I decided to launch the study because I’m an FGP and wondered how other people with a similar background experienced the professional workplace.

Did their background help them…did it negatively impact them? I know for me, throughout my career, there were times I felt out of place. No matter how much I prepared, how many hours I worked, or how many trainings and classes I took, something was missing. There was a key ingredient that eluded me. That ingredient was the "book of unwritten rules,” or the insider knowledge of navigating the corporate environment.

My parents were both factory workers with very little education, so they weren't able to pass on this knowledge down to me since they were never exposed to them either. And in the workplace, many times people won’t tell you these things unless you have a good mentor or sponsor, neither of which I had early in my career.

I also came to see that what I learned growing up wasn’t always transferrable into the professional workplace. For example, my parents told me to not talk about myself because it would be considered bragging. I was also told I would do well at work by just working hard, not speaking up, and doing what I was told. Maybe that was good advice for my parents’ factory job, but in a professional workplace, I was expected to talk, to do it well, and often. So I had to quickly learn how to balance the differing worlds at home and at work.

And in addition to my own curiosity, I also thought about my experiences working on talent management, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. Organizations proactive in diversifying their workforce often do so by focusing on women, people of color, diversity of age, LGBTQ+, and ability. While this is important and necessary, there is another factor that is not being considered. Very little attention has been paid to the diversity of class or socioeconomic status, in other words, our diverse starting points.

Research on first-generation students and class mobility has found that individuals moving from a working-class background into a more affluent environment have less access to financial resources, social networks, and knowledge that promotes social mobility. However, traditional measures of talent and success in the workplace have rarely acknowledged this uneven playing field or the perseverance and investment it takes to overcome those gaps.

The first phase of our study was designed to better understand the experience of first-generation professionals, and it revealed four key findings:

• Structured company programs can be beneficial for First Generation Professionals (FGPs).
• Training in communication and social skills could help even the playing field.
• FGPs may feel less valued and supported at work.
• Upbringing may influence work experience.

This study has helped us understand not only how FGPs are experiencing the workplace, but has also provided clues as to how professional workplaces could better address barriers to talent management, leadership development, and advancement. Our hope is that these findings will be used by forward-thinking companies to create a more inclusive, productive, and engaged workplace.

This first phase of our research also creates many new questions. While we learned quite a bit about how FGPs often experience the workplace differently, the “why” behind some of these findings is not yet well understood. For example, why are FGPs more likely to find mentors via professional networking, rather than informally at work? Additionally, patterns around health, childhood experiences and family relationships emerged unexpectedly in the interviews. Each of these topics could be expanded on to better understand how an upbringing with different levels of capital may impact one’s professional career later in life.

In our future research, we may examine some of these unexplored areas. We are also interested in focusing on transitional periods, such as moving from an individual contributor role to a leadership position. As a priority, we will continue to develop our definition of first-generation professionals. Whereas in the first phase of the study, participants self-identified as either FGP or non-FGP, we may expand this binary categorization to include a variety of elements. We hypothesize that this may more accurately capture the complex, nuanced experiences of first-generation professionals.

Our next phase of research began in early 2020. If you’d like to sign up to get the full report, get updates, or if your organization or university would like to participate in the study, please contact us here.

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