Top Career Tips from More than 200 Professionals of Color, with Stephen Lozano

Informational interviews are one of the best ways to learn about jobs you’ve never had experience with. But they take time, and not everyone will give you that time. Find Your Dream Job guest Stephen Lozano knew that and decided to make it easy to access those conversations without the time commitment. His project, Vitaes, provides hundreds of interviews with professionals of color, discussing their jobs, what those jobs require, and what they offer. Stephen’s goal is to reach every high school and college student with information that will help them choose their careers. 

About Our Guest:

Stephen Lozano the founder of  Vitaes. It’s an online platform that helps young people make better career choices by sharing the work journeys of professionals of color.

Resources in This Episode:

• Are you a school counselor? Find out how Vitaes can serve your students by visiting the website at vitaes.com.
• Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn.
• Grab the exclusive NordVPN deal: https://nordvpn.com/dreamjob and get extra subscription time. Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Thanks to NordVPN for sponsoring our show.

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 477:

Top Career Tips from More than 200 Professionals of Color, with Stephen Lozano

Airdate: November 20, 2024

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.

Mentors matter when you look for work.

Learning from the experience of others can help you get your next job faster and easier.

Stephen Lozano is here to talk about top career tips from more than 200 professionals of color.

He’s the founder of  Vitaes.

It’s an online platform that helps young people make better career choices by sharing the work journeys of professionals of color.

Stephen joins us from Seattle, Washington.

Well, Stephen, here’s where I want to start, you run an online learning platform, vitaes.com, and the heart of your site is a collection of more than 200 interviews with professionals of color about their careers.

Why did you choose to focus on interviews? Why not write a book or create an online course? What makes interviews so valuable?

Stephen Lozano:

Well, in my learning about careers, and that was really the genesis of why I started Vitaes, is that I had my own issues with my career and needed to make a change early in my career. The one thing, after talking to tons of school counselors and reading a lot of books, the one thing that kept floating to the top was, if you really want to learn about careers you should go talk to somebody who’s doing it. That’s called an informational interview.

That is the best tool to learn about a particular career, is to essentially summarize it in a conversation, and frankly, most people prefer listening to a video than reading a book or reading a text or a website, so that was my conclusion and that’s how I got started.

Mac Prichard:

Why is an informational interview the best way to do this? What makes these conversations better than a book or an online course or another educational tool?

Stephen Lozano:

It’s because you’re really focusing. You’re asking somebody about their life, and most people love talking about themselves. We all, as professionals, and, frankly, as individuals, want to be accepted and so if somebody comes to you and asks you, “Can you tell me about what you do? Can you tell me about your career? Can you tell me about what you like about your career?”

It connects us both, and as I mentioned, when I spoke to dozens of school counselors, both in high school and in college, that was one thing that all of the counselors agreed on, was to help students, for that matter, job seekers or job changers explore a particular career; go talk to someone who’s working it, because they’re going to give you the best information.

Mac Prichard:

Who’s the audience for your platform? Are they high school students, recent graduates, or professionals, no matter where they might be in their career?

Stephen Lozano:

The primary target and audience for Vitaes that I put together is students, high school students, and college students. What I’ve learned in many discussions with educators is that educators are looking for tools to help them discharge their responsibilities as career counselors, and there’s a big push now to connect education with the real world, which makes perfect sense. At the end of the day, what is the purpose of education if not to prepare our youth for what it’s like in the real world, ie: working in a career?

They’re always looking for tools, and Vitaes has kind of hit a nerve and helped deliver content that they’re also looking for as they try to engage their students in what it’s like outside of the classroom.

Mac Prichard:

How did you choose the people that you interviewed?

Stephen Lozano:

Well, it’s funny, I’ve been really active in the community here in Seattle. I was both on the board of the YMCA, I’m now on their Life Board, and I’m on the board of Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I started with my network, and we might talk about network later, and so I started with professionals of color because I believe that’s where the greatest need is for diversity in the workplace. I happen to believe in an equitable workplace. I think it’s best for stakeholders. For equity, you need a diverse talent pool; that’s why I chose interviewing professionals of color.

I reached out to the other board members on Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the board members on the YMCA, and my personal network, and interviewed them and asked for referrals and it just kept going from there.

Mac Prichard:

Were you looking to find people in certain careers or professions? As you reached out to your network, you must have had many offers who would agree to be interviewed, how did you choose the occupations that are represented on the site?

Stephen Lozano:

Well, initially, it was just working through my network and my previous career as a corporate banker, guess what? I knew a lot of bankers, I knew a lot of lawyers, and again, through my network in the community-based organizations, a pretty wide swath of the business community here in Seattle. Once I got a fairly decent size of interviews, I started reaching out to educators and talking to them. It’s just continuing to work the network and asking people, “Who do you know that you think would be really interested and would be able to contribute to the content?”

What I’ve found, Mac, is that people are really interested in giving back. Most of the individuals that I’ve interviewed understand the value of representation in content for education, see that there’s a lack of it in our education system, and have a genuine interest in giving back to the community in which they took, as we all, obtain help and mentoring in our careers, we build our own.

Mac Prichard:

How do you measure the success of these interviews? What does success look like?

Stephen Lozano:

Well, like so many different endeavors, you don’t really know the full impact. Not being an educator, I didn’t understand that there was a dearth of quality content for school counselors to share with their students. That was a really unexpected benefit, that school counselors, in high school in particular, are very impressed with the depth of content and how much it responds to current policies, that the Board of Education, statewide, requires.

Anecdotally, in a variety of different meetings, both through the YMCA and through public schools around Puget Sound, I get lots of responses. I usually ask students to complete a short survey and a common refrain that I hear from students is, “I didn’t know that was a career. I didn’t know that you could do that.”

The grand purpose for Vitaes is really to help students to think differently about what’s possible, and through representation, they make that connection, and frankly, at the end of the day, I believe also in firmly trying to close the wealth gap.

There is a significant wealth gap here in this country. As an example, I grew up lower-middle class in the Central Valley. My father immigrated from Mexico, and here I am, 35+ years later, successful, and with some generational wealth that I think a lot of others could benefit from.

Mac Prichard:

I want to take a break, Stephen. When we come back, you’ve got a list of 7 top career tips that came out of these conversations and I want to walk through them, one by one.

Stay with us.

When we return, Stephen Lozano will continue to talk about the career advice that he’s got from more than 200 professionals of color.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Stephen Lozano.

He’s the founder of  Vitaes. 

It’s an online platform that helps young people make better career choices by sharing the work journeys of professionals of color.

Stephen joins us from Seattle, Washington.

Now, Stephen, before the break we were talking about the platform that you created, Vitaes, and the video conversations that you have there and that are available to all, about the career journeys of several hundred professionals of color.

And when you and I talked about this before the interview, there were seven top tips that came through again and again throughout those conversations. I want to run through them one by one.

Let’s start with number one on the list. People that you interviewed said, “You’ve got to be open to change.” What did the people that you talk with mean by this?

Stephen Lozano:

That theme came through over and over again, and from individuals who have had very successful careers. I think what they mean by that is that every one of us has multiple successful careers in them. I started as a CPA then did something else, decided to get into banking and I had a successful career in banking, and now I’m an entrepreneur.

New opportunities can be the gateway to more rewarding careers. At the end of the day, life is risky. Betting on yourself, and the individuals who said this frequently said, “You know, we’ve always been satisfied with the result by saying yes, listening, and if you have a lot of questions, ask them.”

Change can, and will be, good.

Mac Prichard:

I’m curious, change can be hard, and it can also be scary. Did the people that you speak with have advice about how to deal with change and that fear in order to be open to new things?

Stephen Lozano:

One of the interviewees, a guy named Spencer Chef, he’s a young man who works at Black Rock, he mentioned that he played a lot of football and one of his football coaches said to him, “Hey, if you want to be successful, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.”

If you’re trying to press on to the next level, you’re not going to be good at it right away. You’re going to have to, whether it’s playing sports or whether it’s a career, when you take that next step, you’re not going to be good at it.

Proficiency comes with practice, in any endeavor, so you’ve got to be comfortable being uncomfortable. That means that it’s going to be scary. That means that there’s going to be some potential for failure, but if you bet on yourself and you work at it, good things can happen. I guess that’s the advice.

Mac Prichard:

Number two on your list of career tips that you’ve got from these conversations was, “find a mentor.” What kind of mentors are we talking about, Stephen? And what difference did the people that you spoke with say mentors could make in a career?

Stephen Lozano:

Yeah, mentors can be extremely helpful. If you’re into a new career or a new industry, somebody has already been there before, so take advantage of their knowledge. You don’t want to recreate the wheel. Learn from others that are already where you want to go. That’s the real value.

Alternatively, in addition to a mentor, even the following step could be a sponsor. Somebody who not only helps you but coaches you into the right places.

One thing to help you save time, save energy, get smart quickly, with the learning curve, is somebody who actually is looking out for you, in say a big organization and be advising you on where you should be in that organization for future opportunities. A sponsor.

Mac Prichard:

The third tip that you got from these conversations was to recognize that your network is hugely valuable, both now and in the future. What did the people that you spoke with have in mind here? Why did they keep coming back to the value of the network?

Stephen Lozano:

You know, when I was in my former job, running commercial banking, people want to work with people that they know and trust, so whenever I was recruiting anybody, I would always ask the people who worked in my office, “Who do you know?”

That’s called a network, and if you work with somebody and you know their capabilities and you know who they are as personalities, it eliminates any mistakes if you decide to recruit them and bring them into the organization and everybody immediately starts working better together.

Also, I’m sure, Mac, that you are more knowledgeable about this than anybody else, and that is that most jobs aren’t posted. The jobs that you really want are the ones that get handled without any posting, it’s just handled between friends and exactly as I described. “Who do you know that would be a good fit for this in another organization?” And that’s the network.

The network, not just from a working perspective, but also from your social life as well. My mom used to say, “If you want to have a friend, you have to be a friend.” That’s all about maintaining the network.

Mac Prichard:

Another tip that you got from these conversations, the people that you spoke with said career satisfaction comes from being good at your job. What did the interviewees have in mind here? What was the point that they were trying to make?

Stephen Lozano:

Well, again, the point here is pretty clear – you’re happier when you’re performing and you’re successful in your existing career. You’re paid well, you’re receiving acceptance and support and you’re admired by your peers. I think another word for that is acceptance, and I think we’re all looking for acceptance in our social life and our work life.

Success, both professionally and socially, at least from a working perspective, comes from being admired and being successful and if you’re doing well in your job, you understand your responsibilities, you’re a leader in that organization by thinking like an owner, and perhaps helping to leverage your network with other roles in the organization, I think that’s what they were driving at.

Mac Prichard:

I’m curious, many people, when they talk about career success they talk about titles or salary first, not about job satisfaction. Did that come up in your conversations?

Stephen Lozano:

I think for the uninitiated, pay and consideration is usually the number one topic, but for anyone who’s worked in a job for a long period of time, it’s kind of like a new car. After a few months, it’s just a car, and after you get a particular pay, you just fall into that rhythm of earning that money, but at the end of the day, you’re giving your life and soul to the career, you have to feel like what you’re doing is meaningful.

Job satisfaction, career satisfaction, do people respect me, do leaders in the organization see me as a possible promotion candidate? And so, career satisfaction just becomes more and more important to us as people, as persons.

Mac Prichard:

Finally, Stephen, one of the recommendations that you got from these conversations, professionals kept telling you that you need to find and connect with your community. How does doing this help you in your career?

Stephen Lozano:

It actually dovetails nicely into the network, and also, just self-actualization and personal satisfaction, right? We all come from a particular tribe or community, people who are like us, and we seek acceptance there.

If you have a successful career, if you’re able to connect with others in your community, and that can facilitate in helping the next generation and improve people like yourself, if it comes from your background, whether it’s your ethnic community or if it’s your social community, I think we’re all seeking ways to feel more connected.

Certainly, with Covid over the past few years, I think we got disconnected, and I think that we’re coming back together, we’re all kind of getting back into the office, and that social connection has got a tremendous amount of value. I’m not a psychologist, but I think that people feel better when they can connect with others. The community part, I think, is a big, big deal.

Mac Prichard:

Well, it’s been a great conversation, Stephen.

Now, tell us, what’s next for you?

Stephen Lozano:

There’s a big emphasis these days in education on trades. As many of us know, in the workplace these days, there is a shortage of skilled craftsmen. I’m really working hard to get a lot more of those careers on Vitaes because they’re very valuable and can be very well paying, and not only building content significantly, from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand but also really get into the school education system. Getting into middle schools, getting into high schools, not just here in Washington state, but across the country.

I’ve got this grand vision that thousands of schools around the country are getting their counselors to use this content, making them aware of the content and the variability and helping kids better navigate the career gauntlet. Most kids do not know what they want to do and that has never changed, but if there’s a tool to help them explore and navigate at their pace, I think it’s got a tremendous amount of value, and that’s what I keep hearing.

Mac Prichard:

Well, I know that listeners can learn more about your work by visiting your website, and that’s vitaes.com. We’ll be sure to include that link in the show notes and the website article, and you also invite listeners to connect with you on LinkedIn. When they do reach out to you, Stephen, I hope that they’ll mention that they heard you on Find Your Dream Job.

Now, given all of the great advice that you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing that you want a listener to remember about your top career tips from more than 200 professionals of colors that you interviewed for Vitaes?

Stephen Lozano:

Take risks, and listen to yourself, and be positive about the future.

Mac Prichard:

Next week, our guest will be Kat Nelson Troyer.

She’s an executive, team, and career coach, and the CEO of Jigsaw Solutions.

Kat also co-hosts the excellent Real Job Talk podcast.

Because of uncertainty or fear, you may apply for jobs that don’t feel right.

But doing this can make your job search harder and even hurt your career.

Join us next Wednesday when Kat Nelson Troyer and I talk about how to find a job that’s a good fit for you.

Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.

This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.

Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.