In this episode, Melanie sits down with Diarra White, Vice President at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Diarra (Columbia ‘15) tells us about her experiences launching her career, navigating the financial services industry, and breaking barriers as a female leader and woman of color in a male-dominated industry.  During her time at Columbia, Diarra worked at two top investment banks before joining BlackRock on their strategic product management team. After graduation, Diarra joined BlackRock as a full-time analyst on their Institutional Client Business team. In her current role as VP, Diarra leads client engagement at the BlackRock Investment Institute. As a Sociology and Business major, Diarra shares how she crafted a narrative that helped her break into the finance industry and how young women can create their own elevator pitches to stand out in the interview process. She shares what it’s like working in an internal versus client-facing role and why she prefers working directly with clients. She also walks us through her career path and how she worked towards her current leadership position as VP at BlackRock. We talk about the importance of staying authentic to yourself and finding a team and organization where you can succeed. Diarra also tells us how she keeps herself motivated and performing at her highest level, especially during work from home. Find us on Instagram @superbloompodcast and email us at superbloompodcast@gmail.com.