TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

  Joe Glynias is the chair elect at law firm Husch Blackwell. He is 46 years young and that age is headlined in Abovethelaw. However, it's not that young.  Over at Brown Rudnick, which successfully represented Johnny Depp, Vincent Gugliemotti had been 41 when he became its head, the title being CEO. And at Paul, Weiss Brad Karp had been voted in as chair by the partners when he was 48 (at 63 Karp is still there chairing). The story here is not youth. It's that Husch Blackwell also now has as its CEO a non-lawyer. That's a first for that kind of law firm. And it's Jamie Lawless. That might be a smart development in the dog-fight world of law firms for everything from new business to blockbuster branding to preventing partner/client flight. Often lawyers are not that astute about business per se, just their little aspect of it when operating their practices such as M&A.  Anyway, the youth-anything announcement is getting long in the tooth. Just as is the working beyo

" ...lots of conversations lately on blue collar (not necessarily talking here about WM) jobs raising salaries to consulting entry level figures.. consulting 15 or 20 years ago was solely compared with white collar high end salaries, industry caught up ..."   Fishbowl Consulting , January 2024 As you have noticed, there has been so much jaw-jawing about the high manager base salary at Walmart, the access to equity and the ability to land in the $400k box. That sweetens the message to consider Blue Collar career paths at a time when the daily news are more layoffs among Knowledge Workers. The office folks are getting the boot at UPS, not the folks on the road doing the driving/delivery.  In my coaching that transition to blue collar is no longer atypical. Scared of what was happening in their white collar organizations or already forced out clients have opened to what was once verboten: doing "direct" work. That could range from driving long distance around the count

 Okay opening for the Dow this morning. Our nest eggs keep growing. We can choose to stay working for income or kick back. Younger generations may not have our choices.  38,558.89 USD ▲  +91.58 (+0.24%) today January 31, 9:37 AM EST  ·  Market Open Day Week Month Year 5 Year Max 10:00 12:00 2:00 3:30 38,450 38,510 38,570 Vol

 " Gladstone Place Partners chief Steve Lipin personally handles PR for Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Management Group private equity firm, in his campaign to mold the direction of the University of Pennsylvania." -  Kevin McCauley, O'Dwyer's Public Relations , January 30, 2024 This is a story of a widening questioning of what UofPenn and more generally higher education is all about. That reaches into everything from the purpose of the university to the ROI on its degrees. During the past several years The Wall Street Journal, for example, has been investigating the latter and documenting disappointing ROIs, especially on graduate and professional degrees.  This version at UofPenn kicked off with Rowan's concern that the university didn't come down strongly enough on antisemitism post-Hamas attack on Israel. Eventually UofPenn's president Elizabeth Magill stepped down.  However, Rowan didn't approach this as a stand-alone subject. On December 12th, he ema

  The Dow Jones 38,458.50 USD ▲  +125.05 (+0.33%) today January 30, 2:46 PM EST  ·  Market Open UPDATE: The close  Market Summary  >  Dow Jones Industrial Average 38,467.31 +133.86  (0.35%) today 2024. You can transform the craziness of this time into unique opportunity. Jane Genova provides you with intuitive career coaching, Tarot readings and related communications. Complimentary confidential consultation. No selling. No pressure.  (For appointments text/phone 203-468-8570 or email  janegenova374@gmail.com )   Meanwhile, please get to know me:   https://tarotreadingsforcareers.blogspot.com/ https://janegenovaintuitivecareercoaching.blogspot.com/ https://makingyourpoint.blogspot.com)  

"Multiple job? Large savings? Cutting down on spending? All of the above- what are you doing future proof job from layoffs?" -  Blind , January 30, 2024  Those Knowledge Workers who assumed they had employment-financial security in the bag are now accepting the paradigm shift: Their education and following the fundamentals of success (or what they used to be) entitle them to nothing. The current downsizing of their functions will probably accelerate with AI. For techies there might not be another Golden Age. The same for management consultants.  So much for what used to guarantee a good living. Hustle is back and for brute survival, not just getting ahead. What I tell coaching clients who had lost their jobs is this: Grab sources of income, just about any kind. Then go on from there. Yes, I tell them, there is a "there," only it's different now. In addition, as a society we should be circling back to boomer parents' extreme hesitation to spend money. Of cour

We can press the brakes a little on how much money we should be bringing in from our raw labor. Our nest eggs are bountiful. Market Summary  >  Dow Jones Industrial Average 38,333.45 +224.02  (0.59%) today Jan 29, 4:20 PM EST  •  Disclaimer 2024. You can transform the craziness of this time into unique opportunity. Jane Genova provides you with intuitive career coaching, Tarot readings and related communications. Complimentary confidential consultation. No selling. No pressure.  (For appointments text/phone 203-468-8570 or email  janegenova374@gmail.com )   Meanwhile, please get to know me:   https://tarotreadingsforcareers.blogspot.com/ https://janegenovaintuitivecareercoaching.blogspot.com/ https://makingyourpoint.blogspot.com)  

Defended by a team from Paul, Weiss, Davis Polk won "Kalmona Cardwell."   This is the second time the plaintiff lost out completely in a bias jury trial. In 2015, it was the gender discrimination lawsuit "Ellen Pao v Kleiner Perkins." Overall, it is unusual that a bias lawsuit would get so far as the jury trial. Usually, as we know from the track record of Sanford Heisler, they are settled.  Of course, the question is: Will these two defeats deter the filing of bias lawsuits? Obviously they are difficult to win.  However, in the process, the plaintiff does get the satisfaction of having the defendants' internal operations come out of the closet. For example, "Cardwell" made public how partners communicate or don't communicate with associates and what about the expectation that young lawyers' body language shouldn't  be too relaxed. In "Pao," the defendants had to explain how their own venture capital game worked and what happened

"The News Business Really Is Cratering"   - Jack Shafer, Politico , January 27, 2024. It might not be the end of journalism per se. There will always be a necessary role for investigative reporting. What is going poof is journalism as a career path. Those full-time employees at prominent media centers such as the LA Times and Business Insider who were axed may never find their way back in. Freelancers might never have another article published again. Who knows, even indie Substack might also be selling what has fewer and fewer buyers. Shafer does, however, mention exceptions to the collapse. One is The New York Times. And, if we connect the dots the source of that growth is not necessarily the quality of the journalism.  As you might have already noticed, it's gaming. Everything from the crossword puzzle to Wordle. Vanity Fair details the evolution of The New York Times from news to a subscription bundle including that traditional media service (in less demand) and gamin

  He listened. And he remembered. Stunned, that's what I thought to myself when Aron R. Blecher M.D. at  OneHealthOhio  asked how my adjustment to Northeast Ohio was going. He did that without looking at the chart. There was genuine concern in his voice. Then he took the time to mention organizations I might join which could accelerate the tough making-friends phase.  This was old-fashioned caring. There would be lots more of it. On a Sunday morning, for instance, Dr. Blecher personally called to alert me, after studying my blood tests, to halt taking Vitamin D.  In addition to that intense sense of engagement there has been a brilliant practice of medicine. For 40 years I have had a high calcium rate and ineffective treatments. Finally, Dr. Blecher was the one to identify the source and provide a remedy. Then there was the awful day I turned up in the office with "strawberry stains" on both sides of my face. From my own research I attributed it to a severe side effect fr

It's a very old issue in how some jobs derail: "They" didn't like our style. And it still happens frequently, even though the current hiring process is structured to weed out those who don't seem a cultural fit.  This matter of professional stylistics could be among the myriad reasons why the racial bias/retaliation lawsuit "Kaloma Cardwell v Davis Polk, et al." is getting plenty of attention. In itself, though, this jury trial could be seminal. It is rare that a bias complaint makes it all the why to that. The last time that happened was 2015 in “Ellen Pao v Kleiner Perkins.” The plaintiff lost. A team of lawyers from prestigious Paul, Weiss is defending Davis, Polk. Of course, that also signals the importance. Back to stylistics. It has come out that the plaintiff black lawyer Kaloma Cardwell was perceived in a negative way because his body language was interpreted as too relaxed. Is the ethos of that law firm to be wired with tension? If so, shoul

  With 13 nominations for Academy Awards, the film "Oppenheimer" is making the second round in movie houses. So the meme of "punishment and forgiveness," as applied to J. Robert Oppenheimer's rollercoaster career, is getting sticky. For creating a catastrophic weapon, disagreeing with government and being a free-thinker, he paid a high penalty but later resurfaced again as hailed hero.  With such a concept out there at our disposal, we might come to apply it to those also who have gone from revered to reviled (at least in myriad circles). Will they, like Oppenheimer, be restored to an elevated position in various networks? Take Disney boomerang CEO Bob Iger. At the top of the list of his currently unforgiveable sins was botching, voluntarily or involuntarily, succession. Had he done that right investors might be sitting pretty, not in a state of woe. There's also that one-time financial innovator Leon Black. He enjoyed the wealth, power and pleasures associa

  The jury was only out three hours. The jurors came back with a nuclear verdict - $83 million - against Donald Trump and for the defamed author E. Jean Carroll. Probably not since another nuclear award - $140 million for Hulk Hogan and against Gawker - has there been this much excitement. And a sense that justice has been done.  The lawyer for Carroll is Roberta Kaplan.  Of course, Trump blasts that he will appeal the jury decision but we know from Kaplan's track record that she is locked and loaded for taking on that challenge. Before founding her own law firm Kaplan Heckler & Fink Kaplan developed her expertise and brandname over a period of 25 years at Paul, Weiss. The latter is known for its star power.  Complimentary confidential intuitive coaching session. No pressure. Maybe even some lightness of being. Please contact Jane Genova for an appointment (text/phone 203-468-8579 or email at janegenova374@gmail.com)

" ...the partner told me I am not in school anymore where asking questions out of curiosity gets you an A+."   Fishbowl Big Law,  January 26, 2024 This is just one example of the problems created by the American Way of investing in an excessive amount of higher education. In this situation, it's three-year law school. Essentially law school is an intellectual box in which the theoretical dominates. Graduates land in law firms with little strategic or procedural know-how. In addition, even with the rudimentary BA/BS path bad habits are developed which make it difficult to transition to how to make a good living. Those range from being evaluated on individual performance versus teamwork (and social skills) to the assumption that there is one right answer (and you will be tested to come up with it). Also, think about this: "Going to school" is a protected environment in which the student's needs are accommodated. After all, the student is the customer and

  "Evidence EVs are a fading fad is ‘rolling in fast’ as Tesla, GM and Ford slash prices"  MarketWatch , January 25, 2024 Fooled again, so many of us.  What could be salvaged from the brief but quite earnest EV movement is the embrace of the hybrid. That would reduce the amount of gasoline consumption while bypassing the negatives of the EV. Those include low range of the charge, difficulty of finding a charge, cold weather's problems with the charge, high cost, low resale value and higher accident rate versus the gas car.  Along with so many constituencies' enthusiasm for the EV there was the grand hope that ESG (Environmental Social Governance) was going to tame capitalism. So convinced we were of that that large law firms, beginning with Paul, Weiss, set up ESG practices to guide CEOs. In addition, corporations themselves established in-house ESG departments. Here is my article, published in O'Dwyer's Public Relations, on the post-ESG world order.   And ho

  Market Summary  >  Dow Jones Industrial Average 38,049.13 +242.74  (0.64%) today Jan 25, 4:10 PM EST  •  Disclaimer Can Boomers exhale? Complimentary confidential intuitive coaching session. No pressure. Maybe even some lightness of being. Please contact Jane Genova for an appointment (text/phone 203-468-8579 or email at janegenova374@gmail.com)

 On Reddit Career Guidance , a job searcher questions if PhD studies are getting in the way. Therefore, should it be not volunteered as information on a resume? The feedback from responses indicate that, yes, it could be a liability. Among the reasons why range from the old "overqualified" to a "distraction" to the probability that the highly educates professional will fly the coop when a better opportunity is available.  As a coach, I would add that America is the land of brutal pragmatism. We do not lean intellectual as do many in Europe. If employers bump up against what they assess as "too much education" they could knock you out of the box. For many opportunities, full-time and contract, it could be wise to only list the BA/BS.  In a large number of contexts it is not required to detail higher education. That is, voluntary. So, it doesn't have to be mentioned. When it is required as data, then ethically it must be cited. During the 2008 -2009 car

  This has been a bad turned horrible week for employment in the once-glam games niche. Riot Games had axed 530. Now, Microsoft, following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, is laying off 1,9000, reports CNBC. The reasons Microsoft gives for terminating 9% of its gaming employees include: New Strategy Cost Efficiency Redundancies Resulting from the Merger. More layoffs in gaming are probable. The Game Development Conference survey found that 56% anticipated more cuts in 2024. In my intuitive coaching I am picking up a flight to safety - that is, non-glam - in how people are focused on earning a good living. The hunger to orbit in cool kinds of work is in decline.  Complimentary confidential intuitive coaching session. No pressure. Maybe even some lightness of being. Please contact Jane Genova for an appointment (text/phone 203-468-8579 or email at janegenova374@gmail.com)

 " 1) Do you like to gamble? and 2) Do you know how compound interest works?" -  Chris Williams, Abovethelaw, January 24, 2024 The two are related. The gamble is that you will get and keep a position in law or a related field with the compensation to pay off law school student debt quickly. Incidentally, last year the positions paying the big money, that is in large law firms, hired 19% fewer lawyers than the year before. Those that got in, well, hopefully they had luck holding on to that employment in these down years.  That brings the second part which is that the interest on the original amount grows in a compounded way. Unless you wipe out the total pronto the amount can balloon to what will prevent everything from taking the job you really want to putting off having a family. In career coaching I am on the clients' side. I want to save them money. If they ask this question about going for law school I will simply text the Chris Matthews' article. That says plent

 In tech and much of Knowledge Work there are fewer safe harbors for making a good living.   EBay is not only laying off 1,000 full-time employees. It is also cutting loose contract workers.  Alternate work arrangements such as being a contractor or temp had been the usual Plan B (or even Plan A) for tech or other white collar sectors such as management consulting, public relations, marketing, media, finance and law. In addition, SAP is planning to provide voluntary buyouts or will restructure the positions of 8,000. This week video game big Riot Games announced a layoff of 530. Professional anonymous network Blind which specializes in tech is jam-packed with laments from the one-time professional elite such as software developers about getting the boot and not being able to get back in, at least not "at that money." It is "getting back in" that is the critical issue in the future of work throughout the white collar.  How many of those axed, for example, at the LA T