Metro Magazine, September 2020

23 What do you feel are some of the issues holding back transit from being more diverse Well we know that Latinos and other minorities really make up a lot of our bus operator workforce especially in our urban cities but transit is not really on the radar for many minorities looking to take on a professional career And those minorities that are already in the industry do not necessarily continue to climb the ladder I think for many minorities who like me sort of fell into transit we get to a certain level of our careers where we become satisfied and do not want to necessarily take on any more risk Going from a protected job classification to an atwill position can be intimidating for people of color There is an intimidation factor associated with moving up the ladder What if I am not good enough That was certainly a factor for me when I got into transit but fortunately I had a mentor who encouraged me to continue going to school and keep growing my professional career That encouragement is something many people need to help build the confidence to continue advancing in their careers and finding an opportunity that can open the door for them to do so think a lot of agencies do not really live out of their comfort zone so to speak so they tend to hire someone internally because it is easier We want to get the message out that agencies can find somebody ideal for their job openings while also adding diversity to their organization in the process which is a win win to educate and motivate our members to put their name in the hat when opportunities pop up One of the biggest things that comes out of communicating these kinds of development opportunities is that it lets the industry know there is a group of transit professionals who are trained ready and willing to fill their open positions I SEPTEMBER 2020 METRO MAGAZINE COM Latinos In Transit Both COMTO and LIT have conferences meetings and mixers that provide members an opportunity to both learn from and network with their peers in the industry