Mentorship advances professional growth. And for communities that have been historically marginalized, mentorship is especially important to accelerate success.
Upnotch compiled data about the state of the workforce for members of the Latin diaspora in the United States. The data, collated with experiences from Upnotch community members, offers diverse perspectives about the challenges that Latin and Hispanic professionals face, as well as solutions to overcome them through mentorship.
The workforce in numbers
In 2021, the U.S. the Latin population reached 62.5 million, or 19% of the total population, up from 13% in 2000 (Source). Latin professionals also made up 19% of the U.S. workforce in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (Source). By 2060, this population is projected to grow to 111.2 million, or 28% of the U.S. population (Source).
With 36.1 million people, Mexicans represent over half (59%) of the U.S. Latin population, a proportion that has remained steady since 2000. Puerto Ricans are the second-largest group at 5.5 million (9%), followed by Salvadorans (2.4 million, 4%), Cubans (2.3 million, 4%), and Dominicans (2.2 million, 4%. (Source).
As of 2021, the Latin community has the highest participation in the U.S. labor force of any ethnic or racial groups, at 67%. (Source). This is largely because the Hispanic professionals in the U.S. are statistically younger and more often fall within the prime working age group of 25-54 years old. The median age of Hispanics in the labor force is 38.5, compared to 42.0 for the overall population (Source).
Challenges Latin professionals face and mentorship as a solution
Every professional has a unique journey advancing towards their goals, as well as unique challenges. Let’s review some of the particular challenges Latin professionals may encounter when advancing their careers, as well as how mentorship can offer solutions to overcome them.
Educational Opportunities
Over the last 20 years, educational attainment among U.S. adults has improved significantly across all racial and ethnic groups. Latin people in the U.S. with a bachelor's degree or higher doubled from 10% to 20% during this time (Source).
In fact, Hispanic Americans have seen the fastest growth in advanced degrees of any major racial or ethnic group from 2000 and 2021, with a 291% increase in the number of Hispanic women holding an advanced degree, and a 199% increase for Hispanic men (Source).
However, other racial and ethnic groups, such as Whites and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), who began with higher educational levels in 2000, also made substantial progress.
As a result, the Latin community still lags behind nearly all other racial groups in college graduation rates, except for Native Americans. This is primarily due to financial challenges, according to the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (Source).
Mentorship is the most affordable way for all professionals to upskill, gain the latest industry insights, and insider information essential for advancing their careers. This is because mentorship is typically a cost-free relationship, unlike traditional educational programs, classes, and coachings – which can be cost prohibitive.
By developing a personal advisory board of many mentors, professionals of any background can address knowledge gaps in any and all areas. As a result, mentorship provides mentees with a source of holistic, continuing education cost free – even for those who have benefited from traditional educational paths and advanced degrees.
Pablo Valenzuela, a Revenue Strategy Manager for PepsiCo Inc. and Upnotch community member said, “I studied something that’s completely different from what I do for a living. So I’ve had mentors in the different sectors I’ve worked in – from consulting to CPGs to technology and startups. It’s given me quite a different array of perspectives,” he said, which were necessary to advance his career.
Professional Advancement
Entering high-earning fields and climbing the professional ladder is a challenge for all professionals. Among U.S. corporations, only 10% of managers and 5% of executives identify as Hispanic or Latino/a as of 2024 (Source).
Pablo Valenzuela, a strategy manager in diverse sectors including industry, startups, and big tech, has directly benefited from mentorship to advance his career in hard-to-enter but high-earning industries. In one of his first professional roles, a manager challenged him to grow, and eventually encouraged him to pursue positions at larger tech companies and to manage teams.
“When I applied to work at x, then called Twitter,” he recalled, “I was unsure if I met all of the qualifications of the job description. But, my mentor encouraged me to ‘just go for it,’ and gave me other tips throughout the recruiting process – and I actually landed the job! The confidence my mentor gave me was a big shake up within my own personal narrative.”
When Valenzuela found himself supervising a team, he learned management techniques from his mentor. He wanted to be a manager who supports employees in their individual career paths while also harnessing their strengths to achieve common goals. Again, he turned to mentors to learn how to develop employees and how to be an effective mentor himself.
Differences in Work Cultures
The U.S. thrives because it is a melting pot. However, Latin professionals may encounter different work cultures and expectations, both in the hiring process and when performing their roles. Understanding these differences, particularly with the help of mentors, is key to achieving professional success.
Luis Cadena, a Chief Financial Officer at LLYC and Upnotch community member, experienced challenges when moving from his native Columbia to the United States to pursue a career in finance.
“There are a lot of things your parents cannot help you with,” he said. Cadena explained that even with family support, he had difficulty deciding things like where to study in the United States. “In Latin America,” he said, “the best universities are usually in the cities. But in the U.S., that’s not the case. You can get just as good of an education at a small college in the country, and that’s something I didn’t understand at first.”
When entering the workforce in the U.S., Cadena was surprised to encounter differences in hiring processes and work-place expectations. He turned to mentorship for support.
“Sometimes I feel like just because of my name or my accent, people push back a little bit in the corporate world,” Cadena said. “But, you can’t just play victim. I hate that! So what can you do?” Cadena relies on mentors to help him navigate situations that have sometimes felt uncomfortable, and find actionable solutions. “There are challenges that I live with, but the key is to have a mentor to help you navigate them.” Even better, he said, is to have a personal advisory board of mentors from different backgrounds. That way, you benefit from advice from those with a variety of backgrounds, including ones that reflect your own.
Discrimination and imposter syndrome
75% of Latinos believe that discrimination against Latinos exists in the U.S. today.
47% of Latinos view discrimination rooted in individual prejudice as the bigger issue, while 37% see discrimination based on laws and government policies as the larger problem, and 14% consider both forms of discrimination equally problematic (Source).
Latin professionals report personally experiencing discrimination due to their ethnicity when applying for jobs (33%), seeking equal pay or promotions (32%), and feel that having darker skin can hurt their ability to get ahead (62%) (Source).
Lindsay Ruíz is the founder and CEO of human as usual, a venture focused on equipping scaleups and their people to accelerate growth readiness and embed humanistic practices into their operations. She has experienced the impact of mentorship both as a mentee and a mentor, and is a member of the Upnotch community.
“Coming to the United States as an immigrant being a Latina,” she said, “and being somebody who isn’t part of the dominant culture, it’s easy to lose faith in who you are. It’s easy to minimize your contributions, and what you bring to the table. Even having something simple as an accent, because this is not your native language, can be very undermining.
“Having a mentor, somebody to remind you that none of that matters, is immensely important,” she explained. “A mentor is somebody who believes in you before you believe in yourself.”
“It’s very easy to weaponize our differences,” she said. “You can be different as a Latina, as a black person, as a gay person, or whatever that makes you stand out. If that’s not the norm, if there’s some kind of prejudice around who you are, things can go downhill really fast.”
“But the biggest problem is how it shatter’s an individual’s spirit and contaminates your belief system with ideas that you aren’t worth it, that you’re not good enough. We have all this negative rhetoric in your head that limits the potential we have,” she said.
“It’s a common experience. It doesn’t matter what the label is. We all have shared humanity and we all deserve a shot at reaching our full potential. And I think mentors – good mentors! – play a huge role in helping us reach that potential,” she said.
“A lot of the obstacles I’ve overcome have stemmed from what I represented here in the U.S. corporate world, which is very white-male dominated – and white straight male to be even more specific,” she explained.
“I’ve been here 23 years, I’m a U.S. citizen, I have a master’s and a doctoral degree, I’ve climbed the ladder as high as I could go, I’m a founder – but none of that matters. What matters is that I speak with an accent.”
To overcome some of the imposter syndrome she has felt, Ruiz relies on her mentors.“Mentors are life-changers,” she said. “Mentors have helped me come back to myself and come up with approaches to solve problems without feeling like I’m cornered.”
Pablo Valenzuela, a Revenue Strategy Manager for PepsiCo Inc. and Upnotch community member said, has also experienced imposter syndrome and overcome it thanks to his mentors.
“Imposter syndrome can be a constant voice in your head, but with mentorship I try not to listen to that voice as much.”
A mentor helped him land a coveted position with a large tech company. But, he said, “Even after a couple of months in the job, that voice was still very much present saying, ‘Are you sure you’re meant to be here?’”“But my mentor reminded me, ‘You need to learn to be confident in what you know and what you can do. You’re in that position because someone saw that you were capable.’”
Benefits of mentorship with Upnotch
Upnotch is a powerful network of thousands of connected professionals who come together to teach, learn, grow their skills, and advance their careers. To make the power of mentorship accessible for everyone, Upnotch is FREE for all professionals to join.
Upnotch’s AI-powered mentorship platform is at the core of this community, designed to connect professionals with the right mentor at the right time. By leveraging career goals, skills, and demographics, we ensure that every mentorship relationship is impactful and meaningful.
Everyone meets their ideal mentors with AI Match ✨by Upnotch. Members can also connect using advanced search with filters by industry, experience level, language, location, and more.
With Upnotch, all professionals can access the solutions they need to grow in just a few taps on any device.
What are you waiting for? Join Upnotch today!
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