Quantcast
Channel: Careers
Viewing all 3714 articles
Browse latest View live

Blogger Explains Why She Gave Up On Law School After Only 6 Weeks

0
0

nerd girl law school

She had a generous scholarship, but she didn't have the endurance to survive the "soul crushing" law school environment.

Courtney Horne, who we identified through her Twitter handle @fireezdragon, blogged a long soliloquy about why she left law school even though she was "working faster than a lot of my classmates and comprehending pretty well."

But she just wasn't ready to give up her entire life to pursue higher education.

"The next thing I learned about law school is that they insist on being the only thing that matters to you," Horne blogged. "They say things like 'law is a jealous mistress' and don’t for one second stop to consider whether that creates a healthy environment."

But the absolute worst part, what drove her away more than anything else was a criminal law professor who is "iconic of everything wrong with law school," according to Horne.

He had a habit of holding unscheduled Saturday classes and taking attendance, something Horne found so irksome she emailed student affairs.

Needless to say, he didn't take too kindly to her complaints, throwing a "literal tantrum in class."

She said after his tantrum students began excluding her from study groups and turned on her.

"Essentially a bully of a professor who was angered by me asking a question about him pushed my section to bully me," she blogged.

DON'T MISS: Lawyers Are Being Forced To Compete 'Hunger Games' Style For Jobs >

 

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »


These Two Salary Data Sources Will Help You Prove That You Deserve A Raise

0
0

Kim Kardashian

When it comes to negotiations, the side that does the most research and preparation is the side that usually wins.

Being able to justify your salary request with reputable data can mean the difference between a $5,000 raise and a $10,000 raise.

Many people turn to a variety of free data sources when it comes time to negotiate their salary. But which source is best? And what we mean by that is: which do employers respect the most? The two biggest players are what you might call the Nikki Minaj (Salary.com) and the Kim Kardashian (Payscale.com) of free salary data.

Let’s compare the two:

1. Nikki Minaj (a.k.a. Salary.com)

In the pursuit of becoming rich and famous, Nikki Minaj followed a well-worn path: she was a failed actress and struggling rapper in New York City whose consistent hard work and talent eventually allowed her to overcome years of failure and become perhaps the greatest female rapper of all time, not to mention a fashion and cultural icon.

She followed the time-tested formula of talent + hard work = success.

Salary.com also takes the traditional route in the way they provide salary data. Their data comes from employers, provided in wage surveys that they purchase and aggregate. In the HR world, the most respected data is from validated, industry surveys with documented sources, and Salary.com purchases more than 450 salary surveys each year, following industry best-practices.

The only downside is that they don’t disclose which surveys they purchase because they sign non-disclosure agreements to get the data. If Salary.com could disclose where they get their data from, they would be an A+ data source in the eyes of HR professionals.

(A more detailed explanation of Salary.com’s data sources and methodology can be found here.)

2. Kim Kardashian (a.k.a. Payscale.com)

Kim Kardashian took a different route to fame and fortune. She became perhaps the most famous and wealthiest reality TV star of all time. As with most reality TV stars, it is not immediately apparent what Kim’s talents are, other than her looks. But dig a little deeper, and it becomes clear that she’s a talented businesswoman who parlayed her reality TV fame into multiple businesses, including clothing lines, fragrance products and endorsements.

She blazed a new trail to fame and wealth: leveraging reality TV stardom.

Likewise, Payscale.com is blazing a new trail when it comes to providing salary data. Payscale’s data comes entirely from individuals—4.5 million per month—submitted via their website, making it the largest and most nuanced salary survey in the world. They have 13,000 job classifications, dwarfing Salary.com’s 4,500. Payscale.com has taken a modern, pioneering approach to salary surveys: crowdsourcing information via the Internet.

But despite their innovative approach and impressive data, the vast majority of HR professionals are skeptical of Payscale.com’s salary data because it’s submitted entirely by random people on the Web. There’s no way to verify the authenticity of their information, something that scares HR professionals. Like many people’s skepticism of Kim Kardashian’s “talent,” the HR community has yet to be won over by Payscale’s data.

(A more detailed explanation of Payscale.com’s data sources and methodology can be found here.)

So, Who Comes Out On Top?

The big question is: which source should YOU use?

When preparing for a salary negotiation, it’s best to gather information from a wide variety of sources and to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each one. So check out both of these resources, and let us know which one you prefer.

Would you vote for Nikki Minaj (Salary.com) or Kim Kardashian (Payscale.com)?

Joseph Richards is a Labor Economist and Salary Negotiation Consultant specializing in presenting compelling economic arguments to help clients get maximum salary increases. He has represented unions, management and individuals in wage and benefit negotiations.

Get our best career advice delivered to your inbox. Sign up today!

Brazen Life is a lifestyle and career blog for ambitious young professionals. Hosted by Brazen Careerist, we offer edgy and fun ideas for navigating the changing world of work—this isn't your parents' career-advice blog. Be Brazen.

Read more posts on Brazen Life »

Please follow Careers on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The 10 Best Value Law Schools In America

0
0

University of Alabama Law School

This is part of our comprehensive ranking of The Best Law Schools in America.

Price tags on the top law schools in America have reached epic proportions.

For those of us who can't afford to pay $50,000 a year or more, the National Jurist has compiled its sixth annual list of the Best Value Law Schools

This year's Best Value rankings take into account the following: tuition (25 percent of the score), cost of living expenses (10 percent), average indebtedness upon graduation (15 percent), the percentage of graduates who got a job (35 percent), and bar passage rates (15 percent).

As a disclaimer, it's important to note that several schools have recently been called out on incorrectly reporting their debt data, Above the Law has pointed out.

It's still interesting to see the rankings since National Jurist took other factors into account like tuition and graduates' chances of getting a job.

So is it worth paying over $50,000 per year to attend Cornell, Columbia or Harvard, or will these ten "value" schools do?

10. University of Wisconsin

Tuition: $19,683

Average debt for 2011 grads: $66,987

Employment rate: 77 percent

Two-year bar pass average: 99.61 percent

Source: National Jurist



9. University of North Carolina

Tuition: $19,012

Average debt for 2011 Grads: $76,642

Employment rate: 80 percent

Two-year bar pass average: 90.53 percent

Source: National Jurist



8. University of New Mexico

Tuition: $14,532

Average debt for 2011 Grads: $63,793

Employment rate: 78 percent

Two-year bar pass average: 91.55 percent

Source: National Jurist



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

8 Bad Work Habits That Will Kill Your Career

0
0

golf office slackers employees

Wondering why you're not advancing in your career more quickly, or why you always seem to be overlooked when it comes time for raises, promotions, or important projects?

The answer might be that you're holding yourself back, through one or more of these eight career-killing behaviors.

Click here to see the habits >

More From U.S. News & World Report:

Do You Fit the Mold of a Telecommuter?

The Appropriate Way to Talk Politics at Work

6 Job Search "Signs" That Don't Actually Mean Anything

1. Not promoting your own work.

Your work might be fantastic, but if no one knows about it, it won't help your reputation, your salary, or your advancement opportunities.

Make sure that your manager knows about your accomplishments, whether it's kudos from a hard-to-please client, waste you uncovered and fixed, or anything else that goes above and beyond your normal work.



2. Getting defensive.

If you get defensive when you get less than glowing feedback on your work, you might be striking a death blow to your career.

Many people simply give up on having meaningful interactions with defensive people, so your co-workers may avoid you, and your manager may stop telling you how you can improve. "That sounds great," you might respond—but it means that you'll destroy the relationships you need to advance in your career and denying yourself the information that you need to grow professionally.



3. Making rash decisions.

Whether it's walking off the job because the boss said something you didn't like or taking a job offer without thinking it through carefully, impulsive decision-making has no place in your career.

The decisions you make about work will have far-reaching ramifications on your wallet, your reputation, and your daily quality of life.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Careers on Twitter and Facebook.

The Most Liberal And Conservative Law Schools In America

0
0

Boston democrat donkey

What law school best fits your political views?

The Princeton Review has surveyed more than 18,000 students at 168 law schools and using that information, has compiled a list of the most liberal and most conservative law schools in America.

Here are the two extremes on the political scale:

Most Liberal Students: Northeastern University — Boston, Mass.

The school's left-leaning tendency is no surprise considering that it's located in Boston. The city has a Democratic mayor and the state overall is strongly Democratic

NU also made a statement in February when its student body voted against Chick-fil-A's plans to open up on campus. The student senate voted 31 to 5 against having a Chick-fil-A on campus amid concerns over the chain's anti-gay stances, according to The Boston Globe. 

Most Conservative Students: Ave Maria School of Law — (currently Naples, Fla.)

The school was founded in 1999 by Domino's Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan as a conservative, Catholic law institution. It moved from its original location in Michigan to Naples, Florida in 2009.

Monaghan himself is a supporter of the pro-life movement and other conservative causes

 For more law school rankings, go to Princeton Review's website

SEE ALSO: The 10 Best Paying Career Alternatives For Law Grads >

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

London Lawyers Are So Poor They Can't Even Afford Homes In The City

0
0

yachts london

Corporate law partners in New York City rake in anywhere from $1 million to $2 million annually.

Sounds pretty ritzy to us.

And with those salaries, New York partners can afford just about any kind of apartment they want.

Too bad things aren't so posh across the pond.

Above The Law blogger Mark Hermann recently moved to London and found out, much to his shock, that partners at major London firms can't afford to actually live in the city unless they're rolling in family money or bought their house some time in the previous century.

London partners at top firms made an average salary of $843,000 in 2010, according to British legal recruiter Edwards Gibson. That's less than New Yorkers make, and the London housing market is even more brutal than the one in the Big Apple.

Case in point: A London apartment similar to Hermann's "perfectly nice (but small) two-bedroom, two-bath apartment (or “flat,” as the locals say) in a perfectly nice building in a perfectly nice part of town," sold in the past year for around $4 million.

Basically, a medium-quality London flat costs "ten times what you’ll pay for great space in Chicago and something like three times what you’ll pay for nice space in New York."

Ouch.

DON'T MISS: While Law Grads Suffer, The Richest Firm In America Is Making Billions >

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Meet The Porn Industry's Favorite Lawyer Who's Currently Suing 20,000 People

0
0

John Steele

Who knew being an copyright troll was a good thing.

The title is a badge of honor for the porn industry's most prominent lawyer who's currently attacking about 20,000 people accused of illegal downloading XXX films.

“I’m considered the original copyright troll,” attorney John Steele told Forbes almost proudly in a profile published Monday. “At least my wife loves me. When I read about myself on the Internet, I think, ‘Who is this jerk?’”

Steele monitors file-sharing sites to find Internet users who are downloading the racy films. He's often content to get somewhat small settlements from the alleged illegal downloaders who prefer to pay up rather than have their names splashed across public court documents, according to Forbes.

Steele's tactics have dubbed him one of the most hated men on the Internet.

The person paying for a certain IP address might not be the person who actually downloaded the illicit movie, according to Forbes. But the owner will be named in the court documents all the same.

“Just because wrong person arrested for murder doesn’t mean murder shouldn’t be a crime,” Steele told Forbes. “We assess the situation and try to get the facts."

DON'T MISS: Berkeley Law Students Booked For Decapitating A Guinea Fowl >

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

NYU Responds To Attacks That The Third Year Of Law School Is Utterly Useless

0
0

NYU Graduation at Yankee Stadium

The third year of law school is essentially useless, Stanford Law dean Larry Kramer said in a 2010 speech recently quoted by The New York Times.

Well, law schools are listening, and New York University Law is among them, the Times reported.

The school is expected to announce vast changes in its third-year curriculum, including the option of studying abroad—Shanghai or Buenos Aires—or working for the Environmental Protection Agency or Federal Trade Commission, according to The Times. 

Previously, the third year was reserved for elective classes, but amid a scant job market and criticism from people in the industry, NYU and others have begun taking steps to give their graduates an edge in the legal industry.

Paul Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado and one of the major critics of the law school business, even mentioned in a July 2012 paper that the idea of getting rid of the third year wouldn't be too radical.

But Campos suggested an alternative approach would work, too.

Law schools can cut down on clinics and instead allow 3Ls to focus on external internships—that is where they would obtain practical skills for the legal world ahead, Campos wrote, suggesting a program resembling NYU's.

Of course, this cost cutting should, Campos writes hopefully, result in the elimination of the third-year tuition for the students.

SEE ALSO: Law Schools Are Asking A Trade Group To Lie About The Terrible Job Market >

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »


New Survey Shows Why Lawyers Are Terrible At Doing Business

0
0

Shady Businessmen

A recent legal intelligence survey by ALM looked at how well law firms can act like businesses.

The takeaway?

They can't.

"The level of commitment leading law firms are showing to strategic planning is moving in the right direction, but the rate of substantive progress is still frustratingly slow,” the report found, according to The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog. “There is genuine cause for concern.”

Only one in eight law firms has a strategic plan for improving profits and retaining their best talent, The Am Law Daily reported Tuesday.

And even the firms that do have a plan often aren't able to execute it very well.

Firm leaders need to start learning about business goals and becoming familiar with "the financial health of the firm" or they'll never succeed at running a successful business, LexisNexis's director of consultants Bo Yancey stated in the report.

DON'T MISS: The 20 Biggest Legal Stars On Twitter >

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

This News Could Mean The End Of Altruistic Lawyers

0
0

Atticus Finch

The salaries of government and nonprofit lawyers have hardly grown at all since 2004 – when they were already pretty paltry, a new report from the legal group NALP has found.

Public defenders usually start out making just $50,000 a year, while lawyers who lend their talents to civil rights groups and other nonprofits make just $45,000 a year.

Those salaries have barely kept pace with inflation in the past eight years, while the cost of law school has risen dramatically, NALP said.

But aspiring do-gooders have more to worry about than their minuscule paychecks.

Law professor Paul Campos, whose blog aims to expose the law school "scam," calls public interest work a risky proposition.

There's been a glut of applicants for low-paid government and nonprofit jobs because competition for jobs at law firms has gotten more competitive than ever, according to Campos.

"When I was in law school, public interest was a fall-back position," Campos told Business Insider.

But now, he says, "There are no jobs in the public sector."

SEE ALSO: Why The Law School Bubble Is Worse Than The Student Loan Crisis

 

 

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

10 Things That Make You Look Clueless At A New Job

0
0

slacking goofing off office happy young worker

Many new hires are so anxious to make friends and a good impression that they often make mistakes that will leave them with neither.

To ensure this isn't you, check out the list below of 10 things you should be cautious of when you're the new kid on the block:

1. Don't tell your new manager how your old manager did things.

Unless you were hired to be a change agent in your new position, your new company has little interest in how your old company handled things. Your new company has likely been successfully doing things the same way for a while, and there isn't much that will scorch a manager's ears like a new hire trying to change policies and procedures that have worked well.

Avoid saying things like, "That's not how we used to do it at the Ajax Company." It is almost certain that unless someone specifically asked how you did things at the Ajax Company, your new company doesn't want to know. Use this phrase too often, and you could find yourself back on the street.

2. Don't be too trusting of your new work mates.

This doesn't mean you should be a wallflower. It just means that you may want to remain somewhat guarded until you know for sure that the guy you think is just being nice isn't looking for information to use against you or with which to embarrass you. Sounds creepy, but it does happen.

3. Don't run to your manager about every little thing.

New hires are expected to have questions concerning policies and procedures. Attempt to glean that information from those you are working with closely before disturbing your manager with petty questions that could make you appear to be either a brown noser or inept, either of which would be a bad thing.

4. Don't be a "know-it-all."

Be willing to hear your new boss or co-workers out before jumping in with, "I know." It may be that you do "know," but you may learn something new by letting them complete their thought. Having a willingness to listen to instruction you may not think you need can be a great way to show a true desire to get along and be a team player.

5. Address those in authority properly.

Just because your boss calls his boss by their first name doesn't give you permission to do likewise. Asking permission to do so even when those at your level already do so is a sign of respect that will not be forgotten.

6. Keep your complaints to a minimum.

You may end up with the worst schedule in your office or the desk chair with the loose wheel. Guess what? So did everyone else when they first started. Get over it. Do the best you can with the schedule and equipment you may have to work with. It's not likely to go on forever and may teach you to have a little sympathy for the next new person.

7. Be who you want to be.

The fun thing about starting a new job is that you get to reinvent yourself. Take advantage of your new surroundings by leaving the "old" you at your last job. This doesn't mean you should pretend to be someone you're not, just try improving upon who you already are—particularly if you didn't like the person you were before.

8. Don't take sides.

Being new gives you the unique option to remain neutral in your new office. Take some time getting to know the dynamics of those you work with before engaging in situations you may not have enough information about yet. Coming down on the wrong side could mean a very brief career or an uncomfortably long one.

9. Keep time off to a minimum.

If you had planned events prior to joining your new team, these should have been discussed and OK'ed before accepting your new role. Excessive tardiness and absenteeism looks particularly bad when you're the new guy.

10. Identify and stay away from negative employees.

Nothing shortens a career faster than feeding into the negative vibes coming from those who are unhappy in their position and use every opportunity to bring others down with them. These types really like to glom on to new employees, in particular, mostly because the rest of the staff won't give them the time of day. Guard yourself from this soul-stealing monster at all costs, or suffer wallowing in the same stew.

Being new can be quite rewarding when you conscientiously avoid the little mistakes that can mean big trouble. So hold your head up, take a deep breath, and proceed with caution.

Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter is a Glassdoor career and workplace expert, chief career writer and partner with CareerTrend, and is one of only 28 Master Resume Writers (MRW) globally. Jacqui and her husband, "Sailor Rob," host a lively careers-focused blog at http://careertrend.net/blog. Jacqui is a power Twitter user (@ValueIntoWords), listed on several "Best People to Follow" lists for job seekers.

Please follow Careers on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Here's The Rationale For Opening Illinois' 10th Law School In A Terrible Job Market

0
0

Ludacris luda surprised

Illinois already has nine law schools, and the job market for law grads hasn't been this bad in 16 years.

But there is talk of yet another law institution – the Bradley University College of Law.

And a number of high-profile figures in the state are very excited, including a federal judge and the mayor of Peoria, where Bradley is located, according to The Journal Star. 

Bradley currently has 35 other grad programs and recently completed a study on adding a possible law school.

But with only 55 percent of 2011 law grads finding full-time, long-term jobs requiring a law degree, Bradley will have to provide something special.

Here is how a Bradley law school could be different, according to the university study done on the matter reported on by the Journal Star:

• In their third and final year of law school, which has drawn criticism as of late, students would get actual hands-on experience. They would be placed in a work setting—helping private attorneys, public defenders, or corporate legal teams, according to Bradley Provost David Glassman.

• The school would find a niche—perhaps in the intellectual property or medical spheres, according to district judge James Shadid, who was part of the team that carried out the study. The city is already home to the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, according to the Journal Star.

• The tuition would run somewhere between University of Illinois's $38,600 and Southern Illinois University's $16,000, the Journal Star reported. If the tuition at Bradley Law is relatively low, grads would be less pressured to move to the big city in order to pay off massive loans and could seek work in Peoria instead, according to Gary Roberts, dean of the law school at Indiana University.

SEE ALSO: This News Could Mean The End Of Altruistic Lawyers

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

HEADHUNTER: 5 Reasons I Passed Over Your Online Job Application

0
0

laptop

Are you sending tons of resumes on job ads but don't even get an answer?

Recruiters both in HR departments or recruitment agencies and search firms receive a large number of resumes every day, and we have to decide within 5-10 seconds if we call up the candidate or not.

The “Leitmotiv” of my job—professional recruitment—is to find similarities between the job and the applicant, the skills of the person in front of me and the job responsibilities.

Here are 5 ways to target your application so that you're more likely to get an interview:

1. Only apply if you match 75% of the job ad.

This ratio will give you a) confidence to succeed in the job and b) enough room to grow, learn and stay motivated for the next years. 75% is not only a good indicator for the recruiter—who will weed out those candidates who fall short—but it is also important for your personal risk management: you want to be sure the next step will be the right one and you will stay and evolve within the new organization, right?

2. Only apply if you cover 99% of the KO criteria.

When it says “fluent Bushman language is a must criterion," this means that you cannot do the job unless you are fluent in Bushman language. Though you might apply when you give yourself a “very good," do not do so if you only have basic knowledge. Be prepared that everything you put on your resume will be double-checked—and in 80% of the cases I correct the language level stated. I had candidates that put “fluent” on their resume, yet were not able to communicate at all in the stated language.

3. Do not apply when you are clearly over or under qualified.

If you read “7 years relevant experience," you can be sure to get a negative response if you have 2 or 20 years of experience, as we consider that the job is either under or over your competencies or not in line with the salary range for this level. Though we understand that you might be willing to go down on salary and responsibilities if you are highly qualified, you might create an internal disequilibrium.

We might furthermore assume that stepping down in terms of responsibilities, title and salary as well as reporting to someone potentially less qualified than you is neither good for your morale nor for your career management and we would fear that you will not stay but continue looking for a “better” job. If you do not have the experience required and do not meet the 75% above, we might assume that you won’t make it.

4. Only apply when you are around.

You should live in the area where the job is located, or have a very good reason for applying from a different region. I get resumes from Australia for jobs in France. Though the credentials may be flawless, these candidate can unfortunately not be priority A as they cannot be in my office on Monday at 5 p.m. for a first interview and meet my client on Thursday.

Furthermore, moving to another city and leaving family and friends behind may sound easier than it actually is, and experience shows that in the end, we often hear, “I underestimated this. Sorry but I have to turn down the offer." If this is true for different cities, it becomes even truer across borders, when a work permit is required. Unless you are a super-specialist, most employers will not be ready to engage themselves as they cannot be sure that you will really get the permit.

5. Only apply if your gut feeling is right.

I have candidates who tell me, “Yeah, I had a doubt and actually, I don’t like the industry." Do not apply when you are not convinced of the job content, the industry or other parameters you cannot change. Choosing a new job is about where you want to spend 40-50 hours per week—ideally for the next years. A doubt at the beginning will most likely result in a refusal, from the candidate or the employer. This is like a hole in a boat when you leave the haven: do not think it will go well or there will be happy surprises—99 times out of 100, this will not happen.

We currently live in a difficult economic context with many candidates desperately looking for a new job. I agree that you should do a maximum to increase chances to find a new job. Yet, it is all about efficiency, so you want to increase the positive returns on your efforts.

Please follow Careers on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Women At Biglaw Firms Have Made Almost No Progress In 7 Years

0
0

crying

You'd think the status of women working at Biglaw firms would have improved at least marginally in the past seven years.

Well, you'd be wrong.

The National Association of Women Lawyers has been tracking the lives of Biglaw women for the past seven years and its most recent report, released this month, paints a pretty depressing picture.

The worst takeaway from the report is the fact that women still only make up 15 percent of equity partnership.

Equity partners are part owners of the firm and are entitled to part of the firm's profits.

And that dreaded 15 percent hasn't improved at all from the 2011 or the 2010 reports, according to The Careerist.

So it comes as no surprise women still aren't nabbing the top spots. Only four percent of the 200 firms surveyed had firm-wide female managing partners.

It was marginally, albeit only marginally, better last year when five percent of firms reported having a female managing partner, according to The Careerist.

The report is full of similar maddening statistics. But we're too depressed to go on, so we'll let you check out the rest for yourself.

Now Check Out Which Texas Firm Is Paying Unprecedented Salaries To Its First-Year Associates >

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

An Ex-Staffer's Revelation Could Doom A Law School Accused Of Massive Fraud

0
0

thomas jefferson 1776 movie

An ex-employee of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says her boss told her to distort the employment statistics of its graduates, according to a sworn declaration.

The declaration was filed in a class action that a Thomas Jefferson grad filed claiming it deliberately misleads aspiring lawyers about their job prospects.

That suit was part of a wave of litigation accusing law schools of lying just to get prospective students in the door.

As part of the suit against Jefferson, the school's former career services director Karen Grant submitted a declaration alleging some pretty shocking practices at that school.

Grant says her boss instructed her to fudge employment stats reported to NALP, which tracks legal industry statistics, as well as the American Bar Association.

Her boss told her to mark students as "employed" if they had any kind of job since graduation – even if they lost that job, Grant says.

When Grant expressed reservations about that practice, the sworn declaration says, her boss told her "everybody does it" and it's "no big deal."

Law School Transparency first reported Dean's declaration on Tuesday.

Rudy Hasl, Thomas Jefferson's dean, told that publication he questions the ex-employee's reliability, and that the school stands behind its stats.

The ABA, meanwhile, says "the actions of a few schools have called into question the integrity of all," according to Law School Transprency.

SEE ALSO: Here's How To Get Ready For Your Harvard Skype Interview

 

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »


Education Isn't Such A 'Great Equalizer' After All

0
0

aauw

Education activists have long touted a high school diploma and college degree as the "great equalizer" among American workers.

Try telling that to female college graduates. 

According to a recent analysis of new graduate earnings, the American Association of University Women found millennial women earn just 82 cents for every dollar their male counterparts take home. 

That's just five cents higher than the national average.

“In this election, jobs and the economy are top priorities. For women, it’s not just about getting a job; it’s about getting fair and honest pay," AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman said in a statement. "Graduating to a pay gap paints a disturbing picture for college-educated women who are losing out financially, from their first paycheck to their last Social Security check." 

In AAUW's report, "Graduating to a Pay Gap," researchers point to several reasons that might explain why women start out behind, even when they perform the same tasks as men: 

College major. In keeping with trends, men are far more likely than women to choose high-yield fields like engineering and computer science. Women still make up the majority of education and social sciences workers. 

Career paths. Even if men and women choose a degree that could lead to a high-paying line of work, women are more likely to choose a lower-paying career. The study uses engineering majors as an example: "Men are more likely than women to work in business and management occupations, computer and physical science occupations, and as engineers. The jobs that primarily employ men tend to pay more than the jobs that primarily employ women." 

Shorter working hours. According to the study, women tend to work less overtime than men, clocking an average of 43 hours per week, while men average 45 hours per work at full-time jobs.

The mystery factor. What the AAUW noticed was that even in jobs that traditionally employ more women, men still earned higher salaries.  "Among teachers, for example, women earned 89 percent of what men earned. In business and management occupations, women earned 86 percent of what men earned; similarly, in sales occupations, women earned just 77 percent of what their male peers earned."

While some might blame these discrepancies on gender discrimination, the AAUW adds another plausible explanation to the mix: women are less likely than man to negotiate higher salaries off the bat. For example, Joey Reiman at LittlePinkBook reports that women are so fearful of the severance package negotiation that they'll end up losing nearly $500,000 by the time they get ready to retire. 

Does a college degree really make a difference in how much money women make? Take our survey on the best colleges below—or tell us why it's all a big waste of money.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

See also: 9 steps I took to get my finances back on track >

Please follow Your Money on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

How To Turn A Weekend Trip Into A Wall Street Job

0
0

london night

And no, I’m not referring to weekend ski trips, a 3-day gambling spree in Monaco, or your feeble attempt to ask your MD for a vacation2 months after you started.These are the weekend trips where you travel to financial centers, meet dozens of bankers in a short period of time, and apply the 80/20 rule to networking.

They might not be as fun as hitting the slopes, but they’re one of the best ways to break into finance – if you play your cards right.

Why Weekend Trips?

In-person meetings are more effective than calls or emails – bankers are bombarded with dozens (hundreds?) of emails each day, and everything blurs together after awhile.

But they’re much more likely to remember people they’ve met in real life, especially when sifting through resumes at 3 AM.

Weekend trips are also more efficient than normal cold-calling or informational interviews, because you can meet dozens of bankers in the span of 2-3 days.

You can get office tours on the spot, and casual meetings can easily turn into real interviews – especially when recruiting season approaches.

Plus, they’re practice for real interviews because you’ll need to tell your story many times and answer tough questions about your background.

Finally, when I interviewed readers who broke in back when Breaking Into Wall Street was under development, every one of them had used some form of weekend trips to break in.

So if you don’t have a 4.0 GPA at Harvard and 3 internships at Goldman Sachs, weekend trips need to be part of your strategy.

What is a Weekend Trip, Exactly?

First, you plan to be in a financial center like New York, London, or Hong Kong for 2-3 days, usually on Friday-Saturday or Thursday-Saturday.

You could go for an entire week, but that is difficult to plan and you probably won’t have enough contacts to make it worthwhile.

Once you have the dates, you email bankers to set up meetings, trying to meet with at least 5 per day.

Then, you fly in and stay at a friend’s place or a hotel, meet everyone you’ve emailed, and go through the same informational interviews you know and love – only in-person this time.

At the end of each interview, you casually suggest a visit to the office or say that it would be great to meet other people there.

Follow-up afterward but keep it brief and direct – you want to schedule weekend trips close to recruiting season.

Weekend trips work at both the analyst and associate levels, but they’re usually more effective for current students.

Now, let’s answer your questions and concerns before jumping into this in more detail.

Wait, This Sounds Expensive!

Yes, it will cost money – but think about what it would cost you not to do it: a $100K+ job plus even higher pay in the future.

Plus, you can minimize expenses by staying with friends rather than at the Ritz-Carlton, or by getting a budget hotel if you don’t know anyone in the city.

In Europe there are discount airlines like Ryanair, so airfare is less of an issue there; it can be more expensive in the US and Asia, but if you plan this correctly you can still spend $1,000 or less for a 2-day trip.

Even if it costs $2,000, that’s still a 50x ROI assuming a very low $30K bonus in your first year.

I Don’t Have Time!

Translation: you have the wrong priorities.

Think about how much time you spend on Internet surfing, TV watching, and joining groups just to have a laundry list on your resume.

A single weekend trip represents a 2-3 day investment of time plus maybe another day to set up everything beforehand.

That is not enough to seriously impact your grades or activities, and guess what: even if it does, networking is way more important anyway.

Networking Doesn’t Work in Other Countries!

Yes, there may be some truth to networking being less effective outside the US, but more often than not this is just an excuse to do nothing.

Let’s say you spend 2-3 hours finding contact information for 10 bankers and emailing them to set up meetings.

You later find out that in your country, no one ever networks and a robot processes all applications sent to the bank, making all decisions based on the numbers and names on your CV.

If that outlandish scenario is true, all you’ve lost is 2-3 hours; and if it’s slightly untrue, you’ve now introduced yourself to 10 bankers and have boosted your chances – even if your weekend trip never happens.

Some regions may be more traditional with recruiting, but you lose very little by planning for weekend trips anyway.

How to Plan and Conduct Weekend Trips

One trip is probably enough if you haven’t networked like crazy, but you could also go for 2 trips and spread them further apart.

If you’re doing 1 trip, make it slightly before recruiting begins – this would be August / September for full-time recruiting and December / January for summer internships; for 2 trips, do 1 right before recruiting and the other one 2-3 months before recruiting.

Dates change depending on the year and what region you’re in, so you should check the application deadlines in advance.

Email bankers 3-4 weeks before your trip and let them know about your planned travel – just like with informational interviews, propose a specific date, time, and place (at or near their office) to meet.

Don’t buy your tickets or make reservations yet; wait and do that depending on the responses you get.

Bankers you’ve already spoken to or exchanged emails with are better to contact because they already know you – it’s a bit odd to email someone out of the blue and say, “Hey I’m going to be in Manhattan next week, let’s meet up… since you’re an alum!”

In that situation, you should suggest a quick call first so you can introduce yourself, and then bring up your trip at the end.

Aim to set up 5-10 meetings per day – 50% of bankers will cancel on you due to last-minute emergencies, so plan for the worst-case scenario.

The Details

When you’re proposing these meetings, keep in mind physical locations and schedule everything in blocks – you don’t want to be running back-and-forth between Midtown and Downtown.

Also make sure you have a backup list of other bankers you could meet with, in case you get more last-minute cancellations than expected.

Allot at least 30 minutes between your meetings – that gives you time for transportation and a buffer in case things go on longer than expected.

Make sure you take a smartphone or another device that lets you read email on-the-go, because you will need to check email constantly.

Wear business formal attire, just like in real interviews (guides for men’s fashion and women’s fashion).

I mentioned above that you should plan for Thursday-Saturday or Friday-Saturday – I left out Sunday because that’s the hardest day to catch bankers, especially more senior ones.

When the Day Comes…

Follow-up with everyone a day or two before your trip to confirm that you’re still set to meet; if there are cancellations, go to your backup list.

The interviews themselves will be very similar to standard informational interviews, but they may be more in-depth since they’re in-person; they could also turn into real interviews depending on the banker and how close it is to recruiting season.

You can ask the same types of questions as in informational interviews, but you might end up discussing business more than pleasure since you’re on their home turf.

The difference is what happens at the end: instead of just making a “mini-ask,” casually suggest a visit to their office or meeting others there.

If they like you, they may even suggest it first; if they seem unwilling to take you on a tour, you can just brush it off as a joke.

But if it works, you will gain a huge advantage because everyone at that office will know who you are – and that advantage may even carry over to real interviews when bankers decide who gets offers.

Going back to our eternal theme of not overestimating the competition, remember that 99% of applicants will never even take the time to make a single weekend trip.

So even if you don’t wear the right clothes, you’re late to meetings, and half of your contacts cancel on you, that still puts you ahead of 99% of other aspiring bankers.

What About Other Meetings?

What happens if you get invited to an office tour but you have other, conflicting meetings lined up?

Email your other contacts to say you’re running late or ask if they can meet the next day instead.

That may not look great, but you need to leap at opportunities when they come – and few opportunities beat the ability to meet everyone at the office before you apply there.

You don’t want to camp out at the office for 5 hours, but an extra 30-60 minutes is well worth it.

Follow-Up

Follow-up is less important because you’ve already met in-person, everyone at the office will have met you (hopefully), and weekend trips happen right before application deadlines anyway.

Write a quick email to the key bankers you met with and pose the same question in the informational interview guide: how to best position yourself for an interview.

That’s just to remind them that you’ve met in-person before – but they shouldn’t need much reminding in the first place.

What Now?

If you still have time, go and email alumni and anyone you’ve already networked with and schedule your first weekend trip.

See what the responses are like, and then follow everything I’ve outlined above.

And if it’s too late, just keep this strategy in mind for next year or for when you get to business school.

Further Reading

I spent hours looking for information online and came up with almost nothing – everything above was compiled via personal experiences and reader interviews.

The one other article on the topic is from Careers-in-Finance, right here.

And not to be blatantly self-promotional, but yes, there is also an entire module in The Investment Banking Networking Toolkit with even more detail on weekend trips and sample schedules/emails.

If you have anything else good, do share.

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

This Is The Absolute Worst City To Live In If You're A Young Attorney

0
0

little rock arkansas

In today's legal job market, you might not have much choice about where you live after graduation.

You have to go where the jobs are.

But, according to The National Jurist's most recent ranking of the worst cities for young attorneys, you might want to avoid Little Rock, Ark., at all costs.

Median salary is only $54,000 and the city boasts only 570 law firms.

When students are graduating with $75,700 to $125,000 in debt, that minuscule salary won't be going very far.

The median age of Little Rock dwellers is around 35 years old and around 195,314 people live in the city, according to the most recent Census.

The city boasts only 45 bars, which is hardly anything to write home about given its nearly 200,000 residents.

Maybe A  Move To Texas Is In Order? This Texas Firm Is Paying Unprecedented Salaries To Its First-Year Associates >

 

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Why You Didn't Land That Interview At JP Morgan

0
0

lonely sad rejected businessman

It’s a question I’ve been getting a lot lately.

“Why didn’t I get an interview at Morgan Stanley New York?”

“Why was my friend selected for JP Morgan Houston but I was not?”

“Why did I get an interview at CS Hong Kong even though my resume had a typo in it?”

Interview selection at individual banks is incredibly random, and you never know what someone’s biases will be.

Yes, if you “bankify” your resume and avoid common mistakes, you have a higher probability of getting an interview. But that doesn’t mean you’ll actually get one – and sometimes even if your resume is awful, you might still get an interview.

Example #1: A Real-Life Jack Bauer

Once, we were sitting around reviewing resumes and someone stumbled across a guy who had served in the military (in a country where it was a requirement).

Alone, that wouldn’t be too impressive – but this guy had served in several well-known battlefields and listed them all on his resume.

One of the bankers in the room was also ex-military so this immediately jumped out at him – and even though this guy had 0 finance experience and his resume was marginal at best, he still got an interview on the recommendation of the ex-military banker.

If you know how to commandeer vehicles, pitch books should be easy, right?

Example #2: My Disagreeable Roommate

We had just received a resume from one of my former roommates. He was transitioning from wealth management to investment banking, and he had all the elements of a successful resume.

I took one look at it and told everyone in the room we shouldn’t interview him.

As roommates, we got into arguments over the smallest issues and there was no way I could ever see myself or anyone else working long hours with him.

You could argue that living with someone is different from working with him, but in banking you basically live with your co-workers.

Example #3: That (Fake?) Private Equity Internship

One time we saw a lot of applicants from one school had all “interned” at the same “private equity” firm. Normally we only spent 30 seconds per resume and never did any outside research, but seeing 5-10 people all with internships at one place raised some eyebrows.

None of us had heard of this firm, so it was either fake or another J.T. Marlin.

We did some digging online and found that it was real – but it was also inaccurate to label it “private equity.” It was more of a “Well, my rich uncle just gave us $5 million to invest so let’s look at some cool startups in the area” type of place.

We did not give an interview to anyone who claimed they “worked on LBOs.”

Example #4: The Failed Fraternity Guy

One guy who had some solid experience and a few banking internships had just submitted his resume.

When we were reviewing it, someone else in the room recognized him – it turned out this same guy had (unsuccessfully) rushed his fraternity a few years back. In fact, it was more than unsuccessful – everyone hated him and wanted nothing to do with him in the aftermath.

There were also suspicions of illegal activities on his part (use your imagination). Deciding that the risk was not worth it, we did not give him an interview.

Example #5: The Guy Who Wouldn’t Take “No” for an Answer

This one appeared in the comments the other day but it was in an article from over a year ago, so I felt it would be worth highlighting here:

“My situation was very bad…I had no prior work experience (neither industrial nor financial), I had no student exchange programs (highly rated in Europe), I had no stellar grades…BUT I had a genuine and strong interest for IB.”

Ok, so far you have an uphill battle…

“I wrote a full-of-passion investment banking cover letter, and they called me for the 1st round; my motivation impressed the Associates I talked with and after two weeks I was called for the 2nd round (a business case followed by a discussion with a VP, and a traditional interview with a Director).

The day after they offered me the job, although other candidates had better resumes (prior Internships in Bulge Brackets!).”

Nothing is impossible.

So What Can You Do About It?

If the recruiting process is so random and you get accepted or rejected for reasons beyond your control, what can you actually do about it?

  1. Spread your net wide. A great resume is only effective if you apply everywhere, from the tiniest boutique to Goldman Sachs.
  2. Play nice with others. Finance is a small world, and someone not liking you elsewhere often comes back to haunt you here.
  3. Don’t be afraid to be interesting– random facts can help you quite a bit (but please, don’t do a video resume, at least not in finance).
  4. Oh yeah, you still need to have a good resume anyway. Luck won’t help you everywhere, even if you are a real-life Jack Bauer.

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Standard Wall Street Career Path Is Shifting Under Everyone's Feet

0
0

crumbling road

So you want to become a Wall Street master of the universe? Forget almost everything you know about how the ride to the top is supposed to go.

The basics are still the same. Go to a target school, take the right classes, and land an exhausting summer internship at a bulge bracket bank.

But say you've done all that. In fact, say you've even gotten a job offer at that big Wall Street bank.

Then what?

Five or six years ago the road was pretty clear — a few years as an analyst, some time as an associate (or maybe a dip into the buy-side), a stint at business school and then a leap into the buy-side or a long career at the Wall Street bank of your choosing.

Not so anymore.

Wall Street's career path has changed. Bulge bracket banks are concerned about finances, so they don't know what size analyst class they can sustain. Plus, there isn't always enough meaningful work for the analysts to take on because business is slow.

Naturally, that has lead young people to consider other options, specifically at mid-sized Wall Street firms like Evercore or Greenhill.

"People don't go to Wall Street with the attitude 'Hey I'm going to be working at this big investment bank for the rest of my life,' said Skiddy von Stade, CEO of Wall Street career matching firm, OneWire."They go to work on financial modeling skills that they can take with them... whether they go to a tech company, a start-up, or the restaurant business."

At mid-sized firms, young people work more closely with their superiors and take on more sophisticated projects. That's a huge advantage in an industry that's getting smaller and smaller by the year. Talented graduates are starting to notice, and that helps mid-sized firms overall.

"They're (mid-sized firms) picking up prestige because even if the deal doesn't close you're still doing the analysis," one young private equity analyst told Business Insider. "All the work you do is M&A there's no time wasted on IPO's and investment grade debt process work."

So if you're a college senior who just got that offer from JP Morgan in, say, the healthcare group, you might want to check out your options at a smaller firm and see if you can join a group that isn't as niche. A more general group means a more diverse skill set.

So what does that mean for the Goldman Sachs of the world?

"Big investment banks... are going to have to create a much better environment for these kids with much more responsibility and more opportunity for growth," said von Stade. "These firms in the old days had a big bench of analysts putting together pitch books and doing mundane stuff. Today kids want to learn all sides of transactions and work on their modeling skills."

And that's just the beginning. The path doesn't get any more clear after a stint as an analyst. Buy-side jobs are hard to come by, and if you do find one, you may not want to jump ship for business school and lose your spot.

In fact, some young Wall Streeters are wondering if business school is worth it at all.

Bottom line: The Street has become even more competitive than it was before, and if you're not careful you can get stuck in a sector where there's little mobility.

Amidst all this added complication, though, there is good news, according to von Stade.

"In the old days people would say 'I've got to go to Wall Street because I want to make money,' but now people are being smart with the decisions they make in their careers and are going into industries that satisfy their intellectual curiosity."

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Viewing all 3714 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images