TransformingYourCareerTransformingYourself

  I was ready to purchase a moped. And, I could pay cash. So I called Cochise MotorSports in Sierra Vista,  Arizona and asked for Sales. Matt took over from there. And the "there" was not what I anticipated. Recently I had relocated from Ohio where mopeds are common and very legal.  Instead of moving toward closing the sale, Matt asked me several questions. One was: Did I have a motorcycle license. No, I answered, that's not needed with a moped, that is a vehicle that is 50 cc. At least in OH it hadn't been. Matt read the law to me: For anything greater than 48 cc AZ required a motorcyle license.  You must have an outdated copy of the law or a proposed law, I pushed back. Matt went the distance. He called the police department. It confirmed the 48 cc limit. Of course, this is quite the example of extreme customer service. Matt saved me the catastrophe of purchasing a vehicle I couldn't legally operate on AZ roadways. No, I didn't want to jump through the hoop...

  38,686.32 +574.84  (1.51%) today

  38,330.52 +219.04  (0.57%) today May 31, 1:59 PM EDT  •  Disclaimer

"Wall Street Billionaires Are Rushing to Back Trump, Verdict Be Damned"   Bloomberg, May 31, 2024 Fundraising has also picked up dramatically. And even media, which made hay from this development, is not necessarily throwing shade on the ability of convicted felon Donald Trump to win the election. Democrats who have been warned, for instance by influencer O'Dwyer's Kevin McCauley, to nudge Joe Biden off the ticket should feel no sense of relief.  Obviously Trump's effective spin machine can continue positioning and packaging Trump as a political martyr and more. I grew up in the Frank Hague political machine in Jersey City, New Jersey. This is how things can go. In fact, Hague had been quoted as declaring: I am the law.  This reality has serious implications for sectors and professionals who require outreach into the Beltway. If they don't manifest support for Trump and other conservatives they could be left out into the cold. The changing of the guard after ...

  38,176.98 USD ▲  +65.50 (+0.17%) today May 31, 11:30 AM EDT  ·  Market Open

 It was like the day Princess Di died - August 31, 1997. Any public relations firms which managed to wade through the media channels clogged with that news deserved bonuses from clients. Today, May 30th, 2024, the guilty verdict in the Trump hush-money trial , is not only taking up lots of space in media but also on social networks (the latter wasn't a PR tool in 1997) and with influencers (there were always influencers). It might be next week before the public relations agencies can re-try to get their clients' stories out again.   Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach/Tarot Reader Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com)   

  To use the cliche, it's a perfect storm for higher education in America, documents The Hill . Although there had been a 2.5% uptick in undergraduate enrollment this spring, after peaking in 2010, that has been declining from the 18.1 million high. In 2021 it was at 15.4 million.  Among what will be driving more and more institutions of higher learning out of business include: High cost of tuition.  The burden of student debt. In myriad major fields of study the disappointing ROI in terms of employment. Increasingly employers are dropping educational requirements. On one job site 52% of listings had none of them. Professional anonymous network Career Guidance captures the inability of recent graduates to land a job in what they studied.  Reduced life span of knowledge. Over and over again professionals lament that what they learned in their formal education has become out-of-date and often not relevant.  The threat of generative AI to knowledge work. Already la...

  38,157.18 USD ▼  -284.36 (-0.74%) today May 30, 9:34 AM EDT  ·  Market Open Day Week Month Year 5 Year Max 10:00 12:00 2:00 3:30 38,000 38,300 38,600 Vol

  "What do you think about the Paul, Weiss global expansion? I don’t think I’ve seen a firm go on this much of a hiring spree in a long time. Shaking up the market is an understatement. Will it work?" - Reddit Big Law , May 29, 2024 Times change and strategies change also.  One response on Reddit to this development at Paul, Weiss is a trip down memory lane. A lawyer who was there during the financial meltdown notes that the strategies were quite different. They report that Paul, Weiss chair Brad Karp, who had just been voted in, noted that the firm wasn't in the pickle its peers were. And, as everyone could see, it wasn't, like Latham, laying off.  The two reasons were: No expensive global expansion. Therefore, it wasn't shouldering that cost burden.  Lockstep partner compensation. That helped create genteel relationships. It also locked in pay caps. That was then. Or, is presented by the poster as what went down then. Now is now.  The issue isn't that the st...

  38,486.31 USD ▼  -366.55 (-0.94%) today May 29, 2:25 PM EDT  ·  Market Open

  It is starting in Wyoming. But since Wyoming increasingly is the residence or getaway for the influential and/or wealthy the phenomenon is bound to catch fire. That's the celebration of the cowgirl. The model, of course, is Beth Dutton from "Yellowstone," who is struggling to save the ranch for her father. This trend stands along with the resurrection of the cowboy. Here is the article I published on that  in  ST Magazine. A brand in home decor in Wyoming is capturing those values. Here on Craigslist Jobs Site for Wyoming is a help-wanted for a copywriter/blog editor  who will apply that cowgirl everything to everything in Wyoming. Part of the application process is to discuss that female lead in "Yellowstone." Yes, you have to know SEO.  Is it remote? Yes, in Wyoming.  Would you move to Wyoming for this opportunity? Might be worth considering. Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach/Tarot Reader Jane Genova (text/ph...

  Again, Paul, Weiss has snatched a dazzler of a twinkler into its firmament of star power. This time it was not through a raid at another law firm.  Instead, the hiring was from in-house. The GE general counsel Michael Holston is departing that corporation since it has been spun out into three entities - energy, healthcare and aerospace. Here is the coverage from Reuters. The story, according to Holston, started when he worked with Paul, Weiss lawyers handling the spin-offs. Although that wasn't his first encounters with Paul, Weiss legal talent, it created a long-term opportunity to really get know the organization and its culture. Obviously, he liked what he experienced.  Coming aboard in Septemember, based in both New York and Washington DC., Holston anticipates he will be involved in "complicated and messy matters." Those could include major transactions, crisis litigation and government regulation.  Previously, Holston had also been a general counsel at Merck ...

  "Silent Democrats Will be Complicit in Biden's Election Defeat" - Kevin McCauley, Editor-in-Chief, O'Dwyer's Public Relations, May 28, 2024. Here is McCauley's entire thougtht piece, which echoes what is finally surfacing on influential platforms like  Politico.   The meme is this: Joe Biden must be nudged (or, yes, kicked) off the ticket. However, Man/Woman The Political Animal knows the possible punishment for taking that step or even being identified as putting it in motion. Loyalty continues to exist in politics and there are Biden loyalists. The penalty risk might be significantly less than the risk of a Biden loss and progressives being locked out of the Beltway for at least four years. Democracy may require decades to restart in the major instititutions.  The player or players who begin the ousting dynamic could go down in American history as an authenic hero. The situation is that serious. Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consu...

  I am thrilled to announce that the influential O'Dwyer's Public Relations published my analysis of Ogilvy's puzzling pay range for a NYC-based position which is responsible for $5 million to $10 million of business. That pay range starts at $35k and caps at $65k. I was pulling down way more than that cap in the late 1980s and the job was based in an office 90 minutes from Gotham.  Here is that article. Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach/Tarot Reader Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com) 

Right now 85 of the 100 largest law firms have instituted the Non-Equity Partner (NEP) tier. And 70 of those have increased its size. Essentially the objectives are two-fold: Retain experienced lawyers and boost the Profits Per Partner of those in the Equity box. The latter happens because the NEPs can be billed out to clients at a higher rate than senior associates. All that sounds like a model created in Management Paradise. However, Bloomberg Law documents the troubles it can generate. They include: Possible falloff in quality and work ethnic. After all, the culture of large law firms is quite political. Surely, NEPs recognize they are a not in the Shareholder box. They might become less hard-charging.  Loss of billable hours. A Reuters investigation found that NEPs typically bill seven to 11 fewer hours a month per lawyer, in contrast to Equity Partners.  However, some law firms may bypass those constraints. Bloomberg Law cites Kirkland & Ellis and Paul, Weiss. Both h...

 " ... For [the interview] a new job? In general I would do 60-80 hours of drafting out stories and practicing reciting them in engaging ways.  After that I would probably do 2-4 hours of company specific research for a non-recruiter interview." -  Fishbowl Consulting, May 27, 2024 Those  who haven't been through the wringer in a recent job search and getting no offers might push back on all this amount of input. Their chief argument would be that with all that preparation you are going to come across as over-scripted - and stiff.  But note that the advice is to role play your approaches so that, yesyesyes, you aim to engage. A major part of what you invest in is the soft stuff. At the top of the list is: appearing relaxed, mirroring the tone/pacing/word choice of what those with the power are using, being looped in when responding to their request for your questions and keeping them interested in you in a sustained way.  What I recommend to clients is for...

   " ...  after 8 months of this [overwork] I completely snapped. To be determined whether I recover from it, but all I have learned in the meantime is that nobody at that firm had my back and I needed to have my own back, but I didn’t. The firm will take as much of you as you give them." - Fishbowl Big Law Fishbowl Big Law , May 27, 2024.  This is a response to a plea, just posted an hour ago, about how to deal with a system which piles on assignments and ignores requests for a brief break. Essentially the professional putting the issue out there assumes the firm is the source to turn to for help. Wrong, hammers the comment.  In my Tarot readings my role increasingly has to give "permission" to hard-chargers to take care of themselves. The burden of self-care is on them, not their employer. If they "snap" or drop the ball in any way in performance, the system is bound to be unforgiving. If they "crack up," memories are usually long. How to take...

Closing our door in the work setting and crying. At a Harvard event honoring her US Supreme Court Justice  Sonia Sotomayer admits she has done that, several times. That is typical behavior in knowledge work and it is gender-neutral. (In blue-collar niches distress is usually signaled more openly and directly.) For example, one male associate I coached shared how he had the sense to close the door at his elite law firm before the tears just flowed. He had been given an assignment by a partner, with a deadline, with no guidance how to go about it. Eventually he figured it out but the bout of crying had drained him. That experience remained vivid in his memory bank. Throughout the floors of the prestigous trophy skyscrapers in Manhattan there are narratives of, yes, men and also women sobbing in the restrooms after they had been fired. The sad part of those sagas? Reflecting on that experience they felt "lucky" they had made it out of the termination interview intact and could ...

 " Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman announced on Friday that he will back Donald Trump in the 2024 election, giving the former president the support of one of the biggest names on Wall Street." - Politico , May 24, 2024 The speculation is that other Wall Street firms could follow. Already, Silicon Valley is leaning more right toward Trump. These new supporters are attracted to Trump's positions on the economy, immigration and foreign policy. Some contend that America has been moving in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, the Wow Trump delivered in normally Democratic Party-controlled Bronx has intensified the aura around him. All this could deliver a hard nudge to large law firms which tend to be progressive. They might feel driven to signal to Trump some kind of support. Open Secrets documents they are major contributors to the Democratic party. They range from Akin Gump to Paul, Weiss.  In addition, as  Law.com reports individual brandname law leaders are personally ...

In this volatile era for professionals, those wonderful glam jobs are especially in-play. Or maybe it just seems that way because the media, professional anonymous networks and mainstream jaw-jawing are following them closely.  Some are losing jobs, perhaps the sectors are contracting permanently.  Others are growing, with nosebleed compensation in certain settings.  Then there are those which have a shot at taking on the aura of a dream career path.  THE WORLD OF ENCHANTMENT AS TV WRITER   Vanity Fair brings us up to date on the grim employment situation prospects for TV writers since a few years prior to the strike by the writers. That could worsen if the blue-collar crews strike this summer.  Actually, author of the article and herself a TV scripter Joy Press describes that career path as shot through with "terror" by those who need assignments. Some have already done a career change. Others are holding on, despite sleepless nights, hoping for better ti...

  "Sam Altman's time as the golden child of tech might be coming to an end" - Business Insider , May 24, 2024 On November 30th, 2022, when OpenAI released ChatGPT we played with it and it was a WOW. What would have taken us hours in research or copywriting, for example, the ChatGPT prompt spit out instantly. The better we became at configuring the prompts the more the WOW ballooned.  Tech entrepreneur behind OpenAI Sam Altman became the Next Steve Jobs in terms of being hailed as unleashing a genuine game-changer. Then concerns came about the consequences of such a powerful technology. Will humanity be wiped out? Were there enough guardrails? Less than one year later - November 17, 2023 - that kind of thinking apparently triggered the ouster of Altman by the board. But he got right back in. Many in the world of tech fundraising exhaled. Back then Altman was OpenAI. So what if he was alleged to be "power-hungry." Recently, regarding OpenAI, there have been harsh ...

 " The changes [in law firm partner compensation] include instituting secrecy around partner pay ( Paul Weiss ) ..." - Roy Strom, Bloomberg Law, May 23, 2024 That strategy - sometimes called a "black box" - has several objectives. Supposedly, they are to prevent: Internal tension about the increasingly large spread among what different partners are making. For a while, though, there has already been resentment about junior partners having less status and power than senior partners. Soon enough those junior partners will recognize they are pulling in a lot less money.  Partner flight. Given that they will be unaware of the spread, the magical thinking goes, they won't be ready to jump ship for a better financial deal. Yeah, sure. Partners make it their business to find out about money.  Loss of client accounts. If partners take the exit, they could bring with them the clients they have been serving. Not only is that a hit to the business. The brand can lose equi...

  39,082.82 USD ▼  -588.22 (-1.48%) today May 23, 2:07 PM EDT  ·  Market Open I better get back my hustle for my two enterprises. No relaxing this long weekend. Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com)   

  "OpenAI's defense: We're not liars; we're just incompetent. Yikes!" -  Business Insider , May 23, 2024 Meanwhile, the heat is rising in terms of what kind of player OpenAI is in the generative AI space - especially regarding safety. As many know, its "safety patrol" departed.  The temperature could possibly be brought down if, yes, Sam Altman gets the boot, again. Axios observes: "The dispute between  Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI  is adding fresh heat to long-simmering questions about CEO Sam Altman's credibility."  OpenAI is itself deepening that concern. Out there are not only questions about what Altman is all about. OpenAI itself had developed the narrative that the guy is a downright business bumbler. That's how the Johansson saga happened, goes the spin.  In addition, as Politico reports, tensions between AI and the power forces in Washington DC have intensified.  On X I have been speculating that Altman should go. Until rece...

  Market Summary  >  Dow Jones Industrial Average 39,408.74 −262.30  (0.66%) today May 23, 12:09 PM EDT  •  Disclaimer "JPMorgan Chase’s chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, says a “hard landing” for the U.S. cannot be ruled out." - CNBC , May 23, 2024

  In a long-form essay in Business Insider a woman who went from intern to Vice President at Goldman Sachs in six years puts a knock on the culture. However, doesn't the value system at that Wall Street firm seem like quite the meritocracy to facilitate such a rapid journey?  THE POST-GOLDMAN SACHS LINDSAY MACMILLAN The woman is Lindsay MacMillan who left Goldman Sachs two years ago. On LinkedIn (where surprisingly she has only 4,012 followers) she certainly touts that previous association. Currently she sings for her supper by being an author, coach and TedX speaker.  But with those few followers I wonder how successful she has been post-Goldman Sachs.  Her 2022 e-book, which she says is one reason she left Goldman Sachs to write - "The Heart of the Deal" - only received 80 customer reviews and ranks in Amazon hell (443,414 on Kindle).  Her 2023 paperback - "Double Decker Dreams" - has only received 39 customer reviews and talk about Amazon hell. It ranks 1,3...

  39,690.41 USD ▼  -182.58 (-0.46%) today May 22, 2:08 PM EDT  ·  Market Open

  In the early mid 1980s at one of the Big Three we in executive communications were trained on the Xerox (the one Steve Jobs observed) PC which included word processing. Very soon the "secretaries" were vanishing. Never again did I have access to personnel who handled the word processing. We in communications were on-our-own. However, it seems that category of job still exists. In the New York City section of Craigslist Jobs there is a help-wanted by plaintiff law firm Lieff Cabrasa for a full-time word processor. Of course, lots more is required than just typing words into a system and formatting documents. Those add-ons include excel, power point and e-filing.  Many other organizations have mandated that the knowledge workers be self-sufficient in communications processing. Over the years, I had coached secretaries who had been phased out and faced the abyss of putting together another career.  Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with ...

Terms ranging from "desperate" ( New York Magazine's John Herrman ) to "clowns"( Business Insider's Natie Notopoulos ) are being applied to once-revered OpenAI. The tipping point has been for a major player in generative AI to use a voice on a chatbot that sounded too much like that of Scarlett Johansson. Where were the content monitors, lawyers and more?  Before that was the flight of key members of the "safety patrol" about the risks to humanity embedded in the development of the technology. The meme gaining traction is that putting out there shiny products has priority over values at OpenAI. And, of course, there was the coup giving head Sam Altman the boot amid contentions the guy was driven by a hunger for power. Can there be reputation restoration for OpenAI?  If not, it could become a liability to do business with OpenAI. At the very least that can be in the public relations sense. But if regulators come down on OpenAI's lack of appropri...