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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.
Start-ups don't have a lot of management layers
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- African-American
- Computers, Hardware
- Left & is now Self-Employed
- Computers, Hardware
- Entrepreneurship
- Meritocracy
- Office Politics
- Personal Response
- Shyness
- Startups
I made a tough choice not to work in a large corporate environment and to work in start-ups, because start-ups don't have a lot of management layers. Everybody is necessary to make the company successful. There is a lot more opportunity for meritocracy and there is a lot more opportunity for your good job to be recognized throughout the company. My feeling was that if I went to a start-up there would me more chances for me to be promoted based on my performance, rather than on the politics. I've always been an anti-politics person. I'm shy and introverted.