Archive for the ‘Careers’ Category
How to Decide Whether to Go to Law School
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers on October 8th, 2009
Most people can find a better investment in themselves than law school.
I was reading an article over at Tough Money Love, a personal finance blog that I enjoy (as far as personal finance blogs go;)), about too many students going to law school. I thought I would weigh in on the issue with a post of my own.
Mr. Tough Money Love’s point is a good one. There are more lawyers, fewer jobs, and more people going to law school than ever before. 49,414 students enrolled in law schools last year, about a 1% increase from the previous year. He goes on to state that too many people are getting law degrees and MBAs and not enough people are studying hard sciences and engineering. It’s tough to disagree with that a general point.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that no one should go to law school or get an MBA. The education itself isn’t what’s flawed. Both educational tracks involve lots of practical information that can be professionally enriching. The problem goes back to the most basic tenet of economics, supply and demand.
Theoretically, the marketplace will decide what type of business people go into. I still believe this to be the case. Markets aren’t always efficient, though, and I don’t think the labor market is particularly efficient right now. The market can only bear so many people doing any one thing. As supply for whatever (legal services) increases, demand decreases, and that field becomes less lucrative than before. As that occurs, fewer people (still talking theoretically here) will enter into that field. They’ll rush into whatever the hot new field is. Recently it was finance. Before that, it was internet start-up companies. Next it will be books about vampires (I’m kidding, sort of). When the money leaves, fewer new people enter into that particular profession.
So who should go to law school? There’s always room for top talent. In any field or any profession. If you’re one of the most talented people at something, you’re always going to be in demand, whether you’re an actor, lawyer, accountant or plumber. There will always be plenty of work for the top talent.
How do you know if you’re “top talent.” You don’t. You really can’t know that going in. Whether or not you can get into a top school isn’t a terrible indicator though. If the schools inside the top 15 or so would allow you to enroll there, then that’s a pretty good indicator that you might have a special kind of academic ability.
But Todd (!), you counter, what about all the great lawyers that were in the bottom of their class at the Boondoggle College of Law and have nonetheless risen to the top of their respective field? I believe there are some of these people out there. They are usually trial lawyers. The dramatization that is a jury trial is something that some people are specifically talented at and has very little to do with how good of a student you were or where you went to school. It has everything to do with your ability to convince those 12 (or 9, depending on your jurisdiction) people that your version of what happened is the right one. How do you know if you’re one of these people? You don’t. You won’t know until well into your career as a lawyer, and then you’ll be well beyond deciding whether you should go to law school. I’m sorry to tell you that based on the law of averages, you probably aren’t (but who am I to tell you what you can and can’t do?).
Who else should go? People that have a specific reason for wanting to go. That reason should definitely not be (1) money (there’s not as much money in it as there used to be) or (2) the fact that you like to argue (this is one of my pet peeves – the fact that you “like” to argue does not mean that you will be a good lawyer. Practicing law has very little to do with the type of arguing you’ve done thus far in life).
On the other hand, you can never be too educated. You can never know too much. More education won’t hurt you. The debt you incur and the time you spend not working and doing something else might hurt you, but the knowledge you gain can only benefit you long term. Law school has become a haven for people who don’t know what to do with their life, have a healthy ego, and just enough practicality to say to themselves, “I think this is a better idea than a PhD in Sociology.”
You may have heard the expression, there are a lot of things you can do with a law degree. That’s true in the sense that you’re going to find lawyers doing a much wider variety of jobs than doctors. The number one thing people do with a law degree, though, is still practice law. If you’re getting it for a reason other than that, you would probably be better served spending your time doing something else (like getting experience doing the very thing you want to do).
In my experience, these words will probably fall on deaf ears (or, err, blind eyes). When I decided to go to law school, my uncle advised me not to. The recommendation was both right and wrong. He was right for all the reasons I’m describing herein, and he was wrong in that I do enjoy what I do (sometimes). I have a job. I don’t know what I’d be doing if I hadn’t gone. I’ve often advised people not to go based on the reasons above, and you know what I’ve found, they go anyway. Just like I did. Because no matter who it is telling them, as people with healthy egos we assume that it will be different for us. I don’t regret my decision. I have a good life. My job is a good one and I know I’m lucky to have it. I met my wife in law school. It was a decent path to take. Like Mr. Tough Money Love, though, I think that path might be less attractive than it’s ever been. If you’re thinking about going to law school, good luck in your decision. Think it over. Thanks for reading.
Who Would You Invest In?
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Business Profiles, Careers, Value Investing on August 5th, 2009
I’m always impressed with Buffett. I’ve actually had the pleasure of seeing him speak in person. He’s an excellent public speaker. He loves the crowd and usually makes an excellent, logical point with some sort of folksy common sense sort of approach.
If you’re at work and can’t view the video above, it basically goes like this. Buffett asks a crowd of MBA students to assume hypothetically that they can receive 10% of the income of one of their classmates for the rest of that classmate’s career. He asks how they would choose. Buffett points out that it’s unlikely that you would give them an IQ test (research has shown that it has very little to do with monetary success – read Outliers). It’s unlikely that you’d just pick the person with the best grades.
He goes on to say that you’d probably consider a list of subjective qualitative factors when making your decision. His point ends up being that most of those subjective factors that you would use to make your decision are things that are within your control. If you wanted to be an honest person, for example, that’s something you could control. If you wanted to be humble, or hard working, or respectful of other people – those are all things you can choose to be. You can be like the people you admire for the most part, because most of the things you admire aren’t their skills or talents – it’s who they are.
I think asking who you would invest could be useful in other ways as well. If you’re an entrepreneur or a manager (or anyone that hires people or builds teams), for instance, you should ask yourself this question. More than anything, it’s just something thought provoking. My wife, Rachel, and I play a game where we ask ourselves what we would hire our friends to do. If we had a company that did ‘x,’ which of our friends would we hire? Who would do well? Who could we trust? Who would represent us in a way that we were proud of? It’s something we’ve talked about enough that we pretty much know what the other person’s answers are.
If I asked myself who I would invest in, though, that’s harder. If you can only pick one person, you want to maximize your investment. In Buffett’s scenario, he ends by saying that hopefully the answer will end up being that you’d like to invest in yourself, because you own 100% of yourself. Just for fun, though, pretend like you can’t choose yourself. Who would you invest in that you work with? If you’re in school, who would you invest in that’s in your degree program? (Also fun to think about is who you would go short on) Who would you invest in out of your friends? Is there anyone that you’d choose over yourself? If so, what do they have that you don’t have? How can you get it? It’s a question that makes you think. Buffett’s point is that you can do the necessary things to be successful if you want to. Good luck and thanks for reading.
Break Your Routine
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers on July 24th, 2009
Something I'd like to do in life.
I’m a pretty big baseball fan. I have been since I was pretty small. I used to look forward to little league practice the way I look forward to a day off work now. Only five more days until practice! When we’d have a rain out, you’d have to pry my heart off the floor. In the major leagues, sometimes when a team is losing, they’ll fire the manager. They’ll still have the same players that lost all their games, but a new manager will bring with him a new way of doing things. Maybe you practice at a different time, or he plays different players. Sometimes it seems like the players play harder to try to re-earn a place in the new coach’s heart. In any case, sometimes a team is in a rut, and the organization just feels like they need to change something.
In a lot of ways, I think I was sort of in a rut recently. Before we moved to St. Louis, I had sort of fallen into a routine. It wasn’t a bad life. I would come home from work each day, eat dinner, turn on the tv and write my blog on the couch. A lot of the time I had my wife beside me. We went out sometimes, though a lot of the time I sort of dreaded going out because it was so much easier to stay in. We had people we liked to go out with, and I’d have fun once I was out, but I’d have to sort of force myself to go, because I was so ingrained in my routine.
I’ve used moving to St. Louis as an excuse to try to change things I’d like to change. For instance, there are some basic things that I’ve always wanted to do. There are also some things that I used to enjoy that I haven’t done in a long time that I used to really enjoy.
In some ways, I used the move as a crutch. I put some things off that I probably should have been doing all along, telling myself that I would start when I got to St. Louis. When you do that, you sort of put your life on hold, and I shouldn’t have done that. You have to live right now, because who knows what’s going to happen.
Some things I’d like to do:
Buy a bike (and ride it!), have a weekly poker game at my house (I just had the first one tonight – it was a lot of fun, and I met a new person), play more golf, take a martial arts class, improve on my guitar, learn a foreign language, get my CFA (just for fun and to be a better blogger;), run in the morning before work, pursue a particular business idea that I think is a good one, pursue a particular investment idea that I think is a particularly good one, join a charitable organization, be involved in my community (try to make something better), raft down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, play volleyball, and cook more. That’s just a random sample, but they’re all things I want to do. I’ve read before that when you write something down you’re more likely to do it. Not only did I write it down, but I published it to my readers, which in a way is difficult for me, because I hate to admit not being good at things;)
If there’s something you’ve always wanted to do, think about how you could be doing it. Write it down. In fact, I’d love it if you left it in the comments or emailed it to me. Do something! If you’d like to take a trip, or learn a new skill, or do something different in your life – write down the path about how to get there. It can be something small. Decide how you can get on that path right now. What is the first step? What can you do immediately that will bring you just a little closer or prepare you to get closer to your goal? I’ll try to pursue the things I’d like to do if you will. Good luck and thanks for reading.
Getting on Your Feet
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers on July 16th, 2009
I feel like I’m always receiving career advice…and I love it. I love hearing people tell me what their perspective is on how to be successful in this world, whether it’s based on something they have done or something they would do a bit differently if they could take it back. I like hearing this advice, because I’m still sort of trying to figure out where I’m trying to go and how I’m going to get there. I like hearing other people’s insights. Advice is usually very hard to take. People giving it were typically in different situations than you were, in different time periods, perhaps with different goals and values.
For instance, one distinction Penelope Trunk makes (again and again) between Baby Boomers and Generation Y, is that Generation Y job hops, while Baby Boomers would be more likely to stay at the same time for their entire career. So with regard to when and how to move jobs, a Baby Boomer’s advice might be skewed toward his or her own experience.
I got a piece of advice from an experienced attorney when I was still a law student. He said, (and I paraphrase), “Early in your career, get on your feet as much as you possibly can.” He meant as a lawyer, the early experience you get standing up and talking in court, for whatever reason, will help you for the rest of your career. Getting on your feet in court is scary when you’re young and inexperienced (I would know). It pushes you outside your natural comfort zone. Being pushed out of your natural comfort zone is good for your career and personal growth.
This week, I’m at a trial training seminar that’s actually pretty intense. I’ve spent a lot of time on my feet, in a courtroom, in front of real judges, doing openings, closings, directs and crosses. It’s been a good experience.
Obviously, not everyone that reads this blog is a lawyer. As far as a I know, most of my readers aren’t lawyers. So ‘get on your feet’ might not be excellent advice for you at this point of your life. You’ll have to figure out what getting on your feet is in your chosen profession. What experiences scare you that can help you learn things you need to know to get where you want to go?
I think the key is that you need to do things that are difficult. You need to step outside your comfort zone on a regular basis. You need to keep learning. Turn your weaknesses into competencies, and your talents into legitimate strengths. That’s all I’ve got for today. I need to prepare for tomorrow’s closing argument;) Thanks for reading.
The Personal Finance Playbook was included in this weeks Money Hacks Carnival posted over at the Money Beagle. Money Beagle is a good personal finance blog. Check it out while you’re over there.
Staying Hungry and Foolish
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers on July 12th, 2009
In 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech at Stanford University. It’s an excellent speech, and you should consider watching it or reading the entire script. He’s an interesting guy. One of my favorite parts of his story is that he was actually fired from Apple (AAPL), the company he started, by Apple’s board. He went on to start a couple of other companies, including one that was eventually bought by Apple (Next) and helped fuel their rejuvenation (the other was Pixar, which is now owned by Disney [DIS] – Jobs is actually Disney’s largest shareholder). Apple really bounced back when he took the reins back. He ended his speech with the sendoff, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
The other day, I was reminded of those words while talking to a good friend of mine. My friend lives in New York, and is trying to survive as an actor. He’s had some early success, but things have been pretty slow since summer started. He makes plenty of money doing other things, and survival hasn’t been a problem. When we talk, I tend to try to brainstorm about things he might like to do on the side while still pursuing acting. I tend to try to find something that would allow him to make good money while he waits for things to pick back up.
But for him ideas and jobs aren’t the problem. He has been offered several opportunities (even now, in this economy) that would be lucrative. He’s a talented guy. There are lots of things he could do. After one of my suggestions, he stopped me. The problem with that, he told me, is that if I were making that amount of money, I don’t think I would be able to stay hungry enough to put up with the life you have to live as an actor.
I really liked the way he framed that. He started telling me horror stories about what you’re sometimes expected to do at auditions. Most of the things were things that I don’t think I would do. I’m not hungry enough. It’s an excellent point, and the one Jobs was trying to make. My friend is trying to do what he loves and believes in. In Jobs speech, he says, “the only way to do great work, is to do something you love.”
Eventually, people reach a point where they have all the money they need. At that point, they could easily just keep doing what they’re doing. Carve out a living and go about their business. If you have a dream, though, like my friend, you can’t just get up and drift from day to day. You have to be hungry to chase success under those circumstances.
I think the advice, “stay foolish” comes into play as well. Because he’s doing something that someone else might view as foolish. He’s living a more difficult life than he has to in order to pursue what he wants to do with his life. I don’t think it’s much different than the entrepreneur who loses everything and claws his way back towards success. It’s a big, difficult undertaking. So difficult that only someone really hungry could succeed under those circumstances.
All of this has made me wonder, am I hungry enough to succeed? Am I growing complacent? What am I doing to make sure I keep pushing? Are you doing anything to ensure you haven’t grown complacent? Are you staying hungry and foolish? I hope you are. Good luck and thanks for reading.
Review of The Dip by Seth Godin
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers, Reviews on June 17th, 2009
My wife and I have been going to bookstores about once a weekend and sitting and reading the books together. It’s a cheap date, and it’s fun. Sometimes we go to the library instead, or, if we already have control of something we want to read, we go to a coffee shop or a park and read there. A lot of the time, we end up putting the books aside at the coffee shop and just talk. I think it’s one of the times we really connect. We’re out, and not burdened by the business of being home, and in a lot of ways that allows us to just relax and talk about things. I really enjoy it.
Trips to the bookstore to read leads me to try to pick books that I can read in one or two sittings without buying the book. This is how I read The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team (read my review here). This is, in part, why I chose to read The Dip by Seth Godin. I love Godin’s blog, so picking up one of his books seemed to be a logical step.
The Dip is a very short book. I would estimate that I read it in about an hour. It’s concept is simple – quit the things that you can’t be exceptional at and pursue the things you think you can be exceptional at, even when the pursuit becomes tiresome and difficult. He refers to that time when things seem too hard as “the dip.” This is undeniably good marketing, as I’ve already started to think of that point where things start to get hard as the dip, and I tell myself to push through.
According to Godin, anytime you start something new, like a job or a business, you are filled with enthusiasm and energy to further your success. At some point, however, some of the duties of running your business or doing your job will become something of a grind. They’ll become difficult. You won’t feel inspired every second of every day. You won’t feel invigorated. You might feel like quitting. This is the dip. He offers marathons as an example. No one quits at mile 25, when you can see the finish line and hear everyone urging you on. Most people, in fact, quit at mile 20, when you’ve run a long way and feel like you physically can’t push through.
Of course, Godin says that sometimes you should quit. He says you should quit if you can’t be the best in the world at whatever it is you’re trying to do. Of course, both “best” and “world” are subjective terms in this context. If you’re looking to go to the best barber, you’re world is limited to someone in your town or immediate area. Best is limited to whatever criteria you assign it. Best might mean the quickest, or friendliest, or the person most highly recommended to you by friends and family. If you can’t see yourself being the best in your field, then you should quit immediately.
Godin gives us a couple more clever phrases to refer to where were at in what we’re trying to do: the cul-de-sac and the cliff. The cul-de-sac refers to where you’re at when you realize that you can’t be the best in the world in your field. It’s basically when you can’t go any higher – a dead end job. The cliff occurs when you can’t quit something until you fall off a cliff. Godin doesn’t really go into this with very much detail. The only example he gives are cigarettes. Cigarettes are addictive, he says, and the more you smoke, the more addicted you get. This addiction rises continually until eventually, you get sick from emphysema and die. That’s his example for the cliff. I personally don’t see how that example translates into many other situations – and Godin admits that it’s rare.
The key, then, is to be able to distinguish what situation you’re in. Are you in the dip, in which case you should keep working diligently, or are you in the cul-de-sac, in which case you should abandon your current plight and search for greener pastures. That’s the question. It’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own.
The book is light on hard data. It doesn’t prove anything, but it does offer lots of good examples. One is General Electric (GE). When Jack Welch took over GE, he demanded that they abandon any business division in which they couldn’t be one or two in, even if they were profitable divisions. Why? Because the value in being number one is enormous. Almost 30% of all the ice cream sold in the United States was vanilla. The runner up was chocolate, with less than 8%. To the victor go the spoils. Things tend to go this way. Number 1s tend to win big. Top movies on an opening weekend tend to gross far more than the second place ones.
So how can we deal with the dip? According to Godin, the key is to decide under what circumstances it makes sense to quit. Don’t decide during the dip, because that’s often exactly when you’ll want to quit the most but need to work the hardest. Overall, I think it was an excellent book. Unfortunately, I read it directly after reading Malcolm Gladwell, and I missed having so many assertions being backed up with data, but that doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed the book. It’s definitely worth the minimal time investment (for many people 1 hour or less) that it would require to read it. If you’ve read it, or any of Godin’s other books, please let me know what you thought by email or in the comments. Thanks for reading.
My Wife, the Haggler
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers on June 4th, 2009
My wife loves to haggle. She’ll look at any sales person, smile sweetly, and ask for a discount. It’s part of who she is. She knows how to get a bargain. It’s not my style. I like to get a good deal, but I don’t have the knack for it that she does. I have found that most things tend to be negotiable on price. The key is (a) finding someone who has the authority to give you the discount and (b) asking in the right way or for the right reason. My wife is a pro at this.
After I graduated from law school, she decided to get me a brief case. We went and looked at them a couple of times and found some we liked, but we were too frugal to buy any of the ones that we liked – because most of them were at a cost of about $150. Just before I started my job, my wife surprised me with one of the brief cases we’d looked at. It had a price tag of $139. I chastised her for spending the money, and she got excited. “Guess how much I paid for it!?!” she asked. Before I could answer she told me, “$89!!!” When I asked how, she went through and showed me each and every blemish on the leather. She showed them, too, and asked for a discount. They told her she could have it for $99. She asked if they would sell it for $89. They made the sale.
Asking for that deal took a little courage and a little moxie, two things that my wife has plenty of. She doesn’t blink an eye asking for things like that. 90% of the time, people say no. The other 10% of the time she finds a great deal. If it had been me, I probably would have paid the $99. I’m glad I wasn’t with her to hold her back.
Lately, she’s really gone crazy selling our stuff on Craigslist. She’s listed several items that haven’t sold, then re-listed them at a higher price and sold them. She has an uncanny ability for understanding the psychology of selling, and she’s great with people. She bought a table the other day for $40 and when I said I didn’t love it, she sold it today for $125. The people who bought it are supposed to pick it up on Sunday. I hope they aren’t reading this.
I don’t really like sales. I would hate a sales job. In the back of my mind I would always be worried that people would think that I was only being nice to them because I wanted to sell them something. Rachel is a born salesperson though. I’m proud and happy that she’s going to be a doctor, but part of me feels like she’s missed her calling somewhere along the line. She’ll be a great doc, but someway, somehow, I’m going to make sure she capitalizes on that ability to sell – that unabashed lack of fear that she has when she’s asking someone for something she wants. And I really think that’s the key, having the courage to just ask for what you want. Goethe (or Basil King, depending on whom you ask) allegedly once said, “Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.” I’ve used that as something of a mantra when I’ve been afraid of something in the past. I say it to myself a lot when I feel nervous about public speaking or something like that. I really think it’s true, too. Be bold, like my wife, and you’ll do well in sales and in life. Thanks for reading.
I Hate the Word Networking
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers on May 21st, 2009
I worked with a guy in the summer of 2007 that should write a book called How to Get a Job. I just did a Google search, and I don’t think a book with that exact title exists, believe it or not. I really think I’m going to encourage him to write that book. We were both clerking at the same place, and there were no more spots for clerks once he decided he’d like to work there. He was just a first year law student, and wanted to make sure he had something. So he offered to work for free. I met him at an orientation session. He warmly introduced himself to every person he encountered throughout the day. He smiled, shook hands, and acted genuinely interested in anything being said to him. Ever the skeptic, I suspected that he might secretly be recruiting people to join his cult or something. He wasn’t. He was just a genuinely nice a polite person.
He took it one step further. He did great work while working for free. He didn’t assume that everyone would be grateful that he showed since everything he did was free. But he made an impression on the people he worked with. People remember a person that walks up introduces himself without fear or insecurity. People remember a person that acts genuinely interested in what they’re saying. At the end of the summer, he wrote thank you notes to every person that he directly worked with, handwritten, that thanked them specifically for helping him and being so nice to work with.
Some people might think of this as overkill. It isn’t. It’s exactly how people should handle an internship. People remembered him. They knew who he was. Plus, he was likeable. People liked having him around and being around him. I’m happy to say that he and I became friends. Our office invited him back to work again the next summer. I was already employed full time as an attorney, though in another office, but he kept winning people over. People in my division, working in the office he was, mentioned to me that this friend sent them thank you notes. I asked the Chief Counsel of the Division he was in if she knew him, and she said that everyone she had talked to was “very impressed with his work.” Needless to say, he got offered a full time position when he graduates.
An internship is really just an extended job interview. It’s an opportunity for people to decide (a) whether they like you and (b) whether you can competently handle the tasks they throw you. If those two things are true, and you show up on time looking decent, there’s a good chance they’ll offer you a job when the time comes.
The fellow I’m talking about is a born “networker.” For some people, networking is a way of life. Except he wouldn’t call it that, and I personally hate that word. I hate the word networking because anyone who talks about getting a job will tell you that it’s key. It’s true, networking is truly the way people get jobs. But the idea of networking is overblown. It isn’t about going to cocktail parties handing out business cards – that’s just annoying. Networking is about genuinely becoming friends with people. It’s about not being afraid to approach people at work and be nice to them. It’s about presenting yourself every day. Anyone that worked with this guy would help him get a job if they could. Because he did good work. No one wants to hire some guy or gal that gave them a business card at an art show (unless you really did something to knock their socks off). Network by putting yourself out there and doing a good job. Meet people when there’s a genuine opportunity, but don’t push yourself (or your business card) in inappropriate situations. If you’re looking for a job, good luck, and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Thanks for reading.
5 Reasons Not to Accept that Counter-Offer
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers on May 13th, 2009
Two of my friends recently started new jobs. In both cases, I had the opportunity to spend some time on the phone with them and hear their thought processes about whether to leave where they were at. I may be coming to that crossroads myself sometime in the near future, but a job move on my part would likely be inspired by my desire to live with my wife rather than an attempt to advance my career.
Both my friends began looking for work out of fear that they might be downsized because of uncertainties surrounding the companies they were with. Both secured as good or better opportunities before the uncertainty at their current position settled. Both informed their employers that they might be leaving for another opportunity. Both were offered counter-offers, that is, more money to stay at the job they were already doing. Neither took the counter-offer, even though the offers were for as much or more money than the job they were leaving for. This reminded me of some advice my uncle gave me: Typically, if you tell your current employer you’re leaving, that employer will offer you a counter-offer in an attempt to get you to stay. You should almost never accept that counter-offer. Here’s why:
1. Your employer will resent you for looking around for another job, even if you had a good reason to worry about the job you already had. If you’re looking for a job, keep it to yourself for as long as is possible. Give your employer notice after you get hired at a new job, so as not to burn bridges with your networking resources, but keep it under your hat until you have a bird in hand.
2. Your employer will resent the fact that he now has to pay you more to do essentially the same job.
3. The risks that your company was facing, or the reasons you thought you might want to leave (whatever they may have been), are probably still true.
4. Changing jobs is healthy. It gives you more diverse experiences and discourages you from stagnating. A new job can challenge and invigorate you. Obviously, employers want people to stay in their jobs. The longer you work at a particular job, the more efficient you become. Changing employees is expensive, the new person won’t be as good as your experienced, departing worker and the employer will bear the cost of training the new employee.
5. You don’t owe your employer your loyalty. You owe it to yourself and your family to do what is in your own best interest. Changing jobs is a business decision. Plus, if you work for a company, especially a big company, don’t expect them to be loyal to you or care about you when things get tough on them. Most publicly traded companies lay off employees at the first sign that they’ll miss their earning projections. Companies have cut back on pensions, retirement matches and health insurance benefits. All you owe your company is to work hard an honestly for as long as you’re there. Even at a small company, don’t expect the owner to take care of you before he takes care of himself. That’s the nature of business. The business owner is taking on all the risks associated with owning the business, and for that reason gets to reap the rewards as they come.
That’s not to say, of course, that you should never take a counter-offer. It’s nothing more than a rule of thumb. You’ll have to evaluate each individual offer and opportunity as it comes. That being said, changing jobs is often an excellent opportunity for both personal and career growth. What do you think of my uncle’s advice? Thanks for reading.
It’s Okay to Disagree
Posted by: Todd Metheny in Careers on May 7th, 2009
A few weeks ago, I was handling a hearing of a type of case that I frequently handle. These cases tend to be pretty easy, as they usually aren’t very contentious because both parties tend to want similar things. Opposing counsel was a court appointed attorney – the same attorney they always appoint to handle these matters. He’s a nice guy who knows this area of the law very well, and because he specializes in these types of cases, he tends to kind of bulldoze whoever he’s working with. I’ve noticed this on several occassions since I’ve been watching him in action. People always kind of just go along with him because they know that he knows more than they do.
I have always gone along as well. He really does know a lot more about I do in this particular area of the law. Law is a field where experience really is king. The longer you practice, the more unique situations you find yourself in. The attorney in this case had stipulated to a medical statement (meaning he had promised not to object when I offered a medical statement that was hearsay and lacked a proper foundation). It’s nice to have medical stipulated to, because then you don’t have to bring in a doctor to testify to things that he already wrote down in interrogatories. It’s a nice courtesy for everyone involved in these cases.
Right before the hearing was set to begin, this attorney came up and essentially said, “since I stipulated to your medical, you have to stipulate to mine.” He was referring to medical that I’d never seen and didn’t know about. The nature of the medical would potentially have changed the entire case.
I told him that I wanted to see the medical and that I wasn’t sure whether I was willing to stipulate to it or not. He’s the kind of guy that hates to be disagreed with. He’s used to people doing anything he told them to do with regard to these cases. He looked angry and told me he was going to object to my medical. I replied that if that were the case I was going to go to the judge, explain to her that I had believed that the medical was stipulated to when preparing for this case, and ask for a continuance. He then replied that if that was the case, he’d get his medical in as impeachment evidence through my doctor. I replied that we may have to do it that way. He stormed off in a huff.
I was left holding the medical. I read through it, and realized that it’s admission would raise a legal issue that would adversely affect his client. Upon this realization, I walked over to where he was, told him that I wouldn’t object to the admission of the statement, but that it was contrary to his client’s interest to have it admitted. He read through the medical again and nodded, because he knew I was right. We asked the judges clerk if we could talk to her in chambers, sorted the thing out, then proceeded with the hearing.
After the hearing, he came up to me and shook my hand. He said, “I was just telling x that I’m really surprised at what a hardass you turned out to be.” I laughed a little and said, “I wasn’t trying to be…” He shook his head and smiled, “No, I mean it in a good way – you did a good job.” The interesting thing about this exchange was that I had always wanted this person to like me, and I never really felt like he did. I don’t think he’s ever disliked me, of course, he just didn’t feel one way or another about me.
I have no idea whether he likes me or not. I do know that he respects me now. I feel like he looks at me a little differently because I stood my ground and represented my client when he was trying to push me. I think I have a fairly cooperative personality. I try to go along with things whenever I can (although I can be very stubborn if someone tries to push me). I want people to like me and I try to be a nice guy. In my professional life, though, I’d rather be respected than liked. I’d prefer to have both, but if I can only have one, give me the respect. Getting that respect from people means sometimes you have to disagree with them. Of course, there’s a time to be agreeable in your career as well. You have to pick your battles. As long as people know that backbone is there, they won’t try to take advantage of you. Thanks for reading.
