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Ladies, how much makeup do you wear to work?
Rising Star
Thank you all for your patience. I do appreciate it. It turns out having a side project while running multiple proposals is a trifle challenging. That said. I’m posting a first subset of the rawish data. In all close to 500 people took the survey, but a majority were from the Big Four. Here is the data from Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PWC. Insights to come! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1lN6JrxQfvA_MC4XFZ38G0ppQkBuxRv9mf88Y8NE2X2U/htmlview
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Any opinions on KWT Global?
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Community Builder
Coach
Mentor
Subject Expert
It’s your mistake but his/her fault.
1000% agree. Be kind to yourself. In a decade of practice I still forget it’s just a job. I’m sure you are awesome. We all mess up sometimes. Just move on and do your best on the next one.
Coach
Just to be clear, if this is something a senior could have caught with review or prevented with clearer instruction, it’s not 100% or even mostly your fault despite what the senior is trying to claim. They are responsible for training, instructing, and reviewing, and there’s very little a first-year should be able to mess up on their watch outside of completely going rogue.
He sounds like a prick. Remember that everyone has made mistakes especially this early. Do your best to try and learn from it but don’t let him ruin your day with his saltiness. That’s not reasonable, you’re a first year. Just know it will get better and if it never does, you can always lateral!
Mentor
As someone who’s starting 3rd year and learning how to give instructions / review, if they’re giving vague or unclear instructions that’s their fault not yours. I’m sure they’re very busy but every associate knows that they should be reviewing everything a 1st year does thoroughly. This isn’t your fault
Nah this is on the senior. I just started managing juniors and I don’t even let their work go above me, let alone to the client without me reviewing it first. Yes, it takes a lot of time, and yes I don’t really want to be fixing all of the errors but a) this job takes a long time to learn and you’re always still learning and improving and b) I know that people did this for me when I was new. It’s part of the cycle. Your senior is probably stressed and overworked like we all are, but that’s not a valid reason to take it out on you. Breathe. Accept you made a mistake, just like we all do. Learn from the mistake so you don’t make the same mistake again. And hopefully find a senior associate who will be a better mentor to you.
Learn from this but remember this would’ve been preventable if the senior reviewed your work and/or gave better instructions. I’m a second year and just started to delegate some little tasks to students and assistants. If the product doesn’t come back the way I want it, it’s almost 100% because of my instructions and a learning lesson for me. Like everyone else said, the way you learn is by people reviewing and correcting your mistakes. Don’t be too hard on yourself!
Everybody is human. Send all drafts to senior with “please see attached ——- for review. If you dont have time to review, please let me know and who should review it because I know you have a full plate.” Also, just remember this screw and do better. Co workers vent, especially when it affects the client matter or the attorney’s time management.
Enthusiast
Sounds like V50-100
Subject Expert
I’m sure this does not happen at all in the V5 🙄
Subject Expert
Your mistakes should be honest, and not a result of negligence. If you are unsure about something, stop on your tracks and flag it to someone else.
The rant is normal, I think. Try to have an honest conversation with them and put this behind you and not be scared of emails because it will snowball in a very nasty way.
Just in case nobody said it yet, we’ve all been in the position of wishing we’d done a better job.
The ideal world is one in which seniors would rather train and teach than put you in the dog house and crush your spirit.
I can’t imagine a situation where I wouldn’t carefully review anything a first year did that was remotely important. The partners expect me to
Please please please do not internalize their behavior. Even if you did make a mistake, it won’t be last one. Just aim to do good work, and keep your head level. Most of this job is mental…don’t let anyone knock you off your game. And that senior can’t fire you.
I would never let a first year’s work to go out the door or up the chain without a close look. They’ve only been practicing for a few months. Good that you took ownership, but ultimately not your fault. It’s also mad unbecoming that the senior was gossiping.
Nothing goes to anyone without my thorough review first. If I missed something a junior did, that’s my bad not theirs. It’s called the “practice” of law for a reason. This other associate is an asshole (and also probably not a great lawyer). A good lawyer is good up AND down.
If you are going to continue working with the Senior Associate, then you have to learn how to communicate with him specifically. And this communication may be different from communicating with other members of the firm. For example, if he sends a vague instruction, then you need to ask for clarification. You can reply "Do you mean . . . " and then write your interpretation of the assignment. You will also have to ask questions and ask for time for review. So if he says that the project is due in 5 days, ask him if the client is expecting it in 5 days or if he is - if he is, then get it to him a day early and ask for him to review so that you can understand how he likes things done.