A First-Generation Professional Profile: Jonathan Howard

Jonathan Howard, an Associate Partner at Edgility Consulting, an executive search and talent consulting firm, discusses his journey as a First-Generation Professional (FGP) with Baem Leadership Founder Michelle Hoover. Howard reflects on his upbringing in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was raised by a single mother, and his academic and professional journey, which began with college basketball and transitioned into education and recruitment. Howard’s experiences underscore the unique challenges and opportunities faced by FGPs, from navigating unfamiliar career pathways to adapting to new professional environments.

Michelle Hoover: Okay, Jonathan, will you tell me about the first time you heard the term First-Generation Professional? What were your reactions when you heard it?

Jonathan Howard: I don't know if I could remember exactly the first time I heard the term First-Generation Professional. I feel like I've heard the more common term “first-generation college student,” or references to being the first in your family to go to college. The professional piece, I think, is probably more recent.

My reaction to it is that it prompted me to consider a new perspective on the professional journeys of individuals who are the first in their family to attend college, pursue a career, or hold a job with benefits like a salary, retirement plan, and medical coverage.

Hoover: Take us back to the beginning. Where did you grow up? What was life like for you as a first-gen college student and First-Generation Professional?

Howard: My parents met in the Army. My parents met on a military base in Alabama and ended up in Phoenix, Arizona. I was born and raised there. My parents were married for a good chunk of my childhood but got divorced when I was in middle school.

When they split up, my dad kind of went his own way. My mom was a single mom raising three Black boys—my dad is Black; my mom is white. Being biracial gave me a different experience and different perspective than a lot of people have, having a single white mom raising three Black boys in Phoenix. My path to college was through athletics. I was a pretty good elementary, middle school basketball player. I ended up going to a really great high school, an all-boys Jesuit high school in Phoenix that had great academics, great athletics, great everything. But, having gone to just my local public schools up through eighth grade, I really got a rude awakening to the different levels of folks that I just didn't have exposure to. 

And going from the [public school] environment to that high school? The level of rigor was at a whole different level. I had to really step up my game. Going from never having typed a paper before, not having a computer in my home, to just get to that level. I eventually got on track academically and ended up doing really well. I did really well athletically as well. I got a basketball scholarship to play at Arizona State and played basketball for a couple of years.

When I got to college, that's where athletics leveled off. It became clear after a couple of years that basketball was not my path. I was not going to be a professional basketball player. Thankfully, luckily, I had folks in my life who didn't really care about Jonathan the basketball player; they cared about Jonathan the person, and they really stressed academics.

While in college, I worked for an organization run by my mentor called St. HOPE Academy that was opening its first charter high school. I was an intern, basically doing whatever was needed, and got exposure to the education reform and charter school movements.

At that point, I had not yet completed my bachelors degree, so I prioritized that. I finished up at Arizona State and then went into Teach for America. A really close friend of mine, his older sister had done TFA in New York City. I learned about her experience and became really interested in pursuing that. I applied, got in, and ended up being placed in New York. That's what brought me here. I was a special-education teacher for two years.

I ended up at Democracy Prep, which was a fast-growing charter network. There I was able to, after teaching, transition into a recruitment role. That's where I got my start doing what I do today. I became our recruiter. Over about ten years, the organization grew to twenty-plus schools in five states with over one thousand employees. I grew from a solo recruiter to building a team, eventually becoming a manager. 

After 12 years at Democracy Prep, I went to work for an education startup called Selected. It was a platform that matched teachers with schools. I was there for about two years and then decided to do some independent talent consulting. I worked on a couple of projects for different organizations around recruitment in the education space. That's where I got hooked up with Edgility. 

I came on as a consultant, helped out with a few projects, applied for a role they had opened, and came on full time. I've now been at Edgility for a little over three years. I'm an Associate Partner in our search practice. Edgility does a lot of things. We're a talent equity consulting firm that does executive search in the education and social impact nonprofit spaces, and we have a consulting arm that does general talent consulting, compensation, strategy, design, talent management, executive coaching, etcetera. 

Hoover: You are now a white-collar professional recruiting other white-collar professionals. I'm curious about your experiences doing that kind of work as a First-Generation Professional. What kinds of experiences or thoughts related to being an FGP come up for you as you navigate this world as someone who is the first in their family to do so?

Howard: I don't wake up every day thinking like that. Part of why I do this work is the majority of organizations we work with are doing good work on behalf of children. In my experience, and the experience of a lot of our clients, they're doing work on behalf of Black and brown children. Part of what motivates me is I want to see more folks who look like the kids they are serving in the leadership seats, whether it's the CEO or on the C-team. There's not enough diversity at the senior leadership levels in these organizations. I want to help change that. That's where I'm coming from. 

I haven't thought about potential candidates as First-Generation Professionals. We do ask folks if they are a first-generation college student. But, like I said at the beginning, the First-Generation Professional piece is not something that I've thought about deeply as it pertains to our search practice. It's absolutely something that I intend to be more thoughtful about, especially as you think about resources and access to resources. Whether it's networks, whether it's interview prep, anything that has to do with the pathway to getting into those kinds of leadership positions…access to professional development, mentors, coaching, etcetera. 

Hoover: I know somebody who can help you with that. What you’re saying is so true: When you think about an ideal candidate profile and what makes for good interview responses, there is an expectation for what good looks like. If an FGP knew how to frame their experiences in a way that speaks to their potential as employees, they’d have better luck getting hired. For example, instead of saying “I didn't have an internship, or I didn't study abroad,” they could add “…and that’s because I was home caring for my multigenerational family and here's how I financially supported them and here’s what I learned through that.” There's such value in that, but the norms of interviewing and hiring do not call for us to elicit or listen for those kinds of responses. That's part of the work we're trying to do. We're trying to help companies, employers understand how they are weeding out these people without even knowing it.

Howard: I think access is a big piece of it. Access and not having somebody around who knows what to do. Like, “hey, if you want to be a lawyer at white-glove law firm…”  I think “white glove” is the correct term.

Hoover: White shoe. 

Howard: There we go. That's an example of me not knowing the lingo. First-generation, we don't know the lingo. No one told us that if you want to be on that track to get into this kind of law school, you have to do this kind of internship after your freshman year, and then you do this thing after your sophomore year. Same thing with investment banking as one of the highest-paying professions you can get out of undergrad.

Hoover: Yes. In investment banking, there is a path. Like, after freshman year, you do this…

Howard: After sophomore year, you need to do this thing. And then after junior, there's a whole series of things that people with resources and access and families and connections know what to do or they push their kids to do that first-generation college students and soon-to-be First-Generation Professionals don't have any access to, or any idea of. That's what I think is missing. We need something to help those folks. Some do make it; there are exceptions. But for the most part, there's just far, far more underrepresentation than there should be.

Hoover: How are you figuring out how to navigate your career? As an FGP in your prime working years, how are you figuring it out?

Howard: I got really lucky. I was given the opportunity to grow with Democracy Prep and sort of progress early in my career there in title and responsibility. At some point, I decided I needed to go back to school. I ended up pursuing an MBA at the University of North Carolina.That's what I thought I needed to do. I thought, if I get an MBA, that'll open up doors for me if I wanted to pursue other career paths. I also felt that, as a Black man, having an advanced degree would be especially helpful if I wanted to do something else at some point.

How am I figuring it out? It's hard to answer. Because, the way I was raised, the examples that I saw were just about hard work. If you work really hard, good things will happen. Maybe it's an old-school mentality. I don't know if “old school” is the right term, but I kind of live by the principle of being the first to be in the office and the last to leave. A lot of us in the charter world, we burnt ourselves out by putting in long hours and working extra hard all the time. But that's all I knew. To me, I just have to be better than whatever I'm against or whoever the competition is. To me, it's always about going above and beyond. That's how I've tried to stay ahead. I don't know any other way to think about it.

Hoover: It's a very typical FGP response. Number one is that you pursued formal education because that's a tangible thing that we understood was out there. 

Switching gears: BCG came out with a report last year that said first-gen professionals are 32 percent more likely to be loyal to their employers and 40 percent more likely to be more intrinsically motivated than their counterparts. ¹ Given what you said about first into the office, last out, what’s your reaction to those findings?

Howard: The intrinsically motivated piece makes sense. Because the fact that you've even gotten to the point where you are a First-Generation Professional means you've had to clear some hurdles. For a first-generation college student, I don't know the data, but I know we have a lower graduation rate than other groups.

Hoover: Twenty percent of first-gen college students make it in six years as compared to 49 percent of continuing-generation students. ²

Howard: It makes sense to me that they're more intrinsically motivated. The loyalty piece is interesting to me. It makes sense. I've worked really hard to get here. Now I'm here, and I don't want to lose this. If I have to move, if I have to find a different job, it's harder for me. I don't have the same kind of networks. Finding a new role might take me longer. I don't have as much of a cushion. I don't have generational wealth to rely on. I don't have the support that can keep me going while I look. That makes a lot of sense. The flip side in my brain is, it's nice to have loyalty; it's nice from an employer perspective to have folks that want to be here and want to stay here. But from the FGP perspective, you don't owe them anything. Yes, it's great that you're loyal. They should try to figure out a way to, one, find more folks that are more loyal because we know that it costs a lot of money to recruit and replace and train people. The longer you can get someone to stay on and grow them, the better for the business. But from the FGP perspective? You're valuable. How can you leverage that value, not out of greed, but in a thoughtful way? 

To your employer, I'm sure that there are all kinds of different paths you can go down. But I'm sure, if we look at compensation, FGPs are probably paid less than their counterparts. That's a place that could be explored further: helping FGPs get a sense of their worth or their value to an organization and helping them be compensated. Compensated, developed, and valued in a way that's more equitable.

Hoover: Yep. That's what I discuss with companies, how expensive it is to hire somebody and then have to fill the role again within six, twelve months. All that sunk cost. What would happen if you were more cognizant that the people you are hiring who are First-Generation Professionals are more inclined to stay than to move? What investments would you make to develop them so that they not only stay but add more value to the organization and discover new heights for themselves in the process?

FGPs want stability more than anything else. It’s not that they don’t want to be stars, not because they don’t think they’re capable of it. It’s because they’ve been trained to want stability. If it’s not spoken, it’s what you feel because a lot of people are looking at you as a role model or as somebody who financially supports them. All this to say, companies have a huge opportunity in creating that network, creating that community, and being that place where an FGP feels like they belong, and investing in them from the onset to sponsor their upward trajectory. It’s just not in FGPs’ DNA to leave a job, and companies should look into how to make the most of that inclination. 

Okay, last question. As somebody who works in talent or even as an FGP yourself, if you had a magic wand that could generate any kind of tool, resource, advice, support mechanism, whatever it is, what would you want for the FGPs you are placing into roles or for yourself?

Howard: I would encourage folks to have a mindset, I would hope for everybody, but especially for FGPs, of paying it forward. Think about not necessarily the next generation but your colleagues, and think about how you can help others out. A lot of us might be the only person that identifies as an FGP in our org or on our team. Knowing that there are other folks that have this same shared identity, shared experience out there—be bold and go find them. Form networks and just build a coalition or build a network of folks that you can talk with. And then, as you gain more leadership and get into positions where you have more influence, make sure that you're keeping them in mind. 

When we're talking about hiring, when we're talking about building teams, whatever the discussion is, be that voice for the FGP. This is something I would want folks to be thinking about. 

I would also want some kind of organization whose mission is around supporting FGPs in getting that access. I think maybe it does start in college or even before that, but if you're a first-generation college student, you are going to be a First-Generation Professional.

What are the pathways? For example, I’ve seen young people whom I’ve known for a long time. They've gone on to college. They're adults now. A lot of them are doing really well professionally, but very few are on career paths that are life-changing as far as potential for substantially increasing their personal and potentially generational wealth. 

First-gen folks have the potential to create more wealth, but I believe that it's access that’s the problem, not knowing what the pathways are to careers that are more likely to lead to that.They don’t know what they don’t know. We do a great job preparing kids for college and even do a great job of supporting them in college. But do they know the pathways that lead to significant increases in generational wealth? 

It's like I said, after your freshman year at XYZ “prestigious school,” what do you do? If a first-gen kid says, “I'm interested in this pathway,” it’d be great to have access to someone who could say, “Okay, here's what other kids who know how to get on that path are doing this summer.” This would put them on a more even playing field. That's what it's about. It's access. 

Resources

1

"Toxic Workplace Cultures Hurt Workers and Company Profits." SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/employee-relations/toxic-workplace-cultures-hurt-workers-company-profits/

2

"The Future is FirstGen." https://firstgen.naspa.org/