What is an FGP?
First-Generation Professional: Someone who enters white-collar work without inherited knowledge of the unwritten rules and learns them in real time while being evaluated by them
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN FGP
The Invisible Identity
I've never heard of FGPs ...
You haven’t heard of FGPs because we stop telling the story exactly when it matters most. First-generation identity is recognized in education, then rendered invisible at work. Once someone has a degree, background is assumed to be irrelevant, even though the rules of advancement remain anything but neutral. The experience has always been there. The language hasn’t caught up.
Am I an FGP?
FGPs often talk ourselves out of the label. An older sibling went first. A parent earned a degree, just not in the U.S. A relative sort of worked in an office. First-generation professional status isn't about technicalities or proximity. It's about whether the norms of professional life were familiar to you from the start, or whether you had to infer them on the fly while being judged by them.
THE PERSPECTIVE
Why I Write About FGPs
I'm a leadership coach who has spent 20 years working with global companies, boutique businesses, law firms, nonprofits, and universities. My work puts me inside the real mechanics of decision-making and career movement in the white-collar world.
As a first-gen professional myself, I spent years trying to name why some moments felt harder than they should have, and why effort didn't always translate into momentum. Eventually, I came to see that those patterns weren't about ambition or ability, but about a lack of understanding of how the professional world actually works. After dozens of interviews with FGPs across industries and backgrounds, I realized I wasn't alone. That collective experience is the foundation of From First to Fearless, my forthcoming book on the hidden strengths, psychological wiring, and leadership potential of FGPs.
FIRST-GEN FACTS
The strongest contributors are not always the most visible.
54%
of U.S. college undergraduates are first-generation
Source: FirstGen Forward
40%
of FGPs are more likely to be intrinsically motivated
Source: BCG, "Hiding Plain Sight"
32%
of FGPs are more likely to be loyal to their employers
Source: BCG, "Hiding Plain Sight"
$93k
less in median household wealth is held by college graduates without a college-educated parent compared with their continuing-generation peers.
Source: Pew Research Center
Coming Soon
From First to Fearless
A clarifying look at the constitution and wiring that make first-generation professionals capable leaders long before titles, visibility, or opportunity are recognizable—even to themselves
Research-Backed Insights
Grounded in original research and reporting that illuminate the invisible terrain of professional life
Hidden Strengths
An examination of how first-generation experience functions as a source of strength, not something to overcome
Actionable Frameworks
Practical tools and language that help FGPs navigate and claim their rightful place in leadership
Organizational Impact
Insight for institutions seeking to unlock leadership potential they already employ but rarely fully leverage
IN PROGRESS
The Work
I write about the unspoken rules of professional life and what it means to build a career without inherited knowledge. My work examines how class, identity, and upbringing shape workplace behavior, ambition, and risk—often in ways organizations fail to recognize.
My Substack newsletter, First-Gen Rising, features essays, field notes, and longer-form work that develop the ideas behind my forthcoming book, From First to Fearless. It explores why first-generation professionals stall and what becomes possible when we identify, activate, and amplify our first-generation experience as a source of strength.
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Get insights on navigating professional life as an FGP, updates on my book release, and essays that explore the terrain between talent and visibility.
