Big law juniors and mid levels, be honest. How often do you bump up your time?

Professional assessment tests...

Can anyone recommend online professional assessment tests for profiling personality / aptitudes, rather than for skills?

Or can you share which assessments you've seen private equity firms using most often?

Thaaanks.

Any tips on how to deal with this…my entire team was let go today (was 5, now just me). We functioned as the Marketing team for 4 brands and primarily focused on product launches and sustaining social media content. My plan moving forward is to only focus on the top revenue driving product launches for now and say “no” to basically everything else. Would love to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation and can offer some advice.

What’s the difference between strategy & ops vs product management?

Do any of you use Jo Malone ?

Actively referring folks with ServiceNow and low code backgrounds looking to learn/move into cyber, should anyone be looking or interested.

Best book recommendations for inspiration and self improvement?

Starting a new mobile app build (greenfield project) - target to start is iOS, but may expand to Android in ~2 years time and we will need a web experience (though not necessarily the same set of functionality).

What mobile frameworks are you using, and are you finding them productive? Team is considering React Native and Flutter, and I'm just looking to hear what's working for you / what you wished you'd done differently.

Do you regret accepting an early promotion?

my stress level peaks when there is so much work to do and the filing day is only 2 weeks away 🙃

Due to a recent company-wide increase and additional pay for bilingual direct reports I am only making a dollar and change above them as their supervisor. I was hired into this position in March, having been the first employee in this department. I really tried to get them to budge on salary, they did not, but shortly after accepting they gave the whole company a dollar raise.

Any suggestions on how this might be addressed?

The best salads out there is made with simple ingredients:

- olive oil
- lemon
- salt

Sales is exactly the same.

The best sales calls out there is made with simple ingredients:

- questions
- storytelling
- tonality

Hello, which is more beneficial Master’s in Human Resources or PHR Certification?

Joined at 502 in JPMC in mid July (in Operational Risk). 6 YOE (4 in audit, 2 in BPO). Haven't really started working in the true sense yet. Objective setting discussion just began for this year. Wondering what to expect from performance appraisal considering these facts in terms of hike and bonus. LOB - Corporate.

How's the data science team in Gurgaon? Any insights, anyone?

Anyone using surgent as their study material?

Should you thank your manager for your raise? Seems like a strange thing to do but also do see the appropriateness of it all. Just unsure

Happy last Friday of summer! Does your agency do Summer Fridays? Did you have time to take all of them? Why not All-Year-Round Fridays? Why not a floating weekday each week? What would you argue for?

Layoffs. Most big firms say they're sitting on a conservative pile of cash - which I believe is true - but work will obviously not return to pre-COVID levels in the short term, probably not even in the medium term. Are Biglaw layoffs coming?

Best divorce lawyer in NYC?

Have a call on Friday with the CEO of an environmental entrepreneurship non-profit. It could lead to a professional opportunity and maybe even billable work I can refer to my firm down the line. I’m going in with an open mind but little concrete information on his entity and goals and ways I could get involved. What questions would you ask such a person?

Probably a foolish question: are bonuses based off of raw billable hours or billable hours modified by the partners?

Does anyone work in a very volume based area of law (i.e. insurance defense, workers comp) but have partners who are perfectionists to an absurd degree? How do you manage to get your billing in when everything always has to be revised?

I'm a third year plaintiff's employment law attorney and I'm looking to move to defense, preferably still in employment law. I received an offer from a midsize firm that primarily focuses on PI with little-to-no employment law practice, so I'll have a bit of a learning curve. Offer is $90k, billable hours of 2100. Is this reasonable? I'm dead-set on leaving my current job, and this would be a $20k pay increase - which makes me believe I'm leaning towards taking it for those reasons only.

Is there an appropriate way to turn down an assignment because it is non-billable? Two of the partners I work for keep asking me to write client bulletins and articles with them, which is great, but now I’m starting to worry about meeting my billable hours requirement.

Do anyone know any legal admins or paralegals looking for contract/part-time work in California?

I recently had a specialist partner send me a fairly nasty email after I (a transactional first year) was told to ask them to review something ASAP that had clearly been on my partner’s radar for over a week. Why am I taking the (honestly justified) blame for this? Surely it should be obvious that I’m just the messenger here.

I want to get out of ID so badly. I don’t mind the work but the hours are just killing me. I just started at a new firm less than 6 months ago and I am already desperate to get out. It is not the firm or the people. I just hate the high billables. I have been applying to other jobs but I think I may need a recruiter for help. Any recommendation for a great recruiter in NYC?

Advice on managing up / enduring toxic deal teams? I’m at the point where my stomach drops any time I see something come in from certain people. Everything is behind, client is unhappy, I’m exhausted and simultaneously being micromanaged without guidance on big-picture/substantive issues. I keep trying to tell myself at least this is consulting and the project will be over... eventually...

I went through all the stages of interviewing with a firm then they chose not to fill the position. They said internal priorities changed. I saw about 5 months later they posted a similar position. Guess who has another interview!

What’s the best way to turn down a 2nd interview? During the 1st interview, I learned that the compensation for the role is not within the range that I am looking for and requires 400 more billable hours a year than what I bill now. I’d basically be laterally for my current salary just to bill 400 more hours. I also wasn’t aware that the local office was strictly ID. Firm website advertises lots of practice areas. Any advice? TIA!

California 🐟 does your vacation payout when you leave your job get taxed at regular wage, or bonus, levels? Does your employer have discretion to choose?

What productivity hacks do you employ? I like to shut off my email for 25 min intervals to focus on real work. It’s like a sprint of focus without being “unavailable” too long.

How long did you have to wait from last round interview until offer? (Public sector)

I am traveling out of town for callback interviews. One firm wants me to commit a full day of interviews. Would it be reasonable to ask for a half day so I can fit 2 callbacks in the same day?

How many billable hours per week is considered at capacity? I’m getting pushback on boundaries I’m setting about additional matters and marketing work from my firm when I’ve been billing 60-75 hours per week for the last 6 weeks, and I’m still behind on my work. I feel like it’s reasonable to not kill myself further to fit in more/turn things around faster at this point, but am I being unreasonable? I expect my workload to remain at this level through the end of the year at least.

Anyone at Pryor Cashman have intel on firm culture, work/life balance, and comp?

Second year associate here who recently switched from litigation to corporate law. I am absolutely swamped while simultaneously having no idea what I’m doing ever and I’m feeling so burnt out. The partners are pretty great and feedback is constructive which I’m grateful for, but I’m so desperate for a compliment I’ve been saving any scrap of positivity in a folder 😭 it’s December 22 and I haven’t done my Christmas shopping because I don’t feel capable of thinking about it. I need a hug.