How Identity Has Influenced A Senior Financial Analyst At Dexcom's Career
As a mixed-race individual in the finance industry, Kimo acknowledges being "in the minority" and initially feeling that background impacted how people viewed them, so they focused on over-performing to combat any potential bias. With experience, Kimo has gained respect, however, early in career an "underdog mentality" was required to "fight through" the challenges.
Underdog Mentality, Performance Driven, Minority Experience, Overcoming Bias, Building Respect
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Kimo Thomas
Sr Financial Analyst
Dexcom
University of San Diego
Finance
Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical
Finance
Scholarship Recipient
Video Highlights
1. Being a mixed-race individual in finance is not very common, which can be intimidating.
2. Focusing on performance and personal qualities is key to overcoming initial perceptions.
3. Early in one's career, race might be a consideration, but gaining experience leads to increased respect and less impact.
Transcript
As someone who identifies as half Black and half Filipino, how has that impacted how you've navigated your career?
As someone who's mixed race in finance, that's definitely not something that's very common within all the companies I've worked for. So it is a bit intimidating knowing you're in the minority and your perspective is a little bit different than others when it comes to your background and things of that sort.
I try to lean in more on my performance and who I am as a person versus, I guess, my racial ethnic background. But I do think it has impacted how people view me initially. Once they see how I perform, it definitely does not impact me as much as people may perceive.
It is something that is in the back of my mind sometimes, when there's more pushback to my work versus maybe someone else of a different race. It's just something that I've come accustomed to, a little bit of an underdog mentality where you have to kind of fight through it. Just make sure your work is a little bit more fine-tuned than someone else's might be.
As you gain more experience, there comes more respect to your name and your work. I would say it's not as important, but definitely when you're early on in your career, it is something that might be in the back of your head, like it was for me. But just trying to fight through it is something that I've kind of done in my career.
Advizer Personal Links
LinkedIn.com/in/kimo-thomas/