Devika Brij, career advancement expert, speaker, and author is the epitome of someone who literally took the sour lemons that life gave her and made delicious pitcher of lemonade with her company, Brij the Gap Consulting, a personal development firm that works with underrepresented professionals to help them leverage their experience into new career options for themselves.
Her book, “Thrive in Color” offers a roadmap for underrepresented professionals to be powerful self- advocates in the workplace.
Brij’s expert knowledge in this field grew from her own personal experiences of constantly being overlooked for incentives and growth opportunities with companies she worked for.
Despite the societal changes that impact the workplace, Brij partners with companies to develop talent to grow professionally, building careers and developing an educational platform.
“Systemic racism, and bias still exist when we look at people of color,” she adds. However, she says self-advocacy is important for people of color and women; we must use the tools to navigate the system.
Her firm offers programs, workshops, and offsites to curate the experiences some companies are focused on for their underrepresented employees whether its Black people, or women; they offer programs that align with the goals they want to meet.
According to Brij, there is some good news for those who have felt shutout by their workplace because of race, gender or even age: “I think there is a bit of a reset happening to help people be productive and to retain them,” said Brij.
For the record, age discrimination is real and Brij see’s this problem in new graduates to the C-suite, which is a variation of ages across the board, which creates more awareness. Another area where awareness is being raised is [Diversity Equity and Inclusion] DEI, which Brij says can feel forced in the environments where she works.
“It’s a mixed group of people. I work with people organically, which creates awareness,” she said.
Brij offers this bit of sage advice if you are older, applying for jobs, and not getting a response for jobs you know you are qualified for-most companies use an applicant tracking system where they are collecting resumes for future openings, not what is available now.
“Have some grace because companies are prospecting for the future. I promise it’s not you,” said Brij.