STARTING A

CAREER IN HUMAN
RIGHTS
Euan Chan
AGENDA

My Time in Social Care

My Time in Modern Slavery Prevention

Branching out into Wider Sustainability

Key Lessons and Advice

Remember Your Reasons

2023 STARTING A CAREER IN HUMAN RIGHTS 2

 INTRODUCTION

• Euan Chan
• Originally from Hong Kong, Live in the UK now.
• Studied Business Entrepreneurship at university.
• Work in sustainability consulting for the public and private
sectors, with a strong emphasis on human rights.

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 WHY AM I TALKING
ABOUT THIS?

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MY TIME IN SOCIAL CARE
2020-2021

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 STUDENT SUPPORT WORKER
DUTIES:
• Creating education plans according to a set
curriculum.
• Helping young people with mental health
and educational special needs develop basic
life skills.
• Engaging with parents and public services
to identify how to best meet student needs.
2023 STARTING A CAREER IN HUMAN RIGHTS
KEY LESSONS LEARNT:
• Not my strongest area, felt my skills could be
better used elsewhere.
• Frontline work is difficult and requires certain
personality; developed immense respect for
frontline work.
• Gained glimpse into worldview of marginalised
people.
• Show up daily, the reward of work is work itself.
• Stakeholder management, compassion, making
connections, collaborating.
6
 KEY SKILLS & LESSONS I FOUND MOST USEFUL

STAKEHOLDER
COLLABORATION SHOW UP
ENGAGEMENT

Listening to others If you don’t know the Learning to show up

about issues they face answer or solution to daily is super
and understanding something, there’s important, you never
them well is key to (often) nothing wrong know what you’ll learn
good work. about asking. until you look back.

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WORKING IN MODERN SLAVERY
PREVENTION
2021-2023

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 CONTENT
MANAGER/COORDINATOR

DUTIES: KEY LESSONS LEARNT:

• Auditing and assessing the Mekong Club’s
content.
• Creating written content and research for
the #humansforhumans campaign.
• Network and chat with people who are in
your field of interest.
• Human rights is also a “business” and
promotion is critical.
• Coordinating across multiple geographies
and timezones.

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 BUSINESS & HUMAN RIGHTS
ANALYST
DUTIES:
• Conducting research into human rights risks
& issues in different sectors and jurisdictions.
• Analysing supply chain data to create
recommendations for human rights risk
mitigation.
• Creating and conducting trainings for
different teams in businesses (board to
frontline level)
• Identifying and building solutions for
operations.
2023 STARTING A CAREER IN HUMAN RIGHTS
KEY LESSONS LEARNT:
• Networks are great for solving problems
and finding answers to questions.
• Be patient to those who aren’t as gifted in a
particular area as you are.
• Having a great team and dynamic is 80% of
the work experience.
• The quality of a piece of work is in the
details. A small mistake can derail the rest
of the work.
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 BUSINESS & HUMAN RIGHTS
ANALYST

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 KEY SKILLS & LESSONS I FOUND MOST USEFUL

STAKEHOLDER HARD SKILLS DISCIPLINE &

ORGANISATION
ENGAGEMENT MATTER DETAIL

Listening to others Key skills like using
about issues they face Microsoft Word,
and understanding Powerpoint & Excel
them is key to building were crucial to my
effective solutions. work and still are
crucial.
Detail is proofing a 40- Being able to keep
page document for multiple projects going
errors. Discipline is and prioritise. Write
proofing that document everything down & set
5 times. Both matter reminders, don’t rely
equally. on memory.

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 WHAT I FOUND HELPFUL FOR FINDING BOTH JOBS

FOLLOW
BUILD YOUR OPTIMISE YOUR
ORGANISATIONS & VOLUNTEER
NETWORK LINKEDIN
PEOPLE

“Your job looks very

interesting to me. Can I Optimise your profile Organisations who do Volunteering is a great
have a call with you to work you’re interested in way to get experience and
ask more about it?” are always going to be get to know people. It’s a
Engage with others posting vacancies. If you great way to get to know
meaningfully and aren’t following them, a field of work to see if
“Do you know anyone usefully.
who would be good for you won’t know about you really like it.
me to chat with?” them.

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BRANCHING OUT INTO WIDER
SUSTAINABILITY
2021-2023

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 SUPPLIER MANAGER
SUSTAINABILITY, DIVERSITY & SOCIAL IMPACT (SDSI)
DUTIES:
• Providing sustainability consulting services
for businesses wanting to enter public
procurement
• Identifying and building business
relationships
• Identifying opportunities for cross-
departmental support for public sector
sustainability
• Organising and coordinating internal and
external modern slavery approach
2023 STARTING A CAREER IN HUMAN RIGHTS
KEY LESSONS BEING
LEARNT:
• Modern slavery & human trafficking is one
very small slice of the interconnected
sustainability pie.
• Learning how to engage a whole new sector
with completely different needs
• Learning how public procurement processes
work and how to embed human rights
protection in them.
• Learning to build my own approach to
systems and process
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 SUPPLIER MANAGER
SUSTAINABILITY, DIVERSITY & SOCIAL IMPACT (SDSI)

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 WHAT I FIND HELPFUL IN MY NEW JOB

EXPRESS YOUR BE OPEN-MINDED JUMP INTO THE

ASK FOR HELP
IDEAS AND LISTEN DEEP END

It can be easy to pretend

that everything’s alright. People hire you for the
experience and insight
But asking for help is an you bring.
important ability to Don’t be afraid to speak
learning from others and your ideas on how to do
learning faster. things better or
differently.
Work hard to listen and Take on experiences you
understand people’s job don’t feel totally prepared
and struggles. This allows for. This boosts your
you to make useful ideas confidence, learning and
and provide value. skill. Ask for help if you
need it.

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REMEMBER
YOUR REASONS
Why am I working in sustainability?
 “WE’VE BEEN SLEEPING…

…TURNING AWAY FROM THE

TRUTH I WANTED NOT TO FACE.”
- Maarva Andor’s Speech, Episode 12, Andor

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 HONG KONG 2019-2020 PROTESTS
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THANK YOU

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