Secrets of My Success: From Graduation to Full-Time Employment

David graduated from a joint JD/MBA program in May 2010.  Having gone straight from college to graduate school, he was faced with the task of finding his first full-time position out of school and like many law and business students found himself battling an inhospitable market.  He started his job search while in his last year of school and right before graduation landed a great new position as a sales and trading associate with an institutional trading firm.

Here are the secrets to David’s success for landing his new job:

1) How long were you searching for a job?

Depending on how you want to define the period, perhaps up to a year, as I was a full time student the entire time, but the best answer would probably be a little more than 3 months (Jan 25 to May 4).

2)  What was your job search strategy during this period?

For the most part, my strategy was simply to apply to as many jobs as possible (at least 10 per week), and hope to be contacted by at least a small percentage of the firms I applied to.  The rest of my job search time was spent on interview prep.  I think this was a  narrower approach than I would recommend to someone else in my position.  I always felt that I could/should have done more in terms of networking, etc.

3)  How did you ultimately come to obtain your current job (i.e., through a friend, cold application, etc.)

I went into the firm in early Feb. to speak with someone I knew that worked there.  He was under the impression that I had scheduled an interview, and in all honesty was quite surprised that they had decided to interview me.  When I explained that I had merely applied and just wanted to discuss the position with him, he decided that while I was there I might as well meet some people.  It essentially turned into an impromptu interview, one that I did not feel very prepared.  Nonetheless, I obviously went through with it.  Along the way I spoke with a couple of people who were definitely looking to hire someone and we got along.  I stayed in touch over the next few months, and eventually they were the ones that offered me a job.

4) What do you think were the secrets to your success?

There are no secrets.  It’s all about working hard and sticking to it no matter how hopeless things look, remaining resilient in the face of what may seem to be overwhelming odds.

5) What advice do you have for job seekers out there?

Apply to at least 10 job openings a week.  Consider registering with a site like doostang that requires a monthly fee.  Though it’s not free, it narrows the applicant pool somewhat and will often have jobs that appear on monster or efinancial careers.  Constantly put pressure on yourself to do more interview prep (mock interviews, learning about the industry), drive to be ready to contribute on day one as though you’ve had several years of experience.  Network (something I never did well).  Contact alumni, they’re probably willing to help.  Never give up.

Painting A Vision: The Canvas of Real Life

The following is a guest post by Stephanie Haladner, who has recently launched Women in Law, a global networking and consulting organisation based in London designed to help lawyers bring balance into their lives and enthusiasm into their careers.

Painting a Vision

by Stephanie Haladner

Friend and fellow woman in law Jen Bird recently directed me to her blog ‘Painting a Vision’.  The title resonated with me immediately. And not just because over the last year I’ve found myself in the company of more than one painter. It’s been kind of weird. I go to a concert, I meet a painter. I’m eating eggs benedict, I’m approached by a painter. I attend a psychology conference, I sit next to a painter.  I reconnect with an old friend, she reveals she’s a painter.  I don’t really know why all this painter-magnetism has been happening. Psychologists might call it ‘concentrated focus’. Skeptics would call it coincidence. New-Agers (and Shakespeare) would say thinking about painters begets more painters. Creativity goddess Julia Cameron would say I’m a ‘shadow’ artist – too scared to become an artist, so gravitating to my rightful tribe. I can’t even draw a stick figure, but Julia may be on to something.

Moving past the literal, ‘Painting a Vision’ resonated with me because in addition to hanging out with painters over the last year, I’ve been busy painting a vision. When I left private practice, I left with a sense that my new career would involve helping people. During my seven years as a transactional lawyer, I’d always preferred humans to documents. So it was time to steer the career towards these humans. And when I thought about which humans to help, the answer was (as answers often are) right under my nose – women in law. Yes. I was a woman. I’d been in law. So who better to help than people just like moi!? So strong was this compulsion that I even inked ‘Will help women in law’ in my little book of visions.

How exactly I’d help I wasn’t sure. But I was sure about a few things:

1. I understood law firm culture;

2. I understood what it felt like to be a woman in law; and

3. I’d witnessed suffering (in myself and in others) at law firms -  the whole culture never made much sense to me.

Not that I didn’t meet many wonderful lawyers along the way – some of my best friends are lawyers, and I happen to be a big supporter of men in law (many a partner included). It was just that I consistently felt a subtle sense of alienation in the law firm environment. Even though I worked inside the firm, I was an outsider looking in. Call me Camus.

Strangely, after leaving the law firm existence, I found myself becoming even more existential. Minor topics like the meaning of life and how we perceive the world around us consumed me. I began to gorge on books on the human condition – everything from psychology, philosophy (yes, Alain de Botton counts), weird science and, to the horror of my rational brain, spirituality. I even indulged in The Secret, a book my rational brain had previously rejected as new-New Age hokum. The notion of your thoughts creating your reality was something I’d given little thought to when my brain was stuck on law. And the concept of invisible thoughts producing visible results in the real world seemed like cherry pie in a blazing red sky.

As chance would have it, I began to encounter people (and not just painters, but other artists, quantum physicists, neuroscientists, and the occasional yogi) who hinted that there was more to thinking than one might think. Those stories are for another day. The point here is that suddenly my mind opened up to the power of painting a vision. Begin with a thought, feed that thought with supporting words and actions, and you can turn that thought into a reality. Starting with the end in mind may in fact blow your mind. Pass the cherry pie.

Within weeks of painting my vision, I got clear on how I’d help women in law. Then I started surfing the waves of the world wide web to see who else was doing what I wanted to do. That’s when I came across an organisation aptly called ‘Women in Law’. As I clicked through the site, I discovered that the founder, one Dr. Linda Spedding, was offering many of the very same services that comprised my vision. How could this be? Inspired, I e-mailed Dr. Spedding immediately. That e-mail turned into a meeting with an extraordinary woman who happened to be looking for someone to help her take Women in Law in a new direction. Thanks to Dr. Spedding and some stunning synchronicity (someone call The Police!), my imagined vision had showed up on the canvas of real life.

One thing my non-rational brain still wonders about is whether finding Women in Law after painting a vision to help women in law had anything to do with all the painter encounters. Guess I’ll never know. But what I do know is it’s evidence that if you set your intention, take action and pay attention, you get results. So a small suggestion to all the ladies in law: start painting a vision. You may surprise yourself with your capacity to create. A colourful new reality may be only a few brushstrokes away.

* Stephanie Haladner is qualified to practise law in Canada and in England and Wales. In 1996, she graduated magna cum laude from Duke University in North Carolina where she studied English literature. She received her LLB from the University of Victoria in British Columbia.  See Stephanie’s complete bio and her blog post on the Women in Law site.

Week 2 of the Negotiation Gym

From Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want, by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever.

Week two and we’re starting to stretch. The goal for this week is setting a high target. Choose small things that aren’t that important to you. Determine the most you think you can get. Now double that. 

Here are the examples from the book:

If you’ve been planning to offer 10% less for an item in a second-hand or antiques shop, see if you can get it for 20% less. Do you want to ask for a few days off? Ask for a week off plus another week for the holidays. Need a new office chair? Ask for the chair and new blinds for the windows.

The second part of this week’s exercise is the giggle test: ask for as much as you can without giggling, blushing, stammering or exhibiting your own personal nervous tic. Figure out your give away—your behavioral cues—and work to not give yourself away.

Good luck gym rats! Oh yeah, tell me what you’re asking for before the end of the week to inspire me.