It's Just a Setback - Messages from the Tarot's Fives about Not Making This Beginning of Career Crash

 Professional life is no longer linear, at least for most of us professionals. 

A sign of that is this: New graduates from elite law schools tend to choose their first job based on what kinds of exit options it offers. No longer do they assume they will build a career there. Instead they anticipate not being able to climb the ladder or even being forced out. 

Part of the new dynamic is that even that plan of "short time" may not go as planned. Two years was supposed to be the timeframe for Job XYZ. However, management there had other ideas. You are laid off or even fired. Uncertainty about the economy, inflation, upstart competition and generative AI have created unique volatility in the labor market. 

Yet, if you're the one out in the cold you are bound not to have perspective. No macro point of view for you. The professional anonymous networks are full of despair. Those "let go" can't grab onto hope. That is, they are unable to position and package that one event as a "setback." 

A whole category of cards in the Tarot deals with that. They are the Fives, as in the Five of Pentacles. 

One particular Fives card - Pentacles - features two mindsets. The one on top symbolizes success. The one on the bottom warns of how easy it is to be lost and continuing to lose direction. 

The meme of my recent Tarot sessions with new clients is: This is only a setback. Then is the connecting them with their best (strategic) self to put together a map for the road back to confidence. 

Harvard Business School professor Roseabeth Kanter documented the role confidence plays in how a career goes. Her seminal 2006 book is "Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End." The takeaway is that when you believe in yourself you will make the investments to not worsen your situation and to put together the Next. 

Recently, a client for my Tarot practice who had been forced out of a law firm had the confidence to walk away from a lowball job offer. He invested in financing a longer-than-expected job search. Soon enough there was an offer which represented a significant increase in compensation since he would receive equity. 

Classic is the leadership saga of Paul Weiss law firm chairperson Brad Karp. It was in the worst of economic times - 2008 - that the partners voted him in. But he had the confidence - rare among law-firm heads during that period - not to lay off. A competitor, for example, cut loose more than 400 in one day. 

When the market began to recover Paul Weiss had the seasoned lawyers to service the growing demand. During the pandemic Karp had the financial confidence to award non-seasonal bonuses. For 2021 it had record Profits Per Equity Partner.  And in another challenging time for law firms- 2023 - Paul Weiss isn't laying off or deferring start dates. Although M&A has imploded, it is among the top five firms for the value of deals it managed in the first half of this year. That is, it grabbed a nice piece of a shrinking pie. 

Beyond professional services over in industry, Disney has the confidence in returned CEO Bob Iger to turn around the business. It is investing two more years for his contract. He can transform the corporation's latest setbacks such as with theme-park revenue into fresh strategic directions. 

Tarot Card Reader. Medium. Intuitive Career Coach.

Don’t Give Up Before the Miracle.

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