The Rashomon Effect - Big Law Minority First-Year Associate Loses Job, Coach Weighs in with 4 Recommendations

That 1950 Japanese film “Rashomon” captured how different interpretations of the same event can be.

On Reddit Big Law, a first-year associate posts that a job has been lost and asks input on how to land another one. Along the way through the so far 99 responses to this post, this lawyer discloses minority status. There is also a disclosure about the possible reasons for the termination but the lawyer isn’t sure.

Other lawyers provide their interpretations. They are all over the place. Among the ones which touch a nerve are:

·         The assertion that the blame game could be going on

 

·         Bias of the white boys from prep schools who play squash

 

 

·         Accusation (w/o knowing this professional) of inability to take stress

 

·         A serious mistake was made and it this lawyer’s fault.

Here is the thread.

Given that the machinations of Big Law are usually not transparent, likely no one will really know why there had been a decision to give the boot.

But as an intuitive career coach I would make these 4 recommendations to this lawyer who lost a job:

Accept the mystery. Most events in a career, positive and negative, will never be able to be fully analyzed. Even if you are told what triggered decisions the odds are that’s not the full story. Most of that is irrelevant anyway. What does count is this: Lessons learned. What seems to be effective? What could have been done differently?

Don’t keep replaying the past. A syndrome of those pushed out for Big Law is obsessing about so many aspects of the time spent there. That keeps you stuck back then and distracted from spotting current opportunities.

Ditch the story line. Repeating it keeps you stuck in the past. It can also send the message that you are a loser. In addition, it pains others to hear it.

Make a setback just be a setback. It doesn’t have to define a career path.

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