3 Career Success Strategies for Minorities in Business

This is a presentation I gave at the Mays Business School of Texas A&M on Saturday, January 28, 2012 during the Admission Department's Diversity Forum. I spoke with several prospective MBA students about the realities of being a professional in the business world and shared three strategies that helped me succeed.

You can find the Prezi I used for this presentation here:

prezi.com/zemlvk6rpiik/3-career-success-strategies-for-minorities-in-business/

Unfortunately, my "good camera" inexplicably shut down about five minutes into the presentation which forced me to start recording on my iPhone. So, you'll see that there is a loss of about ten minutes between my intro and our review of an episode of the "What Would You Do?" TV show that focused on racism. The video and audio quality varies throughout the clip, but I decided to not let perfection be the enemy of good and posted it.

I hope that my presentation gave the participants an idea of how to work as a minority in business, and it is also my desire that we continue to have open and honest conversations about race and gender in the business world within an atmosphere of respect and understanding.

Here are the two "case studies" about racism that we discussed:

Countrywide Settlement on Biased Lending Charges

What Would You Do TV Special on Racism

I enjoyed the opportunity to speak about a topic I'm passionate about: minorities taking control of our careers instead of simply complaining about the lack of a level playing field.  I know racism and prejudice are uncomfortable topics for my lot of people (especially in business), but I think it's important to have these conversations. Harmony cannot be achieved through silence.