Success is built on community and cultural awareness

A way to facilitate diversity conversations and cultural integration in our lives is through awareness. By simply making the time to engage with people different from us and listening to them, we can build bridges and enhance people’s understanding of each other.

Inclusive workplace
As a member of the Desktop Build group team at Bloomberg, I am in charge of helping our financial clients utilize a new data science platform to streamline and improve their investment process. In this role, I get to use my greatest strength – my ability to listen and ask the right questions to understand the full client workflow and determine how Bloomberg solutions can help. By listening intently to the client and seeking first to understand their perspectives, it has often helped us anticipate needs the client hasn’t even thought of yet.

I feel fortunate to be in a role that plays to my natural talents and at a place like Bloomberg, where I can truly be myself. When I joined Bloomberg 4 years ago in the London office, it opened my eyes to a diversity of cultures and ideas. The company encourages innovation from every employee regardless of their role, location, and background. At Bloomberg, I don’t ever have to pretend to be someone I am not and I can just be who I am. This safe and inclusive workplace has enabled me to evolve my professional self, making me a better team player when I get to express my true self and my strengths.

Shaped by heritage
Early on in life, my parents explained to me the importance of hard work. Hard work is the backbone of my black heritage; it has equipped me for success and the reason why I got to where I am today. Paired with my innate curiosity, I am always eager and willing to learn new things to improve existing skills or develop new ones.

At the cornerstone of my black heritage is my mother. She is the person I derive all the motivation to be a better person every day. Working at Bloomberg and in the finance industry can sometimes be stressful. Even if my mother doesn’t understand everything I do on a daily basis at work, my mother would listen and always helped me overcome any obstacles by simply having the rights words at the right time.

Having my mother as my rock and inspiration has influenced and cultivated my own skills in listening, understanding the situation, and working hard to improve myself and my work.

Community integration
Now that I’ve relocated to the San Francisco Bloomberg office, I’ve had several opportunities to utilize my talents to help facilitate diversity and increase cultural awareness in the community.

As a champion for diversity and active volunteer in our Black Professional Community efforts at Bloomberg, I’ve had the honor to meet so many bright and interesting people, and help host events to foster engaging and authentic conversations around a diversity of topics. Recently, in celebration of Black History Month, Bloomberg partnered with Coalition of Black Excellence Week 2018 to host a panel discussion in our Bloomberg Tech office on how diverse professionals are impacting the startup industry.

Outside of the office, through Bloomberg’s philanthropic partnerships with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, my colleagues and I have helped build a home and clean up a neighborhood. And, even work with the mayor’s office to build software to help the city manage their bus traffic.

Bloomberg is the most diverse company I’ve ever worked for and everyday I’m surprised by how much we get to bring our passions and strengths to what we do at work and in the community. It has affirmed how we should always be in pursuit of knowledge to better understand and help build bridges towards cultural inclusion.

Bloomberg is proud to celebrate Black History Month to recognize the positive influence African Americans have on our business and our world. By giving a voice to people of all backgrounds, we ensure that our success is built on a solid foundation of leadership, diversity, and innovation.