As a black money manager, I always felt like I had to be extra competent. I had to be better than the other money managers, not only to keep my job but for other younger minorities coming up behind me.

Out of 2,000 employees, I was the only Asian American engineering manager. There were a lot of bamboo ceiling issues that were hard to overcome.

The first and only time the organization had an Asian board member they made sure that the Asian board member saw the Asian employees before meetings.

Some law firms I have been at make these isolated attempts to diversify. They bring in high profile people but they don't address the underlying culture.

I worked for a law firm two and a half months. I was the eighth person to leave within three months.

When I worked at the stock exchange, I noticed a not so subtle division of engineers into an "A" team and a "B" team.

I was a pioneer as the only black person in team "A" so everything I was involved with was a perceived risk for management.

When I was finally in a position to hire other employees, the first two people I happened to hire were black.

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 went through six interviews my first summer during business school and afterwards I compared notes with other students who interviewed with the same employers.