TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

 The mystical Tarot cards are a channel for conjuring up self-awareness. That's what  The New York Times  salutes them for in an April 2021 feature.  Had Rudy Giuliani had a Tarot reading after he had exited the 2008 Presidential Election he might have not become so lost. The card the Tarot reader might have pulled could have been the Ten of Swords. That would have brought him in touch with how deeply hurt he had been to let go of his boyhood dream of becoming President of the United States.  Then Giuliani could have done the hard work of healing. Seemingly he never has been able to do that. Perhaps even until today he has not become aware of the pain. It could still be buried in his subconscious. The Tarot releases the material from the subconscious. What is sadder than that is this: The most recent biography of him -  "Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor"  - has no compasssion for the former New York City mayor's pain. The author An...

 Today on  CNBC  Jim Cramer delivered a hard blow to the legacy of former Disney CEO Bob Iger. What Cramer pontificates moves markets and makes and breaks personal brands. Bob Iger Disney Fox Acquisition Cramer classified the part of Fox acquired during Iger's tenure as the worst-ever acquisition.. Moreover, Cramer assessed the current CEO Bob Chapek, who in branding has been in Iger's shadow, as having been dealt a bad hand. Of course, that implies other mistakes Iger might have made.  Fortunately for Iger he is already getting media coverage of his new professional directions, ranging from the metaverse to venture capital. Those distance him from Disney Past. Should Chapek reset Disney in ways that transcend ongoing economic volatility, the Iger legacy, still primarily positive, opens to major negative revisionism. Yes, a legacy is always a work in progress. Smirk - just consider the current media hatchet job on the SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who wo...

Increasingly those in America are finding it hard to make ends meet. According to the survey from Lending Tree, 60% are on the edge in doing that. They are living paycheck to paycheck and could fall off the cliff if that paycheck stops. Among that 60% are those earning $100k or more who also are caught up in the same kind of survival mode. They have no savings.  The good news is that there are solutions. Here are 4 which have proven out.  The most accessible is the income picked up on the side. According to Side Hustle Nation , 45% already have some form of side hustle. Frequently they can be lucrative. For instance, the clients for my intuitive career coaching practice report big tips from food-delivery gigs. If you are reliable and available for just-in-time work you will probably have lots of assignments. The side gig could also take the form of putting together on your own a dog-walking, errand-runing, or ecommerce enterprise.  Another way out of being positioned for...

 The human mind loves to form generalizations. Maybe it needs to. But when it comes to RTO it's difficult to superimpose patterns on what is happening post-pandemic in this time of global and US economic turmoil. On the one hand, there are sectors, such as auto and specific corporations such as GM, where employees can still effectively push back on RTO.  Then there are sectors such as tech and Apple which are experiencing headwinds. There employees previously had been in a position of strength. Now not so much. Leadership could set in play a come-back to the office or don't bother coming back to the job. Another dynamic unfolding has been in the intersecting businesses of Wall Street and the large law firms which serve as their legal counsel. As  Bloomberg Law  reports, essentially what is evolving is RTO, full-time. Hybrid has been ditched or, consultants predict, will be ditched. There is no ambiguity in this time of slowing demand for both sectors that holdi...

" I’m seeing brand names like Celine and LV bags that are at least a few thousand, Balenciaga, Gucci, Dior, Bergdorf shoes, Cartier watches and bracelets…and they’re not wearing the same thing every day… feeling like Anna Delvey is showing up to tell me I look poor."    Above is a Comment on a Fisbowl Big Law post about associates sporting designer clothes and accessories. Over 100 other responses have come in.  Here  is the thread. Essentially, they are mixed in what they are observing. Overall, though, it seems that more and more junior lawyers are dressing like partners. Perhaps they have heeded con Anna Delvey about the extreme career risk of not transmitting a message of wealth through attire. However, some project that when loan repayments kick back in there will be less to plow into what we boomers used to call Dress for Success .  In general, though, what I have observed is that Pandemic Whatever is over. That, I posit, is because in-person is back for n...

DOW JONES: Market Summary  >  Dow Jones Industrial Average 29,131.04 −552.70  (1.86%) today UPDATE: 29,069.68 ▼  614.06 (2.07%) today September 29, 3:08 PM EDT You may need to change jobs, careers, or from being a worker to entrepreneurship. You are not alone. So many are at a crossroads. Complimentary consultation for coaching, job-search materials, and interviewing. The menu of services includes Tarot readings, both spreads and one-card pulls. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com or text 203-468-8579.  

 " Lordstown Motors  said that it has begun commercial production of the Endurance, an electric pickup truck designed for commercial-fleet use." - CNBC , September 29, 2022. By the end of the year it plans to have produced 50 EV trucks. Right now two are out there. That can bring hope to the economically distressed northeast Ohio valley.  Unlike Pittsburgh, Pennsyvania, which is about an hour away, the region never diversified after the steel industry collapsed. Pittsburgh is now known for tech, higher education, and healthcare.  Then there was the massive blow of GM's pulling out. Its Chevy subcompact Cruze plant had been operating on three shifts daily. Those created well-paying jobs. However, then there was a market shift to SUVs. Three shifts went to two, then one, then none at all.  The economy tanked.  There was, of course, the multipler effects.  So far Lordstown Motors has been a troubled entity. But its major problems could be behind it. ...

DOW IONES  29,258.24 −425.50  (1.43%) today Sep 29, 11:13 AM EDT  •  Disclaimer You may need to change jobs, careers, or from being a worker to entrepreneurship. You are not alone. So many are at a crossroads. Complimentary consultation for coaching, job-search materials, and interviewing. The menu of services includes Tarot readings, both spreads and one-card pulls. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com or text 203-468-8579. 

 A peculiar post popped up on professional network Fishbowl: "Had an argument with a partner last night.  He wanted me to prepare a presentation he was going to hold on recent developments in the law within our field.  I asked him whether I was going to make the presentation that he was going to hold by himself and in his own name only, and he said yes.  I then said that either we hold it together and I get to speak just a little or at least stand there, or he does it himself ..." From graduate/professional school on (and if we are lucky in college and are invited to participate in a publishing project) the game is about this: Doing the heavy lifting in research, interviews, writing, and editing. Then either the name of the brandname professional who assigns this project is listed first and ours in a secondary manner or we are not mentioned at all.  So, it is a suprise that a subordinate in professional services took this combative stance. No surprise, the major...

"The term ghosting refers to abruptly ending communication with someone without explanation."   -  Bloomberg Law , September 29, 2022. Ever since email, texting, DMing, the surge of content in the Creator Economy, and more, we have been in communications overwhelm. So, it has been convenient to default into ghosting. That is, simply looping out of all that. No, we don't reply. Not in a professional situation. Not in a personal one. And, despite all the messaging from the other parties we stick to that. There are tech-facilitation tools to help that along such as blocking, unfriending, and deleting followers.  In so many ways, all that makes perfect sense. We don't explain ourselves. Pleasepleaseplease, leave us alone to attend to our business and to live our little lives. Ghosting, though, is not value-free. Mixed in with the convenience can be cruelty. Actually, delivering pain can be the objective. If that is the intention, it is brutally effective. What I ...

Dread. RTO means having to deal in-person daily with The Gunners. Essentially they are the ones consumed by almost surreal ambition. That drive may or may not correlate with actual talent. But they figure out how to transcend any talent deficits with myriad strategies. Yes, they are busy bees. Often they do get ahead. But just as often they are sidelined. That could be because they are not likable. Typical is that they shoot themselves in the foot, eventually.   But what must concern you now that you are back in the office is that The Gunners are a reality. Here are 5 tips on how to manage The Gunners so that they don't derail your own career and cause yourself to become emotionally undone.   Don't compare.    Of course, they are gaining career momentum. That's what they do. You might feel intimidated or that you, like them, should have conquered more territory in the organization.    But you have no idea what is going on inside them. T...

 Current junior associates in large law firms have no memory of a down market. All they have known is a recovery that kept picking up steam, then a COVID boom. All that brought first-year salaries to $215,000 a year. Now, even before they start their jobs young lawyers are experiencing the harsh impact of reduced demand for a law firm's services. During the 2008 - 2009 global downturn that phenomenon was labeled "DefLand." And, now  Abovethelaw  confirms the rumor on professional networks that law firm  Gunderson Dettmer  has put in play DefLand.  As ATL reports, the original start date of October 31, 2022 has been pushed to January 17, 2023. But there is no guarantee that date will be observed. If what the firm describes as the signifcant slowdown in demand persists or worsens, there could be more delay. The scary scenario, though, as in 2008 -2009, is that after the delays the offer could be snatched back. When that had happened new law graduates were str...

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 " A proposed rule from the Department of Labor, aimed at defining whether gig workers for companies including Uber  (UBER.N) , Lyft  (LYFT.O) , DoorDash  (DASH.N)  and retailers such as Amazon.com Inc are misidentified as independent contractors, is under review at the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and is expected to be released in coming weeks." - Reuters Legal , September 28, 2022/ The implications, of course, are game-changing.  For businesses, that could be the beginning of the end of their ability to operate with a contract labor force. No longer would they have the business model of not being saddled with having to deal with the rights and benefits legally due employees.  According to the rule a way of determining classification of "employee" is if the workers depend on one company for their living. Trade associations ranging from the American Chamber of Commerce to the National Retail Federation are lobbying ...

" Apollo Global Management Inc. is exploring a takeover of Ryder System Inc., a transportation and logistics company, according to people with knowledge of the matter." - Yahoo Finance , September 27, 2022   Overall, dealmaking has slowed down in 2022, following the pandemic boom. What's driving that, posits The Wall Street Journal , includes the uncertainty in the economy and markets. Another major factor, of course, is the reduced availability and increased costs of funding. However, Paul Weiss documents in a Client Memorandum an uptick in value of deals in August. The number, though, has declined.  Currently the possible Ryder System deal is in the early stages. It could go poof because of funding. Since Mark Rowan became Apollo CEO in March 2021 the financial firm has been reshaping itself from private equity to also becoming a player in insurance and credit. That has involved intense dealmaking.  So far the biggest transaction has been the acquisition of the part of...

" Take the dates of graduation off your resume.  Take off everything from more than 15 years ago, probably ten.  Don't mention how much experience you have except in softball numbers 'over a decade' is accurate enough.  Don't talk about feeling old, or remembering when. Talk about current/planned self education or new certifications or challenges. Just be forward facing." - One set of tips to a techie who is knocking up against age bias in a job search. Here is the thread on Reddit Jobs. Those tips and many of the others in the thread are right on. Most of us aging professionals shoot ourselves in the foot. That's by "acting old." Sure, we are old. But we don't have to present ourselves as such. When we do it knocks us out of the box for landing well-paying jobs and gigs. For instance, the poster admits that on the interview jaw-jawing about how things used to be done. Like, what young Millennial or GenZer wants to hear that. Yes, that's...

 Here is the thread  on Fishbowl about the struggle a number of junior-lawyer laterals have been having adjusting to the new job. They struggle with everything from knowing who the point people are to the tech systems to how to be on the right deals (that is, those which don't fall through).  As a result, most experience low hours and that concerns them as well it should. One lawyer commenting expects the talking-to to happen but as yet it hasn't. All are jittery about being forced out.  The driver for doing a lateral is usually a combination of not feeling at-home in a particular law firm culture and the lure of more money. Also, they probably sense that they are not perceived as partner material (or been told that) at the former firm and hope for better prospects at the next one.  One former Kirkland & Ellis lawyer I coached told me that most lawyers have the confidence in their ability to shake off the lackluster assessment of the particular law firm. Th...

 Scroll through professional networks such as Reddit Jobs and  threads pop up like this one  about the trauma of being fired. You bet, it is a trauma. And anyone who piles on you the platitude that it's an opportunity shoud be told off. If it is an opportunity you have had to crawl naked through broken glass to get to it. But the reality is that it is necessary to move on. After all, you have to continue to earn a living. Solid guidance on how to do that and more comes from the 2021 book   "Tarot for Growth"  by Jessica Dore.  In Dore's interpretation of the Tarot's Five of Swords you have a choice in how you tell yourself and the world the "story" about that latest development in your professional life. We are the stories we tell. The card depicts a person in transition holding and surrounded by swords. In the Tarot the swords symbolize many things. Two of them are intellectual processes and, within them, rigidity of the categories. The message: Be aw...

 " The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that Medicare Part B premiums would be lowered by three percent, or $5.20, going from $170.10 a month to $164.90. The program’s annual deductible will also fall by $7, from $233 to $226." - The Hill , September 27, 2022. Finally, some good news for those on Medicare. The recent hike had played havoc with budgets.  This is the first pullback in 10 years. In addition, aligned with the surge in inflation, there is estimated a major increase in the Social Security COLA for 2023. It could almost in the high end of 8 percent. That will be announced officially next month. You may need to change jobs, careers, or from being a worker to entrepreneurship. You are not alone. So many are at a crossroads. Complimentary consultation for coaching, job-search materials, and interviewing. The menu of services includes Tarot readings, both spreads and one-card pulls. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com or text 203-468-8579...

 " Most important reason for WFH: No need to cry in toilets." - Post on Fishbowl Big Law, September 27, 2022. Here is the thread . In order to make it in those big jobs (or at least well-paying ones for junior professionals) you have to exhibit swagger. Yes, presence. Solid confidence. Otherwise the "they" (ranging from management to colleagues to subordiantes) will eat you alive.  However, the story of the interior life of those professionals is usually filled with moments or longer than moments of soul-withering fear, self-doubt, and expectations of being forced out. About the latter, in that world of secret agendas and stealth power moves, you never really know what your fate is. To wring as much work out of you, sure, they heap praise on you.  But the undertow in such workplaces ranging from Wall Street to Big Law to the Fortune 50 is that the "tap on the shoulder" could come at any time. When employed full-time in multi-national corporations I was al...

  "What Would You Give for Fewer Customer Feedback Surveys?" - The Wall Street Journal , September 27, 2022. "Feedback" is positioned and packaged as an on-the-side-of-the-angels concept. Our assessments are, we are informed, to help in so many ways. So, the squeeze is put on for us to invest time and thought into providing whatevers about a product, service, or experience. Of course, like all concepts the request for feedback has seeped into so many aspects of professional and personal life. Sometimes in stunning ways. A professor at a brandname university cotntacted me cold. He had been aware of my track record in publishing books about careers. Still in print is my guide "The Critical First Years of Your Professional Life."  Yes, he requested that I give him feedback on the draft of his book. No compensation, of course. That's usually the game. (However, Nielsen does slip a few bucks into snail mail for my opinion.) I was polite with the "no....