She shares how Law School Class of 2011 and 2012 J.D.’s from New York Law School, Florida Coastal School of Law, Hofstra Law, Cooley Law School, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, DePaul University College of Law, Widener University School of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and others filed class action lawsuits against their their alma maters for consumer fraud.
These unhappy graduates claimed their law schools mislead them about their post-graduation employment prospects (direct article quotes):
Disgruntled law-school graduates who filed suits accusing their alma maters of deceiving them about their chances of landing a well-paying job haven’t had much success in court.
More than a dozen class actions were filed in 2011 and 2012, but courts across the country have knocked out the lawsuits one by one, including a recent dismissal in Florida. Only a few remain.
There’s Good News. I see opportunity for these unemployed attorneys. I see solo entrepreneurs with legal expertise to offer clients. Here are three (3) online platform ideas so unemployed lawyers as well as practicing ones can land their own clients and market themselves.
White Collar Middle Management Ranks Will Continue Disappearing At An Accelerated Rate. Geoff’s detailed, fact-based research is sobering. Continuous advances in software design, machine learning, and artificial intelligence results in the need for fewer, white collar workers.
Remember, white collar workforces? MBA-types, MD-types, JD-types, aka the left-brain masters of the universe?
Cognitive, analytical work is on an accelerated chopping block. Increasing automation and computing power means replacing humans isn’t isolated to blue collar Americans.
A Phenomenon Extending Beyond Decades-Old Outsourcing. Why? Because machines do old-school, cognitive, and analytical work better than humans. That prowess IS EXACTLY what machines do better.
Exciting stuff and I hope you enjoy these additional selected articles for your Sunday Brunch Reads (along with Your Sunday Brunch Silicon Valley Catchphrase of the Week) . Eat well and have a great Sunday.
Your Sunday Brunch Silicon Valley Catchphrase of the Week: Solutions That Scale / We’re All About Scalable Solutions.
I’m publicly taking and publishing the required exercises in Seth Godin’s Professional Freelancer Course on Udemy. The required exercises force you to ask: “Am I Taking This Path for The Right Reasons.”
I completed the first five (5) lectures and first exercise this past Saturday morning. It’s great stuff taught by The Godfather Himself: Mr. Seth Godin.
Hi Social Media ReInvention Community! Here are your share-worthy links for your enjoyment and discussion. Thanks again for your continued support and taking time to read my work. I hope you’ll enjoy these links during your Sunday Brunch!
Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlendler and Rick Tetzeli is an outstanding book (especially if you’re an Apple Geek, Fanboy, and Investor like myself). Their book explains how Steve Jobs chose to adapt and transform his management style and behavior after Apple fired him in 1985. Fast Company’s April 2015 issue summarizes chunks of their book in the following articles:
Believe It or Not, Steve Jobs Reinvented Himself. Jobs learned from his management and behavioral failures. He successfully applied those lessons to reinvent himself in the second half of his career. Along the way, he and a crackerjack executive team transformed Apple into the world’s most valuable company. (more…)
Covering: A term used to describe the ways in which outside groups – women, minorities – try to cover up, minimize or disguise their difference. For women, this may manifest in any number of ways: never talking about domestic life, feigning an insincere interest in golf or football, steering clear of discussions on diversity.
Calculating: Research shows that women are just as willing to compete in a game if – and it’s a big if – they believe they have a good chance of winning. In the Olympics, women entered confident that they competed on a level playing field – on which they could, and did, win. At work, women are very good at gauging their chances, eschewing contests in which they’re likely to fail.
So the challenge for women isn’t that they lack competitiveness or drive. It’s that they are shrewd estimators of risk and therefore spend too much energy trying to fit in, instead of standing out. And one way not to stand out is not to look ambitious or to ask for stretch assignments that we might not get.
That Highlighted Quote Concerns Me
I’m a Dad and Uncle of Two Remarkable Daughters and Four Incredible Nieces. My daughters are still young (10 and 3 years old). Two nieces are in university (the other two are pre-high school and kindergarten). Every time I see them it’s a gift. Time vanishes as I see their personalities, self-image, and self-confidence transform.
Please Don’t Jump to Conclusions by this Article’s Title. My mission as a parent (and uncle) isn’t to develop the next Most Powerful Women in a Fortune Magazine Most Admired Company. My goal as a parent and role model (I hope a good one on both counts) is to guide and encourage my female loved ones to:
Choose To Stand Out
Define What Standing Out Means For Them
Make Smart Choices Leading to Healthy, Productive, Fulfilling, and Independent Lives and Careers
I Value Relationships with Women Who Stand Out
I Gravitate to Proactive and Strategic Thinkers. I’m grateful some of these smart, generous women provide their friendship and advice. Others, I have yet to earn the privilege of meeting face-to-face. I’m lucky they’ve granted permission to directly communicate via emails, social media, blog commenting, etc.
Building and nurturing these relationships are important to:
Benefit Each Other. I hope I help them as much as they help me.
Learn and Understand The Female Perspective. I don’t know what I don’t know. I seek first-hand experience from women I know and trust. That’s the only way I’ll be able to help my loved ones face situations when I have no frame of reference (like what Heffernan describes in her Fortune article).
6 C-Suite Traits Emerge Among Female Business Executives Who Stand Out
Forgive Me for Focusing on Business World Examples. I’m aware of success patterns in other fields such as the arts, healthcare, entertainment, and education. I’m a marketing and corporate strategy geek. My stock and trade: identifying and uncovering trends/patterns from multiple industries.
Here’s What I Observe. These are the patterns and traits I am going to advise my daughters and nieces to practice so they stand out:
They Practice the 4 R’s: Risk, Relentlessness, Resilience, and Reinvention
They Write With Purpose
They Possess the Courage to Speak Up
They Connect Others
They Deliver Generosity (with a Stick of Butter and a Smile)
They Fake It, Till They Become It
1. They Practice the Four R’s: Risk, Resilience, Relentlessness and Reinvention
I Read Those Words and Think of Julie Roehm. Julie embodiessafe is risky (and risky is safe). I’ve tracked Julie's career moves since 2005. She was THE Marketing Strategy Purple Cow of the automotive industry. She could have stayed in Detroit, but she took a risk in accepting a new challenge in the retail industry with Walmart.
It didn’t work.
I respect her for leaving an industry she knew like Coach Pat Summitt knows championships. If she stayed in Detroit, Julie could have continued making a great salary and building her sizable expertise and reputation. She took on a high-profile risk to learn if she could adapt and excel in a different corporate culture and industry (direct quote from a Fast Company 2009 article):
"I wanted to be able to show that I can adapt anywhere, I can do anything. The thing I learned about myself is that I'm not a full-on chameleon, and there's nothing wrong with that."
Julie Roehm Learned and Recovered from a HUGE Career Setback. That type of public, high-flyer mishap would have crushed most people. Not Julie.
Julie was Relentless. She Showed Up Everyday. I’m glad she did. I’d miss her marketing talent, charisma, and chutzpah if she didn't. All successful women (insert your definition of success here) understand and practice the power of reinvention. Here’s great advice from my reinvention hero — the brilliant Dorie Clark:
I’ll Counsel My Daughters and Nieces to Seek Out and Welcome that "I’m Afraid Feeling.” If they have that feeling, they’re on track to doing or making something important. If it doesn’t work out, I want them to have the self-confidence and awareness they WILL recover. Because, they’ll be wiser and smarter for attempting "whatever it was."
“How Can I Write Like That?” I ask that question every time I read and study Ann’s work. I can’t (and I wouldn’t expect my daughters and nieces to either). There can be only one.
Here’s Ann purpose for Everybody Writes (direct quote from page eight):
What’s harder is to find a book that functions for marketers as part writing and story guide, part instructional manual on the ground rules of ethical publishing, and part straight talk on some muscle-building writing processes and habits.
What’s also hard to find is a book that distills some helpful ideas about the craft of content simply and (I hope) memorably, framed for the marketer and businessperson, as opposed to say, the novelist or essayist or journalist.
I wrote this book because I couldn’t find what I wanted—part writing guide, part handbook on the rules of good sportsmanship in content marketing, and all-around reliable desk companion for anyone creating or directing content on behalf of brands.
I drew on this advice when I was a new research analyst and published less-than-rosy recommendations, when most of Wall Street was bullish and left me feeling exposed. I drew on it when senior executives of a couple of the companies I covered tried to have my boss fire me because they didn’t like that research. I drew on it when I was named Director of Research and we decided to take ourselves out of the investment banking business because we believed the client conflicts were too meaningful. And I drew on it in the recent market downturn, when my then-company and I disagreed on how to treat individual investors who had suffered investment losses from our products.
Those were important. But its greatest impact may have been in less-public ways. Early on, this advice enabled me to “find my voice.” There is plenty of research that shows women are less likely than men to speak up in business meetings or state their opinions;many report that it is because their upbringing conditioned them to not stand out and to wait their turn. But sometimes the meeting is over before their turn comes. Having the confidence that standing out need not be a point of shame – but indeed can be a point of pride, particularly for the right reasons – can make the world of difference….perhaps especially for us southern females.
Speaking Up Means Sharing Your Experiences to Help Others. Sallie’s LinkedIn Influencer Articles are vital in career development. I love her articles not only because her insights benefit me but also because her experiences guide me as a parent. Here are some of my fave Krawcheck Classics:
Sprinkled among every walk of life, in other words, are a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. They are Connectors.
Connectors are important for more than simply the number of people they know. Their importance is also a function of the kinds of people they know.
They are people whom all of us can reach in only a few steps because, for one reason or another, they manage to occupy many different worlds and subcultures and niches.
The point about Connectors is that by having a foot in so many different worlds, they have the effect of bringing them all together.
It isn’t just the case that the closer someone is to a Connector, the more powerful or the wealthier or the more opportunities he or she gets. It’s also the case that the closer an idea or a product comes to a Connector, the more power and opportunity it has as well.
Barb and Kathy are Living Proof of Who You Know is What You Know. They’rewickedsmart, resourceful, successful, and well-connected. They can talk to anyone about anything because each “has a foot in so many different worlds.” They understand the value (and discovery) of diversity in thought. When I lived in Chicago (Barb) and St. Louis (Kathy), they introduced me to different people I’d never meet on my own (or would have access to).
I’ve Never Forgotten Their Kindness and Generosity. If you’re a current or aspiring Chicago-based or St. Louis-based female executive who's serious about your business career, invest in yourself and build a relationship with either Barb or Kathy. I’ll advise my daughters and nieces to seek out the Barbs and Kathys.
Buy them lunch / breakfast and get to know them. Just don’t talk smack about the Chicago White Sox (Barb) or St. Louis Cardinals (Kathy) when you meet them…
From Zena Weist of Kansas City, I learned about helping others, “A stick of butter and a smile, and no need to pay me back.”
I Learned That From Zena Too. These past six months, I benefited from her advice, knowledge, and connections so I could follow through on an important career change. I hope my daughters and nieces will practice how Z gives away abundance (without keeping score). There’s an important lesson (and movement) Jeremiah observes in Silicon Valley that’s relevant to delivering generosity (direct quote from his article):
The Midwestern value of helping others without expecting reciprocation is best summarized by the “stick of butter and a smile” axiom when a neighbor is in need. Silicon Valley’s traditional come-get-mine attitude rewards the disruptors and the fiercest competitors. While San Francisco boasts that nearly one of every eight residents are millionaires, a vast majority are not living at middle class standards and are struggling just to get by. The potential for a backlash is rapidly increasing.
Be Like Z. I hope the backlash Jeremiah writes about never comes to fruition. We can prevent it from happening one "stick of butter and a smile" at a time.
6. They Fake It Till They Become It
Susan Kare’s Advice For Young Designers Applies to Any Woman with an Opportunity for a Stretch Assignment. Kare has two (2) simple rules for designers: 1) Fake It Tlll You Make It and 2) Design Never Really Changes. When Susan Kare applied applied for Apple’s first-ever graphic designer position, she worked at a furniture store. She prepared for her interview by studying graphic design books from the Palo Alto library (direct article quotes):
Having designed many of the Mac's early system fonts such as Chicago, the (original) San Francisco, Geneva, and Monaco, Kare is one of the pioneers of early digital typography. But when she first applied to Apple, she was pulling her type design qualifications out of thin air.
"I was working at a furniture store at the time, and I didn't know the first thing about designing a typeface," she told me. "But I'd studied graphic design, so I said, 'How hard can it be?'" So Kare went to the Palo Alto Library and took out a number of books on typography. "I even brought them to my interview to prove I knew something about type, if anyone asked!" she laughs. "I went into it totally green."
Think About That. If Susan Kare listened to The Resistance, she wouldn’t have achieved designer history. So if my daughters or nieces ever experience self-doubt, I’m going to tell them to have the self-confidence and self-belief to "fake it till they make it." Or, as Dorie Clark of Reinventing YOU, teaches: “Fake It Till You Become It.”
Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. If you disagree, I would love to hear from you. I’m also here to read, listen, and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE. Comments are open. So let’er rip!
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