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For busy working women, the suit is often the easiest outfit to throw on in the morning. In general, this feature is not about interview suits for women, which should be as classic and basic as you get — instead, this feature is about the slightly different suit that is fashionable, yet professional. Also: we just updated our big roundup for the best women's suits of 2023!
I loooove this printed cashmere suit from Max Mara — talk about a great winter piece. I DO hate the styling here (the pants are too long and the shoes look fug with the pants), but c'est la vie.
The blazer is $1,645, and the pants are $725, both available for pre-order at Neiman Marcus.
Hunting for a similar (but less expensive) charcoal gray suit? These are some great bets…
Sales of note for 9.30.24
- Nordstrom – Beauty deals through September
- Ann Taylor – Extra 30% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off sale
- J.Crew – 50% off select styles
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything + 50% off sale with code
- Lo & Sons – Warehouse sale, up to 70% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
- Neiman Marcus – Friends & Family 25% off
- Rag & Bone – Friends & Family 25% off sitewide
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Fall Cyber Monday sale, 40% off sitewide and $5 shipping
- Target – Car-seat trade-in event through 9/28 — bring in an old car seat to get a 20% discount on other baby/toddler stuff.
- White House Black Market – 40% off select styles
Peggy Olson
I’m in a quasi-supervisory role for the first time in my life and I’m finding it tough. I work for a team of specialists; we often advise other departments on certain issues. Those departments are not my direct reports, and so I need to consider their input, but for the first time in my career, I have authority to make certain strategic calls. I’m fairly young (and a person of color), and I don’t have much experience being in a position of authority. I’m starting to realize that my normal tendency to be very deferential and polite, and to hold back my opinions may have worked well in the past, but it is not serving me in this new role.
Any tips or advice? I seriously appreciate this community, and I know that there are women here who would have something to say about this. If anyone feels like sharing, I’d appreciate hearing any stories you might have to share about finding yourself in your first job with “real” authority, and how you managed that.
Anon
I’d read up on some articles on imposter syndrome on Harvard business Review.
Also recommend the book, “The Making of a Manager” by Julie Zhuo and “Winning” by Jack Welch. Both are good books!
Anonie
Something that helps me feel confident in these situations is to remember that you’re being paid for your judgment – they’ve put you in this position of trust, so whatever you think is the right thing to do (and your corresponding justification) is all you need to rely on. In fact, if you DON’T use your judgment or state your opinion, you’re not doing your job.
NYNY
Advisory roles like you describe can be tricky, so it’s not unusual that you’re struggling a bit. You need to have strong credibility with the other departments in order to get the best outcomes, so you need to establish strong communications with them. Are you new enough in the role to set up some one-on-one or small group meetings with the department leaders to ask what they need from you? Perhaps you can review any deliverable templates your team has and see where they can be improved. Once you’ve established that you’re open to feedback and want to partner with them, you should feel more emboldened to make recommendations. But it’s okay to ramp it up over time. Far better than coming into a role and throwing your weight around.
You’ve got this!
Anon88
I’m in a very similar position and when I first started I really struggled with this. Giving reasons why makes it a lot easier for me to say no to things or disagree with what people put forward. For instance, I’ll say “I can definitely see the value in X, but unfortunately we’re focusing resources on Z right now, so we can’t take it on right now.” or like, “When we decide to add things to [system] we consider A B and C. Since this doesn’t fit that criteria, I don’t think it makes sense to add it.”
Also, once you do it a few times, (as long as your coworkers are as reasonable as mine), you’ll realize that most of the time people are fine with hearing no. I thought I’d be arguing with people, but 99% of the time they just say “ok,” and move on.
anon
Yes. These are great scripts.
anon
This is actually a tough role to fill, but if you do it thoughtfully and well, it will position you for great things later on. First, hear people out. Second, own your expertise! And what you have to make a call that you suspect is going to be unpopular, be as clear as you’re able about why. (But also, don’t feel like you have to change your mind!) Build relationships with key partners and try to get ahead of issues and potential problems. You can still be polite! Polite is good, and it means you won’t be coming in like a wrecking ball.
Anon
I want to acknowledge the part where you are a fairly young woman and a POC, in addition to being in this tricky role… You know how in gymnastics and ice skating there are difficulty levels to the various skills? I suspect that the difficulty level for performing the role may be higher for you, because you may be expected to gracefully deal with people’s reactions that a middle age white dude would not encounter in addition to the actual work. AKA emotional labor.
I’m not a POC, but I am an immigrant, with a very specific accent. Not all of the below may apply to your situation, but I’m sharing it for the general vibe, as encouragement. You got it, and you will find your own way!
Here’s what helped me as I was making my way through situations of increasing responsibility: realizing, over and over, that the people I automatically assumed knew more than me were often clueless and seldom actually knew more than me. That helped me distinguish between competence and posturing/jockeying for dominance, and eventually get better at navigating the dynamics. I’ve also learned to let people own the consequences of their actions, instead of trying to save them from themselves. Like I will mention the reason why something is not a good idea *once* and then I will get out of the way and very carefully NOT say “I told you so” once they have egg all over their face. As I aged I’ve developed something of a reputation for being competent, nice, and yet mildly scary at the same time. YMMV.
anon.
Has anyone ever done at home hair color and finds it came out too dark? Anything to do but wait for some fading?
Anon
Yes I have had to wait for fading too. Shampooing more often helps that go faster.
Anon
I’ve had this happen & just waited for it to fade. A little face self tanner + extra blush helped me look less Morticia Adam’s.
Piggybacking: does anyone color at home with salon-quality color instead of a box kit? I’d love a recommendation. My hair is darkest brown & I’m covering my few but obvious grays.
Anon
You can try washing it with dawn a few times to fade it very slightly or use a color remover for quick fading – use sparingly unless you want it all gone, though.
Anon
If you can, go for a swim; it will fade quite quickly.
Anon
Queen Leticia wears a lot of Boss and she always looks a lot better than this.
Anon
I bet Queen Leticia gets everything tailored, though. LOL. That has always been the dream for me, but somehow I never became that person. I read The Directrice for vicarious satisfaction, instead…
Anon
Maybe Cb can explain this in plain English:
Denmark is a realm (and a kingdom, but at the moment it has a queen), as is New Zealand.
Anonymous
I’m curious to know what you need explained?
Anonymous
Not CB but realm is a synonym for kingdom. It doesn’t refer to two different things.
New Zealand (like Canada, Australia etc) is a constitutional monarchy which has King Charles as its king (head of state). Like other countries which choose to use the British monarch as their head of state, there is a resident head of state (Governor General) appointed by the King on the advice of the Prime Minister of the country. Like the Canadian Governor General, the New Zealand Governor General is a highly educated Indigenous woman (https://gg.govt.nz/governor-general/biography-rt-hon-dame-cindy-kiro-gnzm-qso ). Some countries use a committee process to provide the PM with names for nomination.
I kind of love that at one point the NZ PM, Governor General, and Head of State (Queen), were all women at the same time.
Denmark is a constitutional monarchy as are the other nordic states (Sweden and Norway) which each have their own royal families. Finland is a republic with a President (head of state) and Prime Minister (head of govt). Fun random fact is that Europe is going to have A LOT of queens in the next generation as there are a ton of girls who are the heirs to the throne in the various constitutional monarchies.
Anonymous
What is your question
Anon
For tax lawyers here, how imperative is it that you or new hires have an LLM in tax? In NYC, it seems that starting without one is NBD, especially at the highest level firms (b/c everyone is brilliant, trainable, and gets trained on the job for their actual work). Wanting to return to my home state’s largest city, they seem to be really hesitant on the idea that you can be a tax lawyer without one. I *could* get an LLM, but in what free time? And that’s expensive and wouldn’t get me any more $ or a raise (and even if we reimbursed it, it’s still a lot of time and effort out of me to get one for no reason other than it would help me in a smaller market after I leave, which is inevitable and I want to prepare for but ugh).
anon
I think this is a geographic norm question. In the Bay Area, having an LLM is absolutely not a prerequisite. But if it is common in the market you are targeting, it may be difficult to convince them that it’s not necessary.
NYCer
LLMs are extremely common in my NYC big law tax department, but they aren’t required. We hire out of the NYU LLM program and occasionally via our summer program when there is someone who is particularly interested in tax. I am in a subspecialty of tax, but most lateral jobs I hear about at firms are LLM preferred (not required).
I can’t tell from your post, are you a law student who is hoping to work in tax, or a lateral hoping to switch to tax?
Anonymous
I’m at arguably the best boutique firm for my specialty tax area – this area is all we do. We have ~100 attorneys – maybe 5 of us have our LLM? It’s just not needed. The hiring committee repeatedly chooses smart kids with no tax experience from T15 schools vs grads coming out of Georgetown’s LLM program – with a certificate in our specialty area – right here in town. (Which sadly means I am not a useful alumna, no matter how much I want to be.)
Anonymous
(We don’t need a ton of laterals – we’re top heavy right now – but ditto that they don’t have their LLMs either. It’s about resume at that point.)
Ellen
I wanted to get an LLM in DC, but Dad wanted me home, so I did not get one. It was a degree for people who could not get a good job with a JD, so that was me, but Dad did NOT want me to spend an extra year in DC b/c of all the adjuncts that wanted to sleep with me back then, when I was much younger and cuter then I am now. If I stayed, I could have gotten an LLM, but I did NOT want to get pregnant either like some people in my class did. FOOEY on that!
Anonymous
Going rate for a teen neighbor to let two dogs out a couple times a day? H and I had work travel that overlapped for one night. Teen went over 3x yesterday (after school, dinner, bedtime) and 2x today (breakfast and after school). I was thinking $40 total for yesterday and today. Does that sound ok or is it not enough?
Anonymous
Mom of teen here. I think $40 is fair for this if the teen lives close by. If she had to drive over or walk some distance I’d pay a little more.
anon
We currently pay $25 per visit for our pet sitter. With a neighbor, I could be convinced to do $15 so $75.
Anon
I don’t think that’s enough. I would do $50-60. Teen deserves at least $10 per visit.
Anonymous
Definitely $10 per visit minimum
Anon
We paid $100 for a neighbor’s kid to feed my cat twice a day over a weekend but we are trying to buy goodwill too, so that she is inclined to take the job again.
Anon
my god… I’d take that job
Anon
Seriously! I mean she’ll be inclined to take the job again if you keep paying her $100 to feed a cat. Just buy an automatic feeder if you only need it for weekends.
Anonymous
You can “take that job.” Rover usually has home visits at $20-$30 in my area. That’s $25 a visit, so it’s totally in line. I seriously wonder how many people responding are actual pet owners.
Anonymous
12-15 per hour. Round up. She’s babysitting so pay her babysitting rates.
Anonymous
Going rate in my midwestern suburb is usually $20-25 per visit.
Ellen
I would find a teen that loves dogs like I did when I was a teen; I did it for nothing b/c I loved the dogs. It’s not all about the money sometimes with Kids, and you can always give the kids money once it is time for them to go to the Prom.
Anon
$50. Teach her to value her time and charge appropriately for her work.
Gandrealla
Those pants in the top photo are ghastly. Baggy and way too long.