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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.
Candidate's performance or background was never an issue
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- African-American
- Banking - Investment
- Left & is now a Small Business Entrepreneur
- Fitting In
- Recruiting
I was pretty involved in recruiting and I would spend some time with senior people and hear their thoughts about recruits; it was fascinating to me. A lot of the time performance or background was never an issue. It was assumed that all these candidates had the right abilities. So the only issue that people focused on was whether they liked the person or not. They wanted to find someone they could relate to, someone they could have a beer with.