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Why Can’t I Shake This? Beating Imposter Syndrome Once and For All
Hi, my name is Nubia and it’s been 0 days since I last felt insecure about my professional capacity. Ok, maybe it’s been more than 0 days, but the reality is that experiencing imposter syndrome is a frequent occurrence and beating it means really working to recognize when it’s happening and then working hard to dismiss it when it occurs. Imposter syndrome is a feeling that you are not capable of doing what you’ve been tasked to do and that at any moment people will discover that you are a fraud. Often we attribute our successes to luck rather than skills and diminish our accomplishments lest others point out just…
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Sidebar: It’s been a year or, I’m back bb!
Hello, So, for my ride and dies, I’m so sorry we’ve had such a long pause on the sidebar series. It’s been a minute. For those that are new, sidebar is just way fo me to share some (usually fun) updates on my life. I like giving this peek into my month to month because I find it less likely for people to take guidance and advice from some rando. It’s also fun to get to know each other this way! But having said that, you probably noticed sidebar stopped around March and that is because I was in a weird spot that was not super easy for me to…
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Harnessing Growth Mindset to Advance your Career
Happy New Year (and yes, this isn’t a mirage, it’s actually a new post)! I’m hoping everyone is having a great start to the month and is easing back to work/preparing for the new semester nicely. Because January is always all about new beginnings and progress, I wanted to talk about the importance of your mindset and how you view your abilities and skills. Likely, many have heard about growth mindset and the importance it plays in your ability to succeed in school and career. I probably first heard about this in undergrad as a Sociology major, but it didn’t really resonate with me until many years later when I…
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Do It Again: Overcoming the “Prove it Again” Bias at Work
After you’ve been practicing for a while you become accustomed to people being wary of your ability and then you become super accustomed to them being blown away by how great you perform. This is a phenomenon known as “prove it again.” A horrible cycle women experience where we’re not given credit for our potential, instead our capabilities are questioned more harshly and when we deliver, those in charge need you to “prove it again” because obviously you’re past success was a fluke… This is exhausting–seriously nothing annoys me more than seeing the ~shock~ when I do a killer job, like I’ve been killing it for years, how are…
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Everyone Has Help: Why Kavanaugh’s Denials are a Detriment to our Profession
I got into Yale Law School. That’s the number one law school in the country. I had no connections there. I got there by busting my tail in college. You’ve probably heard that re-play of Kavanaugh’s hearing in his attempt to become a Justice. There are so many things that were a sloppy mess in this hearing, but for me, this was such an eye-opening statement. This is a man that comes from wealth, working and living with DC-elite, is a legacy student (aka White Affirmative Action) and yet he sat there and screeched he did this all on his own. He ignores every leg-up, privilege, assistance given to him…
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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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Sidebar: Wtf is Happening
I can’t believe June is over. It flew by–I think it helps that I’ve been super busy at work. I have one month of supervision under my belt and now that we’re “fully” staffed I finally feel like I’m not drowning. Being a supervisor hasn’t had a lot of changes–some extra meetings, and more consultations than ever before but not much else has changed. I did realize that how I approached being an attorney has to be different than how I manage. Most attorney jobs are very solo-work dependent. I’m used to doing my work and calling it a day, but I’m really aware now that I have a other…
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Is Your Work Glamourous?
A recent article from Harvard Business Review discussed how women and people of color (so especially women of color) are often assigned tasks that while necessary to keep a business running are not assignments that help propel your career. We are often assigned to doing “Office House Work” where white men are more often assigned “Glamour Work.” Glamour work gets you noticed and can be used to show growth and your success and experience with glamour work can be used to push for a promotion or more plummy assignments. I highly encourage people to read the HRB article especially because it discusses what managers and companies should do to take…
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Pick your Passion: Big Law or Public Interest?
I have noticed a trend that I want to help stop. Recently, I have met with multiple people interested in public interest jobs, but have no public interest background. The thing with public interest is that we really like seeing people “committed” to the cause. As in, experience, and rightfully so because this work isn’t easy. Yes, all lawyering is difficult, but in PI you are dealing with the most vulnerable, marginalized groups and we need to know you’re capable and have an interest in advocating for these groups. So when I ask people with no PI background why they’re interested in legal aid–imagine my anger when they tell me…