Don't underestimate ageism or women over 50

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I know! I wasn’t directly responding to your comment, this (the ease of suggesting someone ups sticks and moves to the other side of the globe) is a longstanding bugbear of mine among finance fora. “Yeah go to [insert tropical Asian nation], it’s great there, very cheap”. WTF do I do there, who TF do I know there, and do I effing want to go there anyway?

Plus I was actually thinking about the Swiss to be honest, it’s one thing to be a foreigner and think about going back and another to be Swiss born and raised and having to leave. I mean, more broadly, if the Swiss become economic emigrants then let’s blow up this planet already, we’re a failed species!

My wife isn’t Greek, but also has veto power, and has said “I’m happily going back to Greece or [her country] tomorrow, but going anywhere else is out of the question, you can go, but I won’t”. And I get it, I don’t have any desire to go anywhere else either.

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I know a few former interns and people around that age. What they tell me is brutal. They have top degrees and several years of relevant work experience next to their studies. Much less (entry level) jobs are advertised, positions being cut during interview process, very slow hiring process. What recruiters tell them is that 300 people apply for entry level jobs on average, so extremely competitive. If you are lucky you are able to continue where you worked during your studies.

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I think it is best to go the self-employed route.

There’s never been a better time to start your own business.

Heck, a dozen billion dollar tech companies could now be started as two-men founding teams with little capital outlay given mature cloud resources and AI.

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What is - or has been - the percentage of junior associates (vs. seniors) as a share of the workforce in law firms though?

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I think it’s great to start self employment parallel to your regular job; that way you can have the benefits of the employer and increase your customers along the way. With time you can adapt and go all in self employed or at least have a hedge against layoffs.

It might not be possible for everyone (disclosure/ conflict of interest) though.

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No idea, so can’t answer. Big organizations can’t be top heavy, there needs to be a group bringing the work and another delivering it, Junior associates slog through thousands of pages of boring documents (the exact field LLMs excel at!) but eventually they need to become senior associates/partners/managers or else the well will eventually dry up. Oh but of course senior managers of today don’t care, they’d be long retired or dead by then. Anything to boost the quarterly numbers.

Many - I’d argue most - people don’t want to/can’t do that. Having a specific set of tasks, requirements, structure is not only great comfort for many, but it’s mandatory I feel.

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Many large law firms already farmed out not so exiting document review work to staff in say india (just like top consulting firms would have slides for presentations created there)… this was 15+ years ago.

With AI, more impact to come and benefit clients and partners but less so junior/mid level staff.

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Hi @Butch, @evertruelife
It was so nice to read your message forcing me to reflect on the last five years.

I never found a job or even worthwhile mandates. Instead I got stuck caring for my aging narcissistic mother and sister who has learnt from the best. Why did I do this? My psychiatrist is still battling with the explanation. Fundamentally I live by my father’s ethics while slowly learning to set boundaries.

TRNC/Cyprus really wasn’t viable from a life quality perspective. Yes it’s cheap, convenient, warm etc. However, I struggled to see how I could create a quality life there. It would completely have been driven by money and the longer I studied the case, the more the local conditions changed. Let’s just say I care more about people and culture than money.

Never one to give up, I figured that if I had to be enslaved to my mother I could at least get out of paying for Swiss health insurance, avoid inheritance and wealth tax. But oh no, I discovered that Sweden signed a little known bilateral agreement with Switzerland forcing anyone who has not spent the majority of their tax contributing years in the EU to continue paying the Swiss health insurance if they select to return.

To make this more entertaining…The stress of having no income and dealing with my mother after having worked through the loss of banking industry regulations for US and WEU clients (frankly it is a tie as to what was worse) left me with serious health issues that are 100% tied to stress. I now have such an unusual auto inflammatory syndrome that the Swiss health insurance can reject treatments, analysis and basic care because the illness is not on their list.

This is when I will really depress you guys. We all pay a fortune for Swiss health insurance that we never use… when after 35 years of contribution you actually need both the health insurance and qualified university hospitals, they are nowhere to be found. HUG, CHUV and supposed specialists have explained to me that Switzerland is such a small country that we cannot have expertise in all areas. They suggest I (without their help) find specialists in France or Germany.

Despite this I am lucky to have improved my health through lifestyle changes. Spending time with children or in nature are my best healing tricks. It really doesn’t matter how much money you have, it’s the moments with little people that really matter.

Congratulations on becoming a father and having found a meaningful relationship. That is far more worthwhile than any money endeavour.

Sorry if this got too long. Have a great week.

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Thanks @Anna for coming back with this very personal update.

I read it during a break watering the plants this afternoon and decided to reflect on it for a while before replying.

What I’m taking away from this is that we all carry loads on our shoulders which others (especially at work) are not aware of - whether challenges from childhood, current family issues, financial issues, health issues or other. We’re all cultivated to not share those ‘weaknesses’ with people at work because it may make us appear as less suitable. I’ve seen it myself as well - having to justify myself for being close to 2 years not working full-time and the assumption being there must be something wrong with you. Yes, you can’t put on your CV that you were close to burnout before, that you appreciate supporting your wife during pregnancy, that you had to deal with a life threatening heart issue and a potentially lifethreatening cancer scare and multiple operations.

It’s really a bit absurd, how quick we often are (me included) to judge rather than to listen, learn and understand first. It puzzles me also given the need for talent and experience / expertise that in particular mature people can bring. I’ve observed it first hand - interviewer indicating “good people never get fired” (implying if you’re not employed you must suck), a poster here indicating that making money implies being safe (the role makes the money, you’re just paid to fill the role…) and thus that losing your job implies you’re a lazy useless person.

Stepping back, reading Anna’s contribution and coupling it with my own experience, I am confirmed that FIRE is a very important basic strategy in such a ‘you’re disposable’ society. Something I’ll certainly be teaching my soon to be born child (without sounding too cynical about the world I hope!). It’s not just a path to happiness and freedom but also so much of a plan B for so many bad things that can happen or get taken away.

Anyway, meandered off a bit. Good to hear you’re in a state of ‘inner peace’ and are enjoying life - I often thought “once I find happiness, I’ll have peace of mind”… only later in life realizing, work on peace of mind first… then happiness will come by itself.

For me now it’s all about finding purpose in life. A child is a big part of that. So is having a loving wife. More reflection to come on what else - work (if it ever becomes full time again) will in any case be much lower on the list of importance.

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