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How to Answer Job Interview Questions about Racial Equity, with Jasmine Tolbert

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Hiring managers are asking questions about a candidate’s experience in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion, so you need to be prepared to answer. Find Your Dream Job guest Jasmine Tolbert shares the biggest factor in answering these questions—authenticity. Don’t try to fake a concern about these topics. Share from your experience how you have pursued racial equity in former jobs and how you would do so in any specific scenarios the hiring manager presents you with. 

About Our Guest:

Jasmine Tolbert is the vice president of people and culture for YWCA Clark County. Her organization is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

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Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 457:

How to Answer Job Interview Questions about Racial Equity, with Jasmine Tolbert

Airdate: July 3, 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.

Companies are asking candidates for jobs of all kinds, at all levels, about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Hiring managers do this to better understand a candidate’s perspective on diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Jasmine Tolbert is here to talk about how to answer job interview questions about racial equity.

She’s the vice president of people and culture for YWCA Clark County.

Her organization is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

She joins us from Clark County, Washington.

Well, let’s get going, Jasmine. Why does racial equity matter when you do a job search?

Jasmine Tolbert:

Racial equity really matters because a lot of companies, they are prioritizing racial equity when trying to build their work cultures. It’s showing that when companies are prioritizing the equity needs of an organization, it leads to a more positive work culture. It leads to more positive business dealings outside of the workplace. It’s an essential piece that is coming into play, and more and more companies are taking this into account when building up their workforce.

Mac Prichard:

You mentioned a moment ago, Jasmine, about the positive benefit an employer’s approach to racial equity can have on the culture of the workplace.

What are some of the other benefits that you see both to a job and a career when an employer focuses on racial equity? What kind of differences might you see in a day-to-day job or career?

Jasmine Tolbert:

Well, the differences that you’re going to see is that when organizations prioritize racial equity, specifically, you see that many other groups and many other identities end up having a more positive experience. Even if you are thinking, “I don’t understand how racial equity is going to impact me,” maybe you’re a part of the dominant culture in your community, there are very little things that have been done in the name of equity that have not improved the experience of others.

I always like to use the example of, when we think about the button next to a door that you can click to open the door to make it easier for folks that might have varying abilities in being able to open doors and being able to click that button and move things, like their wheelchair, through. That’s something that so many people benefit from, just from centering accessibility needs in that moment.

Many people use that button for all sorts of things. We’ve all had our hands full and just popped our hip on that button so that we can open the door, and really, that’s what happens when equity is centered. When we center equity, the impacted group that we’re focusing on has a more positive experience, but then all of the other impacted groups that touch that group also have a more positive experience.

When you see that an organization is prioritizing racial equity, specifically, then you know that there are going to be other benefits that are going to be rolled out that will make your experience that much better, too.

Mac Prichard:

If you’re looking for organizations that do this and do it well, what are some techniques that you’ve seen work, Jasmine, for researching an organization’s approach to racial equity? How can you find this out when you’re checking out an employer online and thinking about applying for a position at an organization?

Jasmine Tolbert:

Yeah, when you’re looking online, I always start with what does their overall website look like. When you look at their website, who does it look like they’re trying to attract to their website? If you are seeing a bunch of people that all look the same, then that might be the group that they’re trying to attract.

I like to go from there, and then I like to go and I like to look to see what their organization mission is, and I also like to look at, do they have an equity statement? Then, if they do have an equity statement posted on their page, do they have any outlines or pieces about how they’re trying to move that equity statement forward?

Those are the things that I’m looking at, and then when I’m looking at the job posting itself, I’m looking at, what are key things that are called out in their job description. Is it just a technical job description, or are there some pieces that will speak to how applicants will need to prioritize diversity when operating within their job function?

What are they prioritizing in the people that they want to find to work with them? What are they prioritizing in the people that they have doing work for them? And then, as an organization, what have they identified as their priorities at large for contributing to equity in your community?

Mac Prichard:

We’re going to talk in a moment about how to answer questions about racial equity, but are there, in your experience, common interview questions that candidates can expect to get about racial equity?

Jasmine Tolbert:

Yeah, you can generally expect to get questions that may be situation-based. That can look like, “Tell me about an experience,” and then fill in the blank, and it could be working with someone different than yourself, a more diverse group. It can also get as in-depth as, “Tell me about how you would explicitly apply racial equity to a situation.”

A lot of them are going to be situation-based, and some of them are going to be based on, how do you see racial equity fitting into the job that you’re applying for. Things like that.

Mac Prichard:

Talk a little more about that. What do hiring managers hope to learn from your answers when they ask you these questions? What are they listening for, Jasmine?

Jasmine Tolbert:

Yeah, hiring managers are going to be looking for how you apply racial equity to whatever situation that they present in front of you, but moreso, they’re looking for what systemic barriers are you able to identify within the position of the job that you’re applying for or what systemic barriers are you going to be able to identify when working with the populations that your organization serves?

They’re going to be looking for that especially, and then they’re going to be listening for key phrases and examples that you use that will identify where you are at in possibly your racial equity journey and then being able to see if that aligns with where the organization is and their racial equity journey.

More often than not, they’re looking for someone that’s either gonna be at that same level, or they’re going to be looking at someone who is farther than where the organization is, or if your journey is not as far as the organization is, then it’s going to be looking at, they’re going to be listening to your answers and identify what types of trainings this person might need if we decide to move them forward.

Mac Prichard:

Well, let’s turn to how to answer job interview questions about racial equity. You’ve got a number of suggestions about how to do this, Jasmine, and one of your first ones is to be authentic. Why is it important to be authentic when you’re answering these questions?

Jasmine Tolbert:

It’s important to be authentic because when you’re answering any type of interview question, but especially an equity-based and especially racial equity-based questions, you do not want to give an answer that you do not truly believe in because, down the road, it might be referenced, and if you don’t truly believe in that answer that you had given, then you are not setting yourself up for success, and you are not going to set the organization up for success.

You cannot practice racial equity unless you truly understand it and truly believe in it, and if your answer at your interview was not authentic, then a, they’re probably gonna see that it’s an inauthentic answer, but then additionally, it also means that you may not be setting yourself up for success. Whether that means being able to do it well or it might be that you might dial back what you want to say and then you’ll get into a situation where the organization’s racial equity journey is not as far along as you were hoping for and then you’re probably not going to be as happy as you could be in the role that you’re going after.

Mac Prichard:

Terrific. Well, let’s take a break.

Stay with us. When we come back, Jasmine Tolbert will continue to share her advice on how to answer job interview questions about racial equity.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Jasmine Tolbert.

She’s the vice president of people and culture for YWCA Clark County.

Her organization is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

She joins us from Clark County, Washington.

Now, Jasmine, before the break, we were talking about how to answer job interview questions about racial equity, and you were talking about, at the end of that first segment, the importance of authenticity and the difference that it can make in a conversation. Not just about questions of racial equity but in general in a job interview.

I’m curious; you hire a lot of people. Can hiring managers like you tell when someone is being inauthentic?

Jasmine Tolbert:

We absolutely can. Either the person answering the question is not going to be consistent in their answers, that’s the number one tell, and then, you will also notice that they’ll use jargon that doesn’t necessarily make sense in the answer, and when we ask follow up questions, they’ll usually have a hard time explaining from there.

Myself and all of my hiring managers here, that’s how we can usually tell, and my colleagues in the community that ask similar questions, that’s how they can usually tell as well.

Especially because when you’re answering the “racial equity question” of the interview, usually the way you answer that question will also feed into other questions that you answered throughout the interview as well, so if that’s not happening, then we’ll also notice that your answer is probably inauthentic.

Mac Prichard:

Inauthenticity is a mistake to avoid. Are there other mistakes that you’ve seen candidates make when answering racial equity questions that you’d encourage listeners to avoid?

Jasmine Tolbert:

I hear a lot of people not truly listening to the question that they’re being asked, or if they provided the questions, maybe not read the questions thoroughly, and so it’s really important that when you’re asked a racial equity interview question, that you’re listening and you’re pausing and you’re reflecting before you give that answer.

Sometimes, candidates will not completely listen to the question, and the question might be, as I mentioned earlier, situation-based, and it might be a very specific situation where you’re interacting with a customer or participant, something of that nature, and instead of answering for that situation, I’ll have candidates start to give an entire life story or narrative, and that can sometimes be helpful, but more often than not it leaves the interviewer with a question that hasn’t been answered completely and it can also, people can start to ramble a little bit and give the interviewer too much information or information that you didn’t really want considered when they’re trying to evaluate whether or not you can do the job that they’re interviewing you for.

It’s really important to listen to the question, pause, and make sure you really hear it and that you can reflect on what’s being asked and then proceed to answer.

The other piece is that sometimes, we are asking for a little bit of information about your personal racial equity journey, and you might give an answer about someone else, or you might give an answer that’s situation-based and just doesn’t align with what we’re asking.

It’s just really important that you listen to the question. It’s always okay to ask clarifying questions and to just go from there. So this way, everyone can see the information that they need, and you give the information that you need to give as opposed to too much or too little, or just not on the right path.

Mac Prichard:

You mentioned pausing, reflecting, and even asking clarifying questions. What else do good listeners do in an interview room? Not only when they’re answering interview questions about racial equity but interview questions in general? What other habits have you seen them practice?

Jasmine Tolbert:

I always value the folks that really center respect and inclusivity in their answers. You want to make sure that if we’re asking you a question, and maybe it is a situation-based question, that if we’re bringing up different identities about a person, you want to make sure that when you’re answering the question that you’re honoring the identities that were presented within the question.

If someone is speaking to their ethnic background or their gender or something of that, then when you’re answering the question about that scenario, you want to be sure that you’re using correct pronouns. You want to make sure that you’re not using derogatory terms.

It’s really important that you are incorporating the information that you’ve been given really well into the answer that you’re going to give and that you’re centering that respect and inclusion because that’s also a little bit of a tester of whether or not you’re answering the question well and, once again, whether or not you’re being authentic with your answer.

Mac Prichard:

Talk more, Jasmine, about the best way to share your own racial equity journey when you’re a candidate in the interview room. Sometimes, people go down that road because they haven’t listened to the question. When’s the best time to bring that up?

Jasmine Tolbert:

I think the best time to bring it up is, depending on the question, probably at the beginning. Sometimes, I might be hiring for very population-specific positions, and so if you don’t hold the identities that you might be doing outreach to, then it’s important to own that in the beginning by saying, “I am a member of the dominant community in this area, so the way I navigate this is going to be based on that.” Then, you go into answering your question.

That’s one way to do a little bit of acknowledgment for historical purposes, whatever that might be, and then go into the question without completely divulging too much information that that interviewer may not be looking for.

Then, if you’re answering a question that’s specifically about your own journey, it’s naming your identities and speaking to how that has influenced how you navigate equity within your life and then also navigate how you’ve gone to learn about equity in your life.

Mac Prichard:

Well, finally, Jasmine, I know another suggestion that you have is the importance of practicing and preparing for interview questions about racial equity. What steps do you recommend a listener take to get ready for questions about this topic?

Jasmine Tolbert:

Yeah, I think it’s important to really research the organization, kind of going back to what we’ve discussed a little bit about, it’s important to look at that website, but not just the website. If the organization has a really strong social media presence, you want to go and look at the things that the organization is prioritizing in their social media.

Look at the initiatives they’re taking within their communities. Look at the way that they’re prioritizing different topics, and then that will guide you and the things that you definitely want to speak to within the interview, but also it will give you a good outlook on how far along they are in incorporating equity.

Some organizations, maybe they only started this in 2020, when we learned a lot about racial inequities in our communities, so they might be acknowledging and then talking about the different strides they’re making. When you’re answering questions, you can include, “I noticed that this organization is early, and I’m bringing this experience to the table, which I think will help take you further.” Or it could be, “I’m also at that level, and I’m excited to learn alongside you.”

It can look a lot of different ways, but by preparing, by gathering information about the organization, it’s going to really be helpful and then practicing your answers. Thinking about what they might ask, or if you’re given the interview questions ahead of time, that’s something that my organization always tries to do; you want to make sure that you’re reading those questions and you want to make sure that you’re practicing what your answers might be to make sure that you’re giving your most authentic self, targeted information that they’re going to need, and just really making sure that the company is able to assess you and you’re able to assess the company.

Mac Prichard:

Well, it’s been a terrific conversation, Jasmine. Now tell us, what’s next for you?

Jasmine Tolbert:

Yeah, what’s next for me is, I’m going to continue living and breathing the mission of eliminating racism, empowering women, over here at YWCA. We are really excited for all of the things to come.

We have recently done a really big expansion of our shelter. In our area, we run the only emergency, domestic violence shelter for most folks to access here in Clark County, and so we have recently expanded a lot of our services, and so we are really excited to get our staffing up and to find more and more innovative ways to serve our participants.

Mac Prichard:

Well, terrific. I know that listeners can learn more about you and the work that you do at YWCA Clark County by visiting the YWCA website,ywcaclarkcounty.org and that you also invite listeners to connect with you on LinkedIn. When they do reach out to you, I hope that they’ll mention that they heard you on Find Your Dream Job.

Now, Jasmine, given all of the great advice that you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing that you want a listener to remember about how to answer job interview questions about racial equity?

Jasmine Tolbert:

Be authentic. It’s the most important thing. If you can’t do anything else, if you don’t find time for anything else, be authentic, give a straight answer, and it will always land you where you were supposed to be.

Mac Prichard:

Next week, our guest will be Portia Obeng.

She’s a social media strategist and a career coach.

Portia helps women level up on LinkedIn so they can stop selling themselves short and attract the money-making opportunities they deserve.

LinkedIn matters when you look for work.

Recruiters use it every day to find and evaluate candidates.

Join us next Wednesday when Portia Obeng and I talk about how to build a LinkedIn profile that gets you hired.

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.