TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

"The more you earn, the harder it is to find a job ..." Business Insider, April 30, 2024 Vanguard is among the businesses which are studying the dynamics of the white-collar recession and the blue-collar boom.  As a coach I have direct access to this unfolding saga.  White-collar clients who have jobs know to stick with them, despite hating them. Professional anonymous networks such as Blind, Reddit, Fishbowl and Glassdoor record The Great Lament. Some, of course, have jitters about being forced out.  Those who have been terminated and had been at a high salary are not having success in finding comparable jobs. More and more are embracing realitiy. They are changing careers through certifications as well as training for blue-collar paths and starting businesses. On the other hand, my blue-collar clients are busy managing all the work coming their way and feeling good about themselves. They're the ones who can afford those big RVs parked in the driveway next to the house.

  " An employer [M. Stanfeld] has sparked fierce debate after being so shocked a Gen Z job seeker refused to spend 90 minutes on a hiring test because it “looked like a lot of work” that he vented about the situation on X, formerly known as  Twitter ." - Yahoo Finance , April 30, 2024 NOT GENERATIONAL This issue is resonating because it's not a generational one, although it's been positioned and packaged by the media as one. How many of us, applying for a traditional full time job and contract work, have been "invited" to submit designated work, without compensation, in order to demonstrate our fit for hiring.  YES, SOMETIMES IT'S LOTS OF WORK Often that task takes longer than 90 minutes. For example in management consulting the assignment might require preparing (an unpaid) case study. In marketing that could be a strategic plan. Recently for me it was indirect: A professional service firm requested I take a "quick look" at their website. An e

Head of Google Sudar Pichai declared business to be business. And business, according to Pichai, has no place for employee protesting inside the corporation.  This harsh attitude could catch fire with employers on other business issues.  At the top of the list are what are considered ham-handed teminations processes - at least by employees. Many know that early adopter of the video-them Brittany Pietsch landed on her feet. Some predicted she was unemployable but she did get another job in marketing. In addition, she's an influencer.  But if employers crack down on just the legal privacy matters involved, as Bloomberg Law explores, the support for this kind of strategy could freeze. There is a lot of fear about employment insecurity, especially among white-collars. There really is a white-collar recession. Only one-third of job ads are open for The Professional Class.. A boomer, I experienced how quickly a movement can dry up. The counterculture was hot. Then it was not. The severe

At first, the best answer I read in Fisbbowl Big Law about becoming a shareholder at Kirkland & Ellis was: Become a partner somewhere else, then have them hire you into equity-partner paradise or hell (depdending up your mindset.) Then came this much-better answer: Be a partner who is heading a group or is on the way to heading a group. Yes, that's a sign of power and that's paramount in large law firms. In my coaching I warn professionals to be flexible. The game can change on a dime for the better or the worse. It's praiseworthy to head for partnernship at Kirkland & Ellis or any other professional services firm. But never take your eye off developing opportunities and headlwinds.  Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com)   

" Many people tend to decrease their spending naturally as their expenses go down in retirement, and overspending doesn't seem to be an issue for many retirees." - Thinking from Bill Perkins, author of "Die with Zero," as he is quoted in Business Insider, April 26, 2024 People in general have financial common sense. They have less coming in so they pay attention to what is affordable at this stage of life. Based on my observations from my coaching sessions and Tarot readings with aging comes less chasing after symbols of status. Those are expensive such as housing in the right zip code and brandname vacations. Simultaneously, what people spend on is primarily on meaningful experiences. They tend to not miss out on life by being too frugal and not enjoying following their bliss. What I notice is a new balance about life. Sure, some will run out of money. But, Perkins doesn't anticipate there will be many. That is because net wealth tends to increase in retir

Smug. And over-the-top optimistic  It was my second day on the journey to relocate from Youngstown, Ohio to Sierra Vista, Arizona. I was making good time, about 200 miles ahead of schedule. And I was looking forward to more opportunities for my intuitive coaching and Tarot reading boutiques. Also, after two stays in AZ the southeastern part of that state meant home to me. This time I was going to settle in. As I was passing through Rolla,Missouri, the car tumbled over the freeway. There were no guardrails. I recall it bouncing twice.  Talk about magical thinking. I looked at the cracked windshield and mused, oh darn, I will have to have it repaired. I started the car. No, it didn't start. I noticed a crowd gathering around. A young woman helped me out of the vehicle. I got it. "Your eye is black,"she said.  That was going to be the least of it. Shock, concussion and some more. Eventually I never, even in slapstick comedy, bore witness to that size black eye. A ton of nurs

  " Hiring in professional services, finance and technology is running at one-third the rate of the overall labor market." - Bloomberg, April 25, 2024 The jokes and the fantasy reflections about having become a plumber or welder instead of going the white-collar route are over. It's now in earnest that white-collar clients for my coaching practice tell me either 1) They are appropriately jittery about losing their jobs or 2) The job is gone but nothing comparable has come up to replace it. Postings and comments on professional anonymous networks such as Blind, Reddit, Fishbowl and Glassdoor chronicle that extreme angst.  A few have already retrained for blue-collar careers such as long-distance driving. The rest wonder if they should wait it out in anticipation that the labor market for their skills will bounce back or do some serious research on how else to earn a good living. Those options include self-employment. In the meantime the universal advice is this: Keep brin

A setback: The Paul, Weiss campaign , led by partner Scott Barshay, to lure partners from Kirkland & Ellis, Latham, Sidley and Baker Botts to build its presence in Houston fell flat. No one went for it.  However, the energy niche is increasingly important. For example, generative AI consumes a lot of it, as does bitcoin. Given its track record in getting what it goes after, Paul, Weiss is likely to put together another strategy to become a prominent player in the market. It may not be the Houston one. There are myriad other ways to become part of energy. I had worked full-time for Big Oil and energy has lots of sources and is always mutating.  Geographics expansion, domestic and international, has become a priority for Paul, Weiss. It has beefed up its LA office here in the US. Overseas it dramatically ramped up the London office and planted its flag in Brussels.  Meanwhile, competitors of Paul, Weiss probably are enjoyed this miss. But, that might not be for long. In my coaching I

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" Not ONE of my past employers cared [that I had the MA in Communications]. Nor has it helped me get a job. I think college degrees are becoming a thing of the past. I wouldn't really recommend a masters unless you're going in to get a PhD" - Response posted on Reddit Public Relations/Communications about adding on the credential of an MA in Communications, April 2024 This seems obvious. Just look at the growing number making a good living being influencers pitching products or enriching brands with no specialized public relations academic credential.  Also, much of work in public relations is hands-on, like sales. Either you are good at it or you're not. If the former you could become hot. Agencies want you. Or you could launch your own shop. There is also the category - freelancer - which has become a way to earn a living. I doubt many of those freelancers around the globe on UpWork have MAs in Communications. But this isn't new. Degree deflation, unless yo

  “'I've just come to learn that our opinions at the workplace can come back and hurt us, despite the mantras that we hear like, ‘Bring your whole self to work,’ and ‘Company X or Company Y values debate and diversity,’ he [Terminated at Google for protesting the corporation's business with Israel and chooses to be anonymous] said." - Quoted by Yahoo Finance , in article about ongoing firings of protestors at Google, April 23, 2024 The concept of bringing our whole self to work only has any correlation to professional realities if we were or are fortunate enough to be in an organizational culture that is more or less a fit for our holistic selves. Otherwise, the wise among us took on and continue to take on protective coloring in order to, as the saying might go, "pass for one of them."  That is exactly why there is so much guidance and actual coaching about creating the right personal brand. The personas I adopted for full-time jobs at a southern-based oil

  "Baker McKenzie is picking up a 17-lawyer corporate group from Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles, the latest move to expand its deals roster." -  Bloomberg Law , April 24, 2024 That includes 11 partners and six associates, decimating Munger's corporate practice. This is just-in-time for the global turnaround in M&A. And it follows earlier poaching this year by Baker McKenzie from Latham and Paul Hastings. Massive raids like this and the Paul, Weiss one of Kirkland & Ellis which stunned the legal sector could become standard as competition among firms intensifies.  To navigate the current environment, documented the 2024   Power Ranking of Am Law 100: Flash Points , large law firms have to keep reinvesting and renewing. Usually that is done by hiring lateral talent, not growing a practice within organically. It can also take off through mergers with other firms. All that takes money, of course.  In the Fortune 100, for decades there has also been the grow

  "Seattle's rents are crazy. My daughter is living in her van. She learned all about that from a guy called Bob Wells." That's what a client for my coaching practice confided to me - with both relief and anxiety.  The exhale was from the reality that she wasn't like the more than 650,000 in America - homeless. Recently, the US Supreme Court, reports AP, looked at the legality of banning their sleeping outside. That case began in the Grants Pass jurisdiction which fined those sleeping outside $295. The San Francisco US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck that down.   The source of my client's fear was that his own daughter felt compelled to learn "survival skills" from someone he didn't know. She had gone to college. She had marketable skills and actually was holding a job. Had he gone wrong with his parenting skills? Or was America becoming a Third World Nation? I delivered a short backgrounder on Bob Wells. Featured as himself in the blockbus

  Gaining awareness through the tarot cards dates back centuries. Back then, to gain that perspective on who you are you would go to a "professional reader." Today, you can become your own tarot reader. Yes, it's a tool which can remove barriers to success in earning a living. In honor of  World Tarot Day, which occurs on May 25th,  I share with you two ways you can master the mystical art of tarot reading. One is provided by The New York Times. Yes, that prestigious media institution has published features on the tarot. Here are its  celebration of the tarot as a tool for self-understanding and its how-to become your own reader.  A second kind of how-to I created for my clients who felt they wanted to continue on their journey of discovery as their own interpreter of the tarot. Here is that comprehensive  DIY guide. However, you might want to be able to relax and take in a tarot reading from a professional. In honor of World Tarot Day I am providing a 50% discount on all

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  This gets us behind the usual Law.com paywall: Here is the link.  It's worth the read.  For instance, it deals with the enormous financial burden of the partner-poaching wars now and those projected in the future.  That is part of the push for the necessary reinvestment and renewal  during the current volatile era.  Explicitly it mentions Paul, Weiss' raid of Kirkland & Ellis talent in London. The compensation for those hires is estimated to be between $10 million and $20 million per partner per year. Taking that on, obviously, represents risk. In addition, Paul, Weiss is expanding its presence in Los Angeles, California and Houston, Texas. Incidentally, in the "Power Rankings" Paul, Weiss chair Brad Karp reflects on competitive realities. Yes, it seems to be a dog fight out there in the Am Law 100 niche.  In coaching, I am focusing plenty on how to guide clients to mitigate risk. Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach Jan

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This book, which had been published in May 2023, is resonating. That's "The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work" by Simone Stolzoff. On Amazon it ranks high at 16,974 and has received more than 700 customer reviews. Essentially its message is two-fold: 1) You are probably, if an American, controlled by workism. That is making how you earn your living control your values and actual sense of self. 2) Despite that, you still expect money and inner fulfillment to merge smoothly into the seamless entity which is you. Instead, the odds are that you will experience conflict, both external and internal.  Stolzoff argues persuasively how the lines between work and everything else have blurred. She documents how some employers such as Google help that along by making being at work fullfill most needs ranging from a sense of belonging to doing satisfying work to enjoying creature comforts on-site. I would add that even a remote worker can experience that same pull force towar

 Essentially the employment trend at this slowed-down time in professional services is to hold on to what you got. There is reduced attrition since there are fewer slots to migrate to. Professional anonymous networks such as Glassdoor, Blind, Fishbowl and Reddit chronicle the inability to land other good jobs after a voluntary departure or being forced out.  Such a development, reports The Financial Times , has had big consequences. The two top ones are tougher performance reviews and a tougher path to promotions. That is, talent is being forced out and the organizational upward-mobility pipeline is blocked.  For example, McKinsey, which continues to experience a falloff in demand, has made its mid-year performance assessment important and harsher. Usually that had been a casual process in which there was a bit of chatter about what is going on. What counted had been the yearly appraisal.  It's predicted, given the mid-year review this month, heads will roll.  In my coaching, the f

  " Husch Blackwell is encouraging associates to consider in-house roles with clients rather than only assume an uncertain path to partner. [It] ... is starting a four-month training program called HB In-House ... [which] give attorneys an inside view of clients and tools they need to transition to jobs in companies." - Bloomberg Law , April 22, 2024 Succeeding in a prominent law firm doesn't only mean being voted in as equity partner. There is, of course, as with Kirkland & Ellis, the goal of becoming a nonequity partner. Recently Cravath and Paul, Weiss has also implemented that tier.  Husch Blackwell has opened up another path for the overall career mobility of associates.That is, the firm, beginning in June, will help associates navigate to an in-house position. Simultaneously this initiative can build a useful network of former lawyers who can funnel assignments to Husch Blackwell. There is that old joke: When an associate announces taking a position in-house, al

  Professional services such as finance, management consulting and law are known as "sweat shops." Very recently on Fishbowl Big Law there are some comments that law firm Paul, Weiss' Private Equity practice is among the most sweaty. Others note that the firm doesn't really have a PE group, with that kind of work done under the M&A umbrella and that the culture varies with who oversees the individual teams. There are partners who are respectful of associates' time and mentor. As with much of what goes on inside organizations and on career paths, the concept of "sweat shop" is misunderstood. When almost-bankrupt Chrysler poached me from financially solid GM, colleagues got very busy with the gossip. They smirked that I was opting for a sweat shop. According to the traditional understanding of sweat shop I was. At GM my hours were 9 to 5 (it was a different time). At Chrysler, as we struggled to save 50,000 American jobs, we rolled in about 7 AM and o

  " PricewaterhouseCoopers is looking to shrink its new class of U.S. consulting partners by more than 50% compared with last year as demand for advisory services continues to slow and the firm reorganizes its business lines." - The Wall Street Journal , April 19, 2024 Last year the partner class numbered 174. This year it's 85. Incidentedly, in 2022, it was at 200. Obviously, PwC isn't confident that the consulting sector is going to return to normalcy in demand any time soon. Read the professional anonymous network Fishbowl Consulting and what's palpable is the employment insecurity. Some are fearful of getting laid off or forced out. Those who have already been axed are struggling to be hired in comparable roles. For those complaining about the stress of the work, the advice is suck it up, don't quit, there's not much out there. As industry keeps more work in-house there is doubt that consulting will return to its earlier demand or status. That pall han

 No surprise, in this era when capitalism becomes raw, there are milestones in unionizing. The most recent is that autoworkers in the South not part of the Big Three are the first to vote for a union. That's the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The NLRB still has to certify that and management has five days to have it say but this looks like a go. That re-opens the conversation about the possibility of lawyers in the up-or-out large firms opting for collective action. The old-line argument was that because the system is up-or-out young lawyers wouldn't see themselves there long enough to find being represented by a union as useful. But up-or-out could exactly be the driver for unionizing.  When I talk with former blue-collars in northeastern Ohio they hammer that the union was most useful for them on their way out. It was the union which got them the best terms and conditions for the exit. The same could apply to lawyers in large firms who have to struggle on their own whe

" I'm also worried I will quickly lose grip on technological advances. Those advancements easily become part of your regular work environment, but as a retiree, I'm worried I'll fall behind." - The lament of a woman who regrets retiring at age 58, as told on Business Insider , April 19, 2024 As a career coach the "new" client I am encountering is the one who opted to retire, got hit with financial realities/boredom, and then wants back in. We focus on preparing for the re-entry. That could include getting up to speed on what are the new technologies in their sector or one they plan to enter. For that exact reason I warn those planning to leave the workforce, even for a brief time, to re-think that. Not being up on tech apps could knock them out of the box. Already some employers demand on the resume information about the level of knowledge and the acquired skills related to generative AI.  Sure, the career you have been following for decades may prove to

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 " ... [DLA Piper is]  cutting parental leave benefits for 'non-partner' lawyers, reducing the amount of 'baby bonding' time it offers non-birthing parents from 18 weeks to 12 weeks. Starting May 1, fathers, non-birthing mothers, adoptive and foster parents will see their paid leave duration slashed by a third." - Claire Suddah, Bloomberg , April 18, 2024 Bloomberg joins the rest of media such as Abovethelaw at vilifying this change of parental-benefit policy by DLA Piper. Increasingly parents and those considering becoming parents have become aware of how myriad other nations provide better parental leave benefits than what is common in the US. Ironically, this law firm operates in 40 nations. Some of them such as Sweden have a very progressive approach in providing parental leave.  DLA Piper defends its policy change by claiming a need to have adequate coverage for the work needing to be done. If the new parents aren't there working, it is assumed, the w

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  This isn't sci-fi. Two law professors have published a 60-page paper "Generative Interpretation" in Penn Carey Law describing how large language models can become the new workhorse in deciding contract disputes. The professors are David Hoffman of the University of Pennsylvania law and Yonathan Arbel of the University of Alabama law.  The primary audience for the research are judges who should become aware of this tool. It could take over the process, end-to-end. Out of the loop would be the expensive law partners. Also, litigation about contract interpretation could become atypical. Contract law, as many know, is the core of the US legal system.  Therefore not only low-value tasks could be taken over by large language models. So could high value ones. Since the large language models are capable of learning, this kind of application could be developed for other moving parts in law. Generative AI could disrupt the practice of business law the way the online upstart Lega

"Feel like the agency side is having trouble right now, I’m in house and my company cut ties with our agencies last year to save budget :(  "  That's the response on Reddit Public Relations to the question how the job market is right now. Many of the other comments reinforce that it is not a good time to be hunting for jobs, especially entry-level ones. Freelance assignments are more available but the competition for them is ramped up.  Meanwhile, those who do have jobs, other Reddit Public Relations postings indicate, have the challenge of delivering on media placements. That's at a time when, because of layoffs in media, there are fewer journalists to pitch to. Those survivors, fearful for their own jobs, will only take on stories which get them lots of page views, likes, comments and reshares. Those are what their editors and publishers want to see. Clients, of course, expect to be featured in all mediums. The jobs situation in public relations is unlikely to impro