Happy New Year!! (Weekend Open Thread)

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Happy New Year | Corporette1. Happy New Year's, guys!!

2. I noticed the weekend thread was getting long, so I thought I'd open a new one. See everyone on Monday!

Pictured: Happy New Year! Colorful Bubbly for You!, originally posted to Flickr by ecstaticist.

61 Comments

  1. Happy New Year everyone! Just keep on talking. You provide me with so much fun:). In a good way. I wish you all enormous success.

  2. Happy New Year corporettes!

    So I just wanted to share with ya’ll something that happened to me a few days ago that made my day and reminded me of howly truly kind complete strangers can sometimes be.
    As I still haven’t been able to find regular work, a few weeks back I started volunteering with a local pro bono organization. I’d been there since the morning, when around lunch time two attorneys (one man and one women) came in to volunteer as well. Seeing as three attorneys really weren’t necessary, they said they would take over and I could go home if I wanted. The man took over working with the client I was consulting with and I chatted with the woman attorney for a few minutes.
    I told her I had graduated in May, passed the bar, still looking for work, etc. After asking a few questions about my background and areas of interest, she took out her card, wrote the name of the hiring partner for her firm on the back of it, and directed me to send him my resume and mention her name in in my cover letter. Additionally, she told me to email her my resume and she would send it out over the listserv for a local women lawyers’ association.
    While it may be a long-shot that any of the above will lead to a job, it’s moments like that – the kindness of a complete stranger – which truly impress me.

    So here’s to a kick-ass 2011 for all of us hard-working (and hoping to soon be hard-working) professional women – filled with gainful employment, happy relationships and families, and fulfillment of heart.

    1. I actually got my current job in the same manner- a person I blindly contacted off our school’s alumni network kindly hand carried my resume to the relevant HR/recruiting contact, and within days I had started the vetting/interviewing/hiring process.

    2. I got my job in a similar way. My office is difficult to break into and those that send in their resumes may not hear back about an interview for years. I met a current employee accidentally and he walked my resume up to the hiring person. I still had to prove myself through a series of interviews but at least he got my foot in the door. Especially for those looking for work in the current economy, I can’t stress how effective cold calls and networking can be.

  3. Happy new year corporettes with best wishes of prosperity.
    Today, I started applying my new year’s resolution of becoming more high maintenance (as in sophisticated – elegant – pulled together).
    So yes I went and bought leggings, hose, unmentionables and the most amazing red lipstick ever from Lancôme. I usually just wear chapstick if I remember to, so this was a small splurge that made my day.
    I have been wearing bright red lipstick around the house and smiling at myslef in the mirror (go ahead and laugh, I won’t be offended, my own mother laughed at me).

    1. I like!!! I have a similar resolution. Already a bit high maintenance, but Going to work full time and school part time can put a damper on being fabulous!

    2. I like your new year’s resolution. May I borrow it? I need to be more “high maintenance” with regard to clothing, makeup, food/nutrition and exercise. And now I’m going off to think, borrowing houda’s resolution…..

      1. Love it! This year I am going to turn away from work, volunteering, politics, internet surfing, and relatives and focus more on my immediate family. I realized that I take my hubby for granted because he is always there for me no matter what. I am going to make sure he knows how much I love him this year! Maybe a little red lipstick is in order . . . .

      2. I’m flattered, I guess we will be a small group of corporettes striving to a better self. Red lipstick is a good start :)

        1. Count me in too! I love your “high maintenance” resolution. For me that really will be a big improvement! I have also resolved to not feel guilty about spending money on myself.

    3. I started mine yesterday as well. I curled my hair and wore makeup even though I had nowhere to go all day. It made me feel nice.

    4. I did this last year — replaced all my make-up with better quality, including eyeliners and “real lipsticks” (including a red) — and it makes such a difference in seeing myself as a grown-up, professional woman. Excellent idea!

      BTW, the key to the red lipstick for me was the following, because I thought it looked silly at first: I let the ladies at the Lancome counter pick out what they agreed was the right red for me, wore it around the mall while shopping for a couple hours, looking at myself in mirrors constantly until it started looking “normal”, then evaluated it. By the end of the day of shopping, I liked it and went back to purchase it. Wear it regularly now!

  4. Happy New Year! I found out this week that I passed the Professional Engineering Exam. Thanks to all of those who offered kind and encouraging words.

    1. Congrats! This is a real achievement, and you should be very proud. How will you celebrate?

  5. This year’s resolution is to quit putting romance into the back seat, and get ready to climb into the back seat. If you know what I mean. All work and no play makes for another disappointing New Year’s Eve.

  6. Happy New Years!

    I’m a faithful reader, thanks for always having such wonderful posts!
    I’m a 21 y/o starting law school in the fall, and I am really just looking for general advice or words of wisdom. I live in TX and see myself staying here or going to school in NY…
    Do you have suggestions on how to find a job/internship thats age appropriate for this coming summer and or fall? Admittedly, its hard to network given my resume and qualifications, but I cant help but want to continue to work and intern and try new things!

    Any advice, related or not, is always helpful :)

    I hope everyone’s new year starts off well!

    1. What do you mean by a job/internship that’s “age appropriate?” Most of the legal internships that I can think of can be done by someone who is 21 or someone who is 31…or 41… And can you give a bit more background on your qualifications? Like what was your undergrad major, what do you think you might want to do in law school, etc?

      Also, why would it be hard to network, given your resume and qualifications? Sorry if answers would be giving away too much info, but I want to help and was just a bit confused! :-)

    2. I too am a little confused by the “age appropriate” comment. Also, have you actually been accepted yet? But I’ll try to give my best advice possible.
      Assuming you’re graduating college in May and starting law school in Aug, see if you can work in a law firm for the summer as an assistant or file clerk. You can try for the big firms in your area, but don’t neglect the medium, small, and solo-practice firms out there. You may not get paid a whole lot and you probably won’t get a whole lot of training in lawyer-type skills (how to use westlaw/lexis, document formatting, advocacy), but it should give you some idea of what being a lawyer is like on a day-to-day basis.
      Don’t count on working during your 1L year at all. Most schools will discourage you doing so unless you absolutely have to – and they’re very right in doing so. Your 1L year is a crazy, disorienting time period and not having to worry about balancing work and school is definitely a good thing.
      As far as where to go to school I’d say there are two general rules to keep in mind – (1) go to the best school you can get into and (2) go to school in the state/area you want to eventually practice in. Regarding the first rule – the law can be a very snotty profession and there are alot of lawyers who put a whole lot of stock in the name on your diploma. Going to a law school with a less than stellar reputation can be a major uphill battle, particularly if you want to practice in BigLaw. As for the second rule – unless you go to a top school with national name recognition, you’ll want to go to a school in the state where you want to eventually practice because of the networking and internship opportunities.

    3. This is the last summer of your life you’ll have the opportunity not to work. No one will care what internship you did between college and law school. Take the summer off, travel somewhere interesting, and enjoy being 21 and unencumbered by real responsibility. You have the next 44 years of your life to work.

    4. Why not do something fun this summer or take a year or two off before going to law school? Most of the people I know who took a few years off before law school don’t regret it all, but some who did not take any time off wish they did because now they’ll probably have to work nonstop until they are 70 or older.

      1. MelD — although it’s obviously hard to know how timing will affect your career in advance, I went straight through and graduated in ’08, sneaking through the classic Biglaw employment process just in time. Had I waited a year or two, I don’t know if I would be employed right now.

        That said, it may make sense – for the opposite reason – for current new college grads to defer a year or two and let the glut of new law grads work their way into the system for awhile. OTOH, law school enrollment numbers don’t seem to be shrinking anytime soon – so who really knows how long the glut will last. Tough decision, and one that I don’t envy prospective 1Ls having to make.

      2. I agree completely. I took two years off between law school and used the time to backpack and travel. It wasn’t a glamorous life but it was probably one of the wisest decisions I’ve ever made. You don’t have to take off two years but use this summer to do something fun. Once you start school and then start working, you may not have an opportunity to be so free with your time.

  7. I worked as a fill-in secretary (sat at different desks for secretaries that were on vacation or leave) at a Biglaw firm the summer after my senior year — it really helped during interviews to be able to say, “yes, I’ve seen the daily life of an associate.” (And it was good to know going in what I was in for!) I would NOT recommend trying to work as a 1L – your grades matter too much to try to balance, if you can manage it.

    Have you been admitted anywhere yet? Depending on the tier of school where you attend, I’d choose one near where you want to end up, but would also weight scholarship money / in-state tuition advantages. Because you may get some comments along the lines of, “please be sure you want to go,” I recommend reading the related threads a few weeks ago — Kat linked to them in her top posts of ’10 post. To sum them up: if you are going for any other reason than you actually want to be a lawyer (particularly as opposed to not being sure re: future career), or if you haven’t really considered the potential debt load – please don’t rush into it!

  8. Happy New Year my Corporette friends!! May everyone enjoy love, friendship, peace and prosperity in oh eleven.

    Thanks Kat for all you do for our community.

    Best wishes to all,

    Suze

  9. Happy New Year everyone! Thank you to Corporette for all the advice and all the fun!

    For any English/Irish commenters, I would like to get a good suit or two before starting my Solicitor’s apprenticeship, any suggestion for which shops would be good?

    1. I’m not British, but for my money you can’t do better than Brooks Brothers for basic, timeless suits.

      Good luck with your apprenticeship!

    2. My favorite has always been Ted Baker. Just enough edginess to really classic suiting and dress styles.

    3. I loved shopping in England because I really felt that one could get fantastic deals especially in the sales – the one exception being suits. :( You could try Hobbs and LK Bennett. Another option is the Brooks Brothers outlet at Bicester Village, though I doubt you’d find matching pieces there unless you were really lucky. I am still kicking myself for not buying a beautiful light grey suit that was on sale for just over 100 pounds…I just ended up buying the skirt. Stay away from Next, I find their tailoring to be poor.

      For general basics, I suggest looking EVERYWHERE! I’ve gotten so many pretty blouses/cardigans from everywhere from M&S and Debenhams to Kaliko amd Phase Eight

      Other

      1. My nicest suits and blazers all come from Jigsaw. (More variety than Hobbs, in my experience, and LK Bennett seemed to have mostly dresses.) And Jigsaw does have semi-decent sales. Thomas Pink has a small but quite nice line of suiting as well, and their shirts are great.

        I lived somewhere in the UK with a large Brooks Brothers, and never found anything quite right, but tastes may differ.

  10. Happy New Year everyone! Thank you to Corporette for all the advice and all the fun!

    For any English/Irish commenters, I would like to get a good suit or two before starting my Solicitor’s apprenticeship, any suggestion for which shops would be good? I’m thinking a step up from Zara…

  11. Happy New Year! It really feels like 2011 is going to be full of changes for my family.

    My husband lost his job in late November, and this morning we’re off to an interview for a dual recruitment (thankfully, we’re in medicine so while it’s not recession proof, there are jobs out there). We’re thinking seriously about moving from a big city to a small mountain ski town. It would mean leaving our tiny house that we’ve had since my husband was in training, I would leave the job that has been the perfect transition between residency and being fully responsible for my patients. We are so excited!

    I’m not good a change, and am very risk averse but my husband has not been happy at his job for awhile and we’ve had some inertia figuring out what to do for him. I’m hoping 2011 is a year where I grow in ways that may be uncomfortable and that we figure out what the best choice for our family is.

    Hope you are healthy and happy in the New Year!

    (I’ve changed my name in the publishing line, as my name actually is Ellen but I don’t want to be confused with someone who complains about CHEEP jewelry and BAD BREATH BALDING partners)

    1. I have friends who are a two MD couple who left high powered NYC jobs to relo to a small town upstate, and are very happy with the changes – good luck to you both!

    2. FOOEY on having to change your name here! But the very best of luck in your interview. This could be the start of something really great for you.

  12. I just wanted to say a big thank you and Happy New Year to the Corporette community.

    I know there have been conversations on this site regarding good wardrobe pieces for summer interns. Is it fair to extrapolate this advice to a young professional starting out in a business casual environment? (Maybe just reduce the number of suits needed??)

    1. I would say generally, yes. The advice to wear something classier and more professional than your normal, casual, weekend look is certainly applicable along all professions and levels of dress. As is the rule that if you’d wear it to the nightclub, it’s not appropriate in the office.

  13. Happy New Year, ladies! I’m a regular commenter here, and was hoping anonymously to solicit some advice on a really tough situation I’ve been facing at work. I’m 5 days from completing a several-month training program for a federal sector job. My fiancé was also in the program, but they kicked him out recently (in a manner that probably lends itself to a lawsuit, if he wanted to challenge it), and after they did, they went after me. Wanted a clean sweep, I guess. My superiors have even admitted to discussing ways to avoid “appearing as if” they were targeting me for dismissal.

    All I want, at this point, is to finish the training program next week and get out to do my dream job. Even though the people in charge of training clearly have some issues, I know the work will be good.

    But I’ve been harassed for months now, and it culminated in an effort on their part to dismiss me two weeks ago, which I argued — and won. But I strongly suspect that management will invent (yes, flat-out lie) a “suitability” reason to dismiss me from the training program within this week. If they call it “suitability”, I won’t be given the chance to argue it again. They’ll just kick me out.

    Should I see an attorney now? Wait until I’m actually dismissed? (We’re told there is no right to appeal dismissals.) Should I go to an EEO counselor, or would that just anger management even more? Should I refute any “suitability” notation they raise next week, and tell them my suspicions as to why they’re doing what they’re doing?

    Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

    1. why wouldn’t you see an attorney now? I can’t offer any suggestions on what you should do specifically with the limited info you provide (such as the reasons for fiance’s dismissal and why you think it would reflect on you), perhaps an attorney can help you see the situation objectively and offer help on how to manage it proactively. Other than cost, I can’t see why it would be better to wait to seek advice.

      1. Michelle – thanks so much for your feedback! Seeing it put that way, I agree, there’s no point to waiting to consult an attorney.

        Also, for what it’s worth, the reason I think the harassment I’ve gone through relates to my fiancé’s dismissal is that one of my fiancé’s colleagues approached me after he had been dismissed, saying he (the colleague) was aware of a huge error on the administration’s part that had led to the dismissal. I approached my supervisor with the information, and instead of the situation being addressed, targeting and harassment ensued. I can’t be any more specific than that in this forum, but that’s the general idea.

    2. I agree with what was said above.

      Other thoughts: document everything. Even if it just means sending an email from a personal account documenting ALL conversations on this topic contemporaneously with the discussion.

      Also, most federal agencies are quite large and should have an HR department that is not related to your office. Otherwise, there might be an office in the EPO to deal with this. Your local EEOC office could probably tell you.

      Just remember, these cases are very hard to win and the Supreme Court is actually only now considering whether a fiancé can make a claim for retaliatory discharge for complaining about the firing of their significant other. So talk to a lawyer, maybe try to explore your options at higher level management, but also start fixing up your resume and start networking.

      Good luck. That sucks!

    3. Document everything. If there were communications over email – forward them to your personal email so you don’t lose them if you’re fired and your account is closed. Write a memo to yourself detailing every incident of harassment, bullying, etc. Also document all of your accomplishments, including your good work product (don’t take anything home that you’re not legally alllowed to take home, though). If you can go to your agency’s HR, that might be an option, but remember that HR’s job is to protect the agency, not just to help employees. It certainly can’t hurt for you to talk to a lawyer now. I would.

    4. Talk to an attorney. I practice employment law, and I can tell you that it is almost always easier if I see a client before he or she is terminated from employment, just because at that point our options are limited. Also, as has alreay been said, it’s helpful if I can try to assist in managing the situation and documenting everything.
      Good luck — sorry you’re starting the new year in such a difficult situation!

  14. You mention that this is a federal sector job. I just read in the paper that there is an agency set up to help federal employees who think they are the victims of discrimination. Can’t remember what it is called, but not the EEOC. Supposedly it has been corrupt and ineffective for many years, but the administration is trying to re-constitute it right now and make it work. If you can find out what that agency is, maybe they can help you – in confidence.

    Also – are there goals and objectives for your training program? Any established benchmarks? Any sort of objective standard you can measure yourself against? Or that they can measure you against? I can’t picture what your training program mighgt consist of.

    1. Chix pix – thanks for your thoughts! I’ll definitely try to find out what the new agency is. As for established benchmarks, there are some, but most are highly subjective, and a manager’s simple statement “X is not suitable to complete the program” amazingly does not require a factual basis.

  15. Happy New Year all! I’m looking for a pair of black mid-calf boots with a two inch or so heel that would look cute with skirts or skinny jeans (weekend boots). Anyone have any suggestions? Comfort is key but I also want something cute.

    Thanks!

    1. Endless was having a good boot sale last week. They had tons of selection. I’d start out looking there.

        1. Am I the only person who has a little trouble with wearing the same boots with skinny jeans and skirts/dresses? If they’re form-fitting with a skirt, I can’t do them up with jeans (even skinny jeans are not *that* skinny), and if they go with jeans they’re slightly baggy with skirts!

  16. Tomorrow is my first day back after a 3 month maternity leave. I really, really don’t want to go back. But, I really want to pay the bills, so off to work I go….

    1. Good luck mama!!! The first few months are hard, but it does get easier. Try (easier said than done) to get enough sleep – that is the biggest killer of work/life motivation when you first go back. I had a lot of coffee (well, 2 a day, which is supposedly ok for nursing…)!

    2. Hey Mille – been wondering how everything went with Baby and all…congratulations and Happy New Year to you, hubs and Baby. Going back after leave IS the pits…but there is something to be said for hanging out with grownups, eating while sitting down, etc :). Enjoy the baby while s/he is still a peanut (doesn’t last long) and take care of yourself – the hardest work you will ever do is being a working mom.

      congrats and hugs,

      suze

  17. Depending on your firm, you can probably get away wth 2 suits to start with- try: Hobbs, Jigsaw, TM lewin, Austin Reed, Planet, Ted Baker. Avoid Next. A few shirts from Pink or TM Lewin and you’ll be sorted. Keep your jewelry simple. Plan to make additional purchases a couple of months in as you get the individual culture down at your firm . Your salary will probably go up in six month increments over the 2 years, so you can add to your wardrobe as you go.

    Good luck!

  18. Thanks to all the NYC ladies who chimed in with advice on winter wear for my 3 yr old. Just back from the USA and had great time. Happy new year! Added bonus: we took off for Vegas just as the snowstorm hit and landed when it was over.

  19. Just wondering if there are any ladies out there that did law school part-time/ at night while working full time? If so, what was your experience like?

    1. I did — and there’s so much to tell that I couldn’t possibly fit it on a comment here! But to sum it up, I recommend it, and would do it exactly that way if I had to do it over again. However, that is because I prioritized two things: getting through with less in student loans (and therefore more freedom to pursue avenues of employment other than Biglaw, in case I didn’t want to go the Biglaw route), and working a job I found interesting and fulfilling (Congressional staff). If you don’t like your job much, or are 100% sure you want to go the Biglaw route, perhaps consider doing the daytime program. I say that because I did notice that it was sometimes harder for my evening program classmates to land Biglaw interviews. That’s not a hard-and-fast rule, though.

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