"Did I fit the firm culture? Was I someone the associates and partners would want to spend 16 hours with in a boardroom?" A lot of other job hopefuls ask the same questions.  

"...the isolation and the nagging sense that other people didn't feel I belonged. Or the sense that I was once again play-acting at another life, putting on a mask and the body armour of a sharp pin-striped suit to go to work, steeling myself against the discomfort I might face." I bet many readers can relate.  A lot of employees feel the same.  

Many of the hopefuls and the employees are women.  Many of them are men.  And they're caucasian. Like me. 

"Let's just say it was a bad fit," one potential employer told me by telephone,  just before she hung up.

So, this isn't really a story about a visible minority. It goes way, way beyond that.