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Do It Again: Overcoming the “Prove it Again” Bias at Work
A funny thing happens after you’ve been practicing law for a few years. While you are developing your skills and growing more confident about your talent, you start to sense other people being surprised at how great you perform. Almost too surprised… This is a phenomenon the Harvard Business Review calls “prove it again.” A cycle women experience where we’re not given credit for our potential. Instead, our capabilities are questioned more harshly and when we do deliver, those in charge need you to “prove it again” because obviously you’re past success was a fluke… It is exhausting and disheartening. A punch to the gut when you realize a respected…
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Landing the Job: It’s the Little Things
It’s job hunting season for many of you. Whether you’re in law school and prepping for your next summer gig, a 3L looking for a fall fellowship, or a recent grad waiting to for Bar results you need to make sure you showcase yourself as a top candidate. When I was first starting out, I had never written a cover letter before–I had never had a professional job and all my internships in college had been obtained informally. I didn’t know the importance of a good cover letter or resume. Thankfully, I had a good career counselor who had strongly held beliefs about what cover letters should look like and…
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What Beyonce Teaches Us About Power
Have you heard the Good News? Beyonce is on the cover of Vogue, September Edition. Not only that, she discusses so much of her private life that makes me love her even more. Not only that, but she had complete control and decided to use that control to hire a relatively unknown young, Black photographer to shoot the cover. The first black photographer in the magazine’s entire history (embarrassing). Beyonce said: If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in, they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from…
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Summer Series: Your Experience is Your Strength
Our Summer Series winds down, and what an amazing summer tho! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. This series provides a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals! Today we also hear from Noelia, a rising 3L who is leaving her career as a teacher behind to commit, full-steam ahead, to becoming an attorney. She shares her summer experience, the lessons learned, and the expertise she brings to our profession as an educator and advocate…
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Summer Series: What Matters is the Student
Our Summer Series continues! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. We hope to provide a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals! Today we also hear from Lizette, incoming 1L law student who does such a great job describing the struggle, commitment, and triumph so many of us endure to reach our goals! For me law school was a dream; a vision that I wanted. After almost 15 years of wishing and working I…
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Am I In This Alone? Navigating Feelings of Isolation as a PreLaw Student
One of the emotional barriers we have to overcome when we start the law school application process is the loneliness and feelings of isolation. It’s likely that very few of your friends or family will have gone through this process. When you’re starting a path less traveled, it’s normal to feel like you have no one to turn to for practical advice, or that no one understands the stress you’re experiencing, or generally feel like it’s so unfair that you have to navigate this process all alone. When no one else has succeed in the goal you’re setting off to achieve, it feels daunting. There will be moments that you…
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Summer Series: Facing Fears
Our Summer Series continues! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. We hope to provide a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals! Today we hear from Wilmary. She has attended law school while working full-time as a teacher. And as she enters her third year of a four year program, she takes the plunge of leaving one career with faith that she will excel in another. As a first-generation Latina, I never believed that I…
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Secure the Bag: Summer Associate Bucket List
For you rising 2L and 3Ls, it’s important to recognize that you’re halfway into your summer internship. If you’re not careful, you’ll do the day-to-day work and end your time at the firm without much to show for it. We’ve discussed before the importance of a mid-summer self-eval and to not forget that internships are summer-long interviews, but on top of all of that it’s vital for you to keep a summer bucket list of professional milestones you want to hit so that you make yourself as strong of a candidate as possible when they are considering who to give offers to/you start looking for new opportunities. But what are…
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Summer Series: Returning to your Passion
Our Summer Series continues! This series highlights different Latina students and law grads as they embark in their summer jobs and/or bar prep all across the country. We hope to provide a variety of work experiences, options for a healthy work-life balance, and general motivation through different guest contributors to help you to take charge of your summer and professional goals! Today we hear from Karen, a rising 3L from California and returning guest writer (yay!!). Karen is returning to the area of law that inspired her to go to law school and you can see the conviction and passion she has for this area. As important, see how she drops some tips on…
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Why is Law School Terrible?
In college I attended a conference where a student discussed how he was finishing his 1L year. And he made the joke almost all law students have made since the invention of law school, which was DON’T GO! And everyone laughed, but I remember the guy’s eyes flashing with a glint of a little desperation, but then he smiled again and said he was joking. But was he? Are we just joking when we tell people not to go? Why is law school so horrible that we dissuade others from attending? I’ve covered before why the advice for most people to not attend law school doesn’t really apply to Latinas.…