career questions answered. 

If you’re unsure of what you want to do, we have a few web resources that could help you. Since arriving at BC, you’ve probably been asked the three questions— what am I good at? what do I enjoy? and what does the world need? Take the time to discover the answer to these questions and explore more about your interests, skills, and values. After completing the assessments, make an appointment with one of our staff to have a conversation about what you’ve discovered.

If you want to have a more in-depth conversation, make an appointment with one of our career exploration coaches. 

If you’re ready to take the plunge and start searching for internships, we have several search strategies for you to use as you begin to find the internship that’s the perfect fit for you. We encourage you to begin by browsing our career cluster pages to find resources related to your area of interest. Join a cluster to receive customized emails from our career coaches with important resources and reminders. Make an appointment with a cluster coach for help with strategizing your search. 

• If you need some help improving your resume, we have several resources to help you, including sample resumes and instructions on how to write a resume.

• We can also review your resume for you during our weekly drop-in hours. 

Yes! We offer rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors the opportunity to apply for the Eagle Intern Fellowship. If you are selected, you can receive $3,500 in fellowship money to support you during your unpaid summer internship.

Congratulations on receiving the offer! Review our guide for students on how to evaluate your job offer and salary. We encourage you to make an appointment with a Career Coach through EagleLink if you have any questions about a job offer.

Networking is a way to connect with professionals in your field of interest and learn about the professional world.

Networking opportunities present themselves regularly. Take advantage of the resources and advantages available to you as a student to build your network throughout your experience. Don’t wait until you’re actively looking for a job to start making connections. Instead, take action now to grow your network. You can make valuable career connections through a variety of sources, including:

For more information, please check out our tips on networking.

Learning To Learn is an office at BC dedicated to helping low-income, under represented, first generation college students, and students with disabilities succeed while they attend college. This office offers a lot of programs to help students who are first generation, and they would be happy to connect with you.

The answer to this question will vary from person to person. It is important to ask yourself what you’re comfortable with sharing and if you want to be out within the workplace.

If you’re comfortable, feel free to share skills that you’ve developed or enhanced during LGBTQ+ related experiences or activities. If you are not sure whether you want to be open about your sexuality with potential employers, you can start researching the organization to see if they are committed to supporting LGBTQ+ employees. You can utilize the resources on this webpage to conduct that research.

If you’re not comfortable sharing your work with LGBTQ+ related organizations, you can change the name of an organization to something more broad. Instead of saying you volunteered at a LGBTQ+ rights organization, you can say you volunteered at a human rights organization.

While it is illegal for an employer to ask you about your sexual orientation in an interview, it is still a possibility that they might ask you. If an interviewer does ask you about your LGBTQ+ identity, it is up to you to decide whether you are comfortable answering the question directly. Not all illegal questions are asked in an outright manner. Pay attention to the information for which you're being asked and be prepared for how you will answer if you are asked an illegal question. You can respond in four different ways:

1. Address the question(s) directly by asking how that information affects your ability to do the job.
2. Answer truthfully - it is your right to disclose that information, if you choose to do so. However, know now that it is open topic, interviewers can continue to ask you questions about the topic you've disclosed.
3. Politely and professionally remind the interviewer that the question is illegal to ask in an interview setting.
4. Don't answer the question(s), but answer the intent behind the question.

Additionally, if the employer continues probing you with questions and is making you feel uncomfortable, you should consider whether the organization offers an environment in which you’d like to work.

Resources:

LGBTQIA+ Play Book on Big Interview
This series of short videos discusses managing the intersection of your gender identity or sexual orientation with your identity as a professional. You will learn how to redirect questions from an interviewer that may be probing to prompt a candidate to self-disclose, how to research inclusive companies, how to generalize one's LGBTQIA+ work and volunteer experience, and how to feature diversity on your resume.

ACLU Press Release regarding the SCOTUS decision (Bostock v. Clayton County
This press release will help you further understand employment protections for people who identify as LGBTQIA+.

When looking for potential organizations for which you’d like to work, you may want to consider the company culture surrounding LGBTQ+ rights and support in the workplace. The below are a few things that you may want to consider. Most of the answers to these questions can be found on the company’s website or through sources in the media.

• Does the company have a diversity statement that includes initiatives for LGBTQ+ employees?
• What are their non-discrimination policies? Do they include gender identity and sexual orientation?
• What does their benefits package look like? Does it include Domestic Partner benefits?
• Do they provide training with awareness of LGBTQ+ issues?
• Do they have any professional LGBTQ+ groups?
• What are current employees saying about the work culture?

As in any interview, you will want to present yourself in a professional manner. You should dress professionally for the gender with which you identify – this will help guide the interviewer to use correct pronouns. Alternatively, you can also dress in gender neutral professional attire. Ultimately, you should present yourself in whichever manner will make you feel most comfortable.

A workplace accommodation is a modification or adjustment to a job, the work environment, or the way in which a job is usually done that enables an individual with a disability, who is otherwise qualified to perform a job, to attain the same level of performance and to enjoy the same benefits and privileges of employment.

Reasonable accommodations can apply to the duties of the job and/or where and how job tasks are performed.  The accommodation should make it easier for the employee to successfully perform the duties of the position.

Requests are considered on a case-by-case basis.  To request reasonable accommodations:

• Look at the vacancy announcement
• Work directly with person arranging the interviews
• Contact the agency Selective Placement Program Coordinator
• Contact the hiring manager and engage in an interactive process to clarify what the person needs and identify reasonable accommodations
• Make an oral or written request; no special language is needed

Disclosure is a very personal decision, and a decision that takes thought and practice. Both young people with visible disabilities and those with hidden (not readily apparent to others) disabilities can benefit from accurate information on disclosure. The following information for young people, families, and youth service professionals can assist in determining appropriate methods of disclosure.

Cyber Disclosure for Youth with Disabilities

• This document is a supplement to The 411 on Disability Disclosure: A Workbook for Youth with Disabilities, which helps youth learn about disability disclosure and what it means for them. Search sites like Google, social networking sites like Facebook, and micro-blogging sites like Twitter have added a new element to disclosure. Now it is possible to disclose disability status on the internet without even being aware of it. This can be as simple as a picture of a person using a wheelchair, a comment on a friend’s blog about disability, or a profile posted on a disability organization’s website. The goal of this document is to provide youth with suggestions on how to both make informed decisions about their own disability disclosure and manage their disclosures online.

Helping Youth with Learning Disabilities Chart the Course: A Guide for Youth Service Professionals

• This InfoBrief describes challenges faced by youth and young adults with learning disabilities as they reach adulthood, while also highlighting strategies youth service professionals can implement to help youth to transition successfully into the workplace.

The 411 on Disability Disclosure: A Workbook for Families, Educators, Youth Service Professionals, and Adult Allies Who Care About Youth with Disabilities

• Adults in the lives of young people with both visible disabilities and those with disabilities that are not apparent to others can benefit from using this workbook. This workbook helps adults make informed decisions about teaching a young man or woman about his or her rights and responsibilities in disclosing his or her disability – a decision that will affect the young person’s educational, employment, and social life. This workbook will help adults learn how to support a young person with a disability as he or she takes steps in becoming more independent and self-sufficient. In fact, making the personal decision to disclose a disability can make the young person more confident in himself or herself and the choices he or she makes.

The 411 on Disability Disclosure: A Workbook for Youth with Disabilities

• This guide is designed for youth and adults working with them to learn about disability disclosure. This workbook helps young people make informed decisions about whether or not to disclose their disabilities and understand how that decision may impact their education, employment, and social lives.

Youth and Disability Disclosure: The Role of Families and Advocates

• This InfoBrief highlights NCWD-Youth’s The 411 on Disability Disclosure and explores the role families and advocates play in helping youth understand the importance of appropriate disability disclosure.

The ADA is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities. The employment provisions of the ADA prohibit employers from discriminating on the basis of disability and require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities who are qualified to perform a job. The ADA also requires public access and nondiscrimination by public entities, as well as enhances access to transportation and telecommunications.

Disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more of a person's major life activities, such as seeing, hearing, walking, standing, sitting, or learning.

A good place to learn about private employers with a good track record of hiring and retaining people with disabilities in the United States Business Leadership Network (USBLN). This non-profit organization works to promote workplaces, as well as marketplaces and supply chains, that are inclusive of people with disabilities and serves as the collective voice for more than 60 state and local affiliates that represent more than 5,000 businesses across the country.

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), funded by DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy, is the leading source of free, expert and confidential guidance on workplace accommodations. JAN's website is AskJAN.org. Live phone service is also available 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST by calling (toll-free) 1-800-526-7234 (Voice) or 1-877-781-9403 (TTY).

Negotiating a salary can be intimidating. It’s often hard to negotiate a salary when you are unsure about whether the number for which you’re asking is too high. Here are a few tips on how to prepare to negotiate your salary.

1. Research the worth of your position combined with your experience. This will help you feel informed and confident in asking for a higher salary, bonuses, or vacation time.
2. Let the employer make the first offer. Try not to disclose a specific number beforehand because this may result in you asking for a salary that is lower than an employer may have originally offered.
3. Be confident in your ability to counter offer; you don’t have to take an employer's first offer. This does not necessarily have to only include base salary pay. You can negotiate bonuses, vacation days, your work schedule, or stock options. If an employer is offering you the job, you are qualified and have skills that are important to their company and the company should offer you a compensation relative to those skills.

For more information on how to negotiate a salary, please visit women for hire.

When looking for potential companies for which you may like to work, you may want to consider what the company culture is surrounding women in the workplace. Here are a few things that you may want to consider. Most of the answers to these questions can be found online, through on-campus employer information sessions or through informational interviews.

• What is the ratio of women to men at the company?
• What percentage of those women hold executive/managerial positions?
• Does the company have any diversity initiatives or commitment to gender equality on their website or in the media?
• What are their anti-discriminatory policies?

Sometimes an interviewer will ask you questions that you feel are too personal or unrelated to the job. Most of the time interviewers who ask these sorts of questions are just trying to make small talk without actually thinking about the impact of how it may make the interviewee feel. While you’re in the interview you can try to decide what the interviewer's intent is in asking you a personal question, such as whether you’re planning on starting a family in the near future. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can also give them a short general answer and say, “Oh, why do you ask?”. By inquiring about their actual concerns, you may be able to address their specific questions, such as will you be reliable and come in to work on time, instead of feeling pressured to talk about your personal future plans.

If you cannot find a way to answer an employer's questions in a manner that doesn’t make you feel like you’re being unfairly grilled about your personal life, you may want to ask yourself whether you would be comfortable working for that company.

• Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg
• How Remarkable Women Lead – Joanna Barsh & Susie Cranston
• The Confidence Code – Katty Kay & Claire Shipman
• #GirlBoss – Sophia Amoruso
• Knowing Your Value – Mika Brzezinski
• Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to your Biggest Challenges – Amy Cuddy