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Inigima

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  • 2 weeks later...

Without describing anything about the case or its merits, it looks like I'll be a central witness in a lawsuit by some bondholders & creditors against former executives of one my clients.  One of my memos was quoted extensively in the suit filed.  It'll be my first deposition.  I hope all those episodes of The Good Wife have prepared me for the snappy dialogue, arch comments, backstabbing shenanigans and clever verbal traps that undoubtedly await me.  I hope my counsel is as sharp as Alicia.

To add further bad news, a really good candidate just declined our offer in order to take a more sales-oriented role at an inferior firm.  I think she's making a mistake but it's hers to make.

By the way, job-switching is noticeably higher this year throughout the industry.  Some big i-banks (JPM, UBS and Deutsche, for example) are cutting staff while lots of other investment firms are trying to add talent.  I'm trying to keep all my people while capturing strong new hires amid multiple offers.

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I had an interview/test day on Monday for the South West Ambulance Trust. The interview went well I think. At least, I didn't go to pieces or say anything egregiously stupid so I'll put it in the positive column. I passed the practical driving test and the fitness test. Now I'm just waiting on the results of the driving theory. That's the one I'm most likely to have failed, but if that's the case I do get a re-sit so I'm not hugely worried (yet). Fingers crossed.

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9 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Without describing anything about the case or its merits, it looks like I'll be a central witness in a lawsuit by some bondholders & creditors against former executives of one my clients.  One of my memos was quoted extensively in the suit filed.  It'll be my first deposition.  I hope all those episodes of The Good Wife have prepared me for the snappy dialogue, arch comments, backstabbing shenanigans and clever verbal traps that undoubtedly await me.  I hope my counsel is as sharp as Alicia.

To add further bad news, a really good candidate just declined our offer in order to take a more sales-oriented role at an inferior firm.  I think she's making a mistake but it's hers to make.

By the way, job-switching is noticeably higher this year throughout the industry.  Some big i-banks (JPM, UBS and Deutsche, for example) are cutting staff while lots of other investment firms are trying to add talent.  I'm trying to keep all my people while capturing strong new hires amid multiple offers.

Good luck with the deposition. Can you get The Good Wife costume designer in on your side as well as Alicia?

9 hours ago, Liffguard said:

I had an interview/test day on Monday for the South West Ambulance Trust. The interview went well I think. At least, I didn't go to pieces or say anything egregiously stupid so I'll put it in the positive column. I passed the practical driving test and the fitness test. Now I'm just waiting on the results of the driving theory. That's the one I'm most likely to have failed, but if that's the case I do get a re-sit so I'm not hugely worried (yet). Fingers crossed.

Hope you hear good news soon!

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Shit. Failed the driving theory by one point. I can re-take it but not until December. No one but myself to blame, but in my defense there were some really obscure questions in there. Ah well, a wait of a couple of months isn't the end of the world and it will give me time to prepare.

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6 hours ago, Angalin said:

Good luck with the deposition. Can you get The Good Wife costume designer in on your side as well as Alicia?

I did like Cary's suits.  And Lemond Bishop's.  My tailor can stand tall in that company.

@Liff - that's an agonizingly close miss.  Sorry to hear it.  Make sure you clinch it next time.

Regarding my participation in the lawsuit: that they did not follow some of my specific advice/recommendations is one of the key pillars of the suit against my client, so I don't think my reputation takes a hit here at all (I was proven to be painfully, expensively right on this).  It's just not pleasant to be put in the middle of a dispute like this.

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17 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Without describing anything about the case or its merits, it looks like I'll be a central witness in a lawsuit by some bondholders & creditors against former executives of one my clients.  One of my memos was quoted extensively in the suit filed.  It'll be my first deposition.  I hope all those episodes of The Good Wife have prepared me for the snappy dialogue, arch comments, backstabbing shenanigans and clever verbal traps that undoubtedly await me.  I hope my counsel is as sharp as Alicia.

To add further bad news, a really good candidate just declined our offer in order to take a more sales-oriented role at an inferior firm.  I think she's making a mistake but it's hers to make.

By the way, job-switching is noticeably higher this year throughout the industry.  Some big i-banks (JPM, UBS and Deutsche, for example) are cutting staff while lots of other investment firms are trying to add talent.  I'm trying to keep all my people while capturing strong new hires amid multiple offers.

So, on the dep, please, please, please pay attention in prep and ask a whole bunch of questions in prep.  In particular, ask about their philosophy on objections.  It will be NOTHING like the Good Wife.  Your lawyer will be giving you the tools to get through it in the best way possible.  Remember to take it slow, listen to your lawyer, and ask for a break if you are feeling tired or need water or whatever.  Best of luck.

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1 hour ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

So, on the dep, please, please, please pay attention in prep and ask a whole bunch of questions in prep.  In particular, ask about their philosophy on objections.  It will be NOTHING like the Good Wife.  Your lawyer will be giving you the tools to get through it in the best way possible.  Remember to take it slow, listen to your lawyer, and ask for a break if you are feeling tired or need water or whatever.  Best of luck.

Thanks Zabzie.  TGW jokes aside, I do want to prep a lot with my counsel about how to respond to questions.  My natural style is to enthusiastically share opinion, inference, deduction and extrapolation.  I suspect I need to train myself to stick to facts here.

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Just now, Iskaral Pust said:

Thanks Zabzie.  TGW jokes aside, I do want to prep a lot with my counsel about how to respond to questions.  My natural style is to enthusiastically share opinion, inference, deduction and extrapolation.  I suspect I need to train myself to stick to facts here.

Yup.  And I imagine your counsel will practice with you answer the question that is asked (no more or less), and not the question you want to answer.  Also you will probably get advice about not speculating.  In fact, one of the objections often given to a question is "calls for speculation."  Anyhow, spend the time.  I've seen the amazing things that the litigation prep teams do.  So much of it is understanding the process and clearing what we think we know about it from movies and tv from our heads.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Job application whisperers, what do you think is the protocol/good form/etc for multiple - different - positions advertised by the same organization, each of which one could conceivably apply to? Is it ok to apply to several different ones...with appropriately different CVs, cover letters, etc? In this instance, it seems to be two roles within the same group, one more senior than the other. I'm slightly overqualified for the junior one, a little less slightly underqualified for the senior one. Apply to one? Both? Neither?  

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31 minutes ago, Datepalm said:

Job application whisperers, what do you think is the protocol/good form/etc for multiple - different - positions advertised by the same organization, each of which one could conceivably apply to? Is it ok to apply to several different ones...with appropriately different CVs, cover letters, etc? In this instance, it seems to be two roles within the same group, one more senior than the other. I'm slightly overqualified for the junior one, a little less slightly underqualified for the senior one. Apply to one? Both? Neither?  

I would probably apply to the more senior one and highlight your relevant experience in the cover letter. If they like you for the more junior one, they can make that call.

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12 hours ago, Datepalm said:

Job application whisperers, what do you think is the protocol/good form/etc for multiple - different - positions advertised by the same organization, each of which one could conceivably apply to? Is it ok to apply to several different ones...with appropriately different CVs, cover letters, etc? In this instance, it seems to be two roles within the same group, one more senior than the other. I'm slightly overqualified for the junior one, a little less slightly underqualified for the senior one. Apply to one? Both? Neither?  

If they're similar positions, what I did is address the specific position I preferred most in my cover letter with a caveat that I would be interested in others, e.g. "Thank you for taking the time to review my resume and consider me for the XXX position and any other positions you think might be a good match for my experience."

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I don't know if this is the right place to say this, but it is career-related so I'll do it anyway.

Recently I've started considering leaving my country. Had my first interview for a position abroad yesterday, it went well. I'm still not at the stage where they'd offer me the job, but the process is under way.

To be honest, I don't know what to think or how to feel about that. I love my hometown (Belgrade, Serbia), I have a lot of friends and family here, as well as a lot of very fond memories despite all the problems the country's been through in my lifetime. I make a decent living here, so finances are not the reason I'd move abroad, though I'd certainly benefit financially from moving to some of the Western countries. It's just that the whole system seems to be wrong here - incompetence and corruption have taken root in every single branch of government, and most important systems in every society (education and health) are rapidly deteriorating. I'm far from the "I must leave at all cost" attitude but I'd like to try out living abroad for a while. It might at least give me a break from all the political crap that's going on here.

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7 hours ago, baxus said:

I don't know if this is the right place to say this, but it is career-related so I'll do it anyway.

Recently I've started considering leaving my country. Had my first interview for a position abroad yesterday, it went well. I'm still not at the stage where they'd offer me the job, but the process is under way.

To be honest, I don't know what to think or how to feel about that. I love my hometown (Belgrade, Serbia), I have a lot of friends and family here, as well as a lot of very fond memories despite all the problems the country's been through in my lifetime. I make a decent living here, so finances are not the reason I'd move abroad, though I'd certainly benefit financially from moving to some of the Western countries. It's just that the whole system seems to be wrong here - incompetence and corruption have taken root in every single branch of government, and most important systems in every society (education and health) are rapidly deteriorating. I'm far from the "I must leave at all cost" attitude but I'd like to try out living abroad for a while. It might at least give me a break from all the political crap that's going on here.

Best of luck, Baxus.  It's definitely a move to think through carefully because it can be great life experience but stats show that a lot of expat job assignments end early and badly: loss of social support system, isolation and homesickness, difficulty adapting to the culture.  So make sure that you're prepared for the life changes to enjoy the move.

When I moved from Ireland to the US, I was intended as a temporary assignment for two years.  I struggled for the first few months with suddenly losing my network of friends and trying to find my feet in a new and different culture. 

If you move with your wife then at least you have each other, but she may end up feeling isolated while you can connect with people at work.

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Where are you thinking of moving to, specifically? 

There's a weird guilt to moving away for careery reasons, I think, like it's an indulgence or a giving-up or even betrayal of some kind. I thought it might be amplified in the case of Israel with the ideological baggage, but I'm not sure. It helps to remind myself that i'm really in favour of global labour mobility as a general principle. 

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15 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Best of luck, Baxus.  It's definitely a move to think through carefully because it can be great life experience but stats show that a lot of expat job assignments end early and badly: loss of social support system, isolation and homesickness, difficulty adapting to the culture.  So make sure that you're prepared for the life changes to enjoy the move.

When I moved from Ireland to the US, I was intended as a temporary assignment for two years.  I struggled for the first few months with suddenly losing my network of friends and trying to find my feet in a new and different culture. 

If you move with your wife then at least you have each other, but she may end up feeling isolated while you can connect with people at work.

Thanks, Isk.

I'm aware of both the advantages and the downsides of such a move but it's quite different to be aware of them and to be able to handle them. :D 

My wife would remain in Belgrade at first. She's working on a great project, with reasonable chances of being very lucrative in the long run. I wouldn't dream of taking her off it at this moment. She could work remotely but not all the time, so we'd do our best to find a way to make the most out of that.

A good thing is that this potential location is less than two hours flight away and the tickets aren't that expensive so I could probably even hop back to Belgrade for the weekend. There's even a low cost flight, unless I'm mistaken.

It's not an ideal situation, but it's not that bad.

The good thing is that I can easily get a new job in Belgrade if it doesn't work out, so I wouldn't be losing much, if anything.

14 hours ago, Datepalm said:

Where are you thinking of moving to, specifically? 

There's a weird guilt to moving away for careery reasons, I think, like it's an indulgence or a giving-up or even betrayal of some kind. I thought it might be amplified in the case of Israel with the ideological baggage, but I'm not sure. It helps to remind myself that i'm really in favour of global labour mobility as a general principle. 

The company in question is based in Stockholm.

As for the guilt for moving away, I don't know if it's an Israel thing only but I can definitely say it's not a Serbia thing. To be perfectly honest, in Serbia it's almost the exact opposite. Too many people here think that everyone who can leave has left already or are on their way out. The country is in a really bad shape, and for a majority of population future doesn't seem too bright.

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I think that as long as it's not exceptionally negative for your career, you should totally go for it. I do not for a second regret dropping everything and moving to Germany for a job (and then again, but instead moving to New York), even if there were some really tough things I had to deal with at the time. 

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On 10/27/2016 at 0:14 PM, Xray the Enforcer said:

I think that as long as it's not exceptionally negative for your career, you should totally go for it. I do not for a second regret dropping everything and moving to Germany for a job (and then again, but instead moving to New York), even if there were some really tough things I had to deal with at the time. 

I'm with Xray. I dropped everything and moved to London for 3.5 years for work and it was the best thing I did. I ended up moving back to NY when my team was made redundant but I don't regret making the initial move for a second. Took some time to get myself situated and find my own friends rather than just rely on my roommate or ex-gf but once I did, it felt like home.

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