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Vote on Desiree Davidson's Story
Were they afraid we were planning a coup d'etat?
I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing. It happened too often to be a coincidence that sometimes we would purposely agree to meet in so-and-so's office to test our theory that we were being monitored. Like clock work, ten minutes after we would get together a partner would stop by.
It's affinity for your own
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- African-American
- Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical
- Left & is now a Small Business Entrepreneur
- Engineering
- Recruiting
- Social Networks
- Socializing
It's all about who you know. In one of our engineering groups, a lot of the managers came from one school. If we bring in a new guy from that school, they are going to have talks with that person. It's not a race issue necessarily. It's affinity for your own. I don't carry that much weight about hiring decisions - I'm just an engineer. But I got one guy hired because I told one of the managers I played basketball with him.