FATE V FUTURE

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FUTUREBOARD

🔼 London lawyers’ paychecks. Salaries for City lawyers were up 15% in 2022, to an average of £740K or US$889K per year. They can thank Covid, which sparked a lot of M&A activity »»

🔽 Cardio. Treadmills and ellipticals are going unused as strength training has surged in popularity »»

💬 “You could be a saint, a real saint, and someone will burn you at the stake.” TikTok’s landlord influencers want you to stop being mad and start landlording »»

🛩️ Lufthansa unveilled an incredible new First Class »»

👗 LVMH is thinking about buying Richemont »» 

💎 Here’s what £28M will get you in London’s Belgravia: a 6 bedroom mansion with a basement gym and pool »»

QUICKFATES

What creators get wrong about text message marketing (Hint: don’t treat it like social media) »»

Shoreditch Arts Club opens on March 7th in London. The new members' club will evoke ‘the curiosity of an avid art collector’s home’ »»

Enrollment in the humanities —ie., the study of English or History— is in free fall at universities across America. What happened? »»

Attention New Yorkers: A few numbers with the 212 area code are back in circulation »»

The sun is about to get more active than it has for a decade — and it could lead to power outages, grounded flights, and stunning auroras »»

The Ritz Carlton is coming to Lake Como »»

Typeface.ai is a new app using generative AI and a clean UI to take on Canva »» More »»

Meanwhile, ChatGPT’s parent company “OpenAI is now everything it promised not to be: corporate, closed-source, and for-profit” »»

As the Economist warns that “investors are going nuts for ChatGPT-ish artificial intelligence” »» 🔐

Olafur Eliasson to create 98-foot-long artwork mirroring sea and sky on the English coast »»

A mainstay of Ayurveda, ashwagandha is a plant thought to have a range of benefits, particularly around stress and inflammation. Does it work? »»

DEEPFATE 📝 DO YOUR HOMEWORK?

More and more firms are asking senior job candidates to do homework as part of the interview process. Is that trend here to stay?

THE CHAT ON LinkedIn continues to revolve around interview norms.

• Allison Braley, the head of marketing and a partner at Bain Capital ventures recently posted about how hard it is to get hired right now, especially in a senior role.

• She knows: she had just finished interviewing dozens of people, out of hundreds of applicants, for a key role at her firm.

ALLISON IDENTIFIED 8 key points that stood out about the top candidates.

• A few were what you’d expect, like the fact that strong candidates had submitted error-free applications, or had found a person in common to make a warm intro. (That one, while nice, was not necessary. In this particular instance, the person that got the job applied cold.)

• Other points, like reading through the Bain Capital website and doing some Google News searches, or sending a thank you, are standard.

THERE WERE SOME higher order observations in there.

• Like this gem: all of the top candidates provided actionable insights over the course of their interview process.

• However, it was Allison’s last observation that sparked serious chat (more than 450 comments at the time of writing).

THE CANDIDATES THAT stood out did their homework. Literally.

• Apparently, the last crop of candidates were given homework assignments before their final round interviews.

• The best candidates did their homework with enthusiasm, and turned in first rate work.

• This tidbit struck a nerve.

THE MOST LIKED comment on the entire thread was a counterpoint.

• “If there's a homework assignment,” Leadership and Life Coach Kelly Campana wrote, “it is most assuredly not a senior role.”

• Why? Because job interview homework is free labour.

• And, Kelly continued, "an exploitation of [the] candidate's IP."

• “If it's truly a high level role, employers demonstrate that they value access to strategic thinking by hiring candidates for a 30 day project consultancy.”

COINCIDENTALLY, I SUGGESTED that firms do something similar in the most recent issue of this newsletter.

• Fate v Future’s process for hiring long term contractors involves a paid shadow day.

• We get substantive work that needs doing, feedback on ourselves, and a chance to really see how good of a fit the candidate is.

• I'm curious why more companies don't do this.

• A bit of money up front in exchange for work that you can use, results in a much better fit and match —and avoids the debate about free labour.

INTERVIEWS WITH (FREE) homework may be popular now.

• But if enough strong candidates decline to do it, freelance-to-perm will become more of a thing.

• After all, that setup is a win-win: an exchange of brainpower and actionable insights for money.

• And if it works out, great!

• Both parties can then decide to solidify and extend the arrangement by turning it into a full time perm role.

• How logical. How elegant. But how likely is it to happen?

TIME WILL TELL.

• In the years to come, we predict that more and more of the most discerning firms will be putting a paid freelance component into their high level, final round interviews.

• At these levels, “try before you buy” is set to become “buy before you buy.”

Alison Braley’s LinkedIn piece about the best candidates for Bain Capital’s senior role »»

Written by Jon Kallus. Any feedback? Simply reply.