Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Everyone nods with slack-jawed expressions.
I’m the only one smiling.
I love her. I want to be her. No nonsense, just boatloads of attitude and confidence.
“Most of you were summer associates here, so welcome back and, more importantly, congratulations. In your current position, you’re no longer on the lowest rung of the ladder. However, you haven’t proved yourself yet. There are four partners in mergers and acquisitions, so you’ll be broken up into small groups and absorbed by each of the four teams. The junior and senior associates you’ll be working alongside will have very little patience and very little time for hand-holding. You were not accidentally chosen for this job. Each of you is capable of learning fast and thinking on your feet. You’re getting paid gobs of money to perform as an asset to this company. That being said, we don’t want mistakes. Triple-check your work. Ask for guidance if it’s absolutely necessary.”
She scans over us. “I want to be perfectly clear about the reality of a firm like Elwood Hoyt. None of you are ignorant about this world. Take a good look at the peers around you because by this time next year, a quarter of you will be gone. In two years, only half will be left standing. Likely less.”
Oh god. What is this, The Hunger Games? Are we about to have to kill each other off? Because if push came to shove, I do think I could take the scrawny guy near me in hand-to-hand combat. I’ve been kickboxing like crazy this last year.
“Now I know you’re all weighted down with the guidelines and handbooks from HR concerning Elwood Hoyt’s training policies. Pertaining to the mergers and acquisitions side of things, we have a different hourly requirement than most other departments. We want you all aiming for at least 2,500 billable hours a year. How you decide to break that up is your concern.”
2,500 billable hours…and Barrett said to add 500 to their base requirement, meaning he wants me shooting for 3,000 billable hours. Taking into account two weeks of vacation and holidays, that leaves me with sixty-hour work weeks on the low end. More than likely, I’ll be pulling ten to twelve-hour days and working some on the weekends too.
I peer around the group, though there are no wide eyes, no bleak expressions. It’s all furrowed brows and fierce determination. Everyone knows the score, apparently.
It’s hard to believe though. A quarter of us won’t make it through the year? When do people start dropping? Right now, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s even remotely interested in walking away.
Bethany pulls out a memo on the firm’s letterhead from the padfolio she brought in with her.
“I’m going to read out the teams. Find who you’re grouped with, exchange numbers, get close. These people will be your support system for the next few months. It’s impossible to survive here alone.”
One by one, she starts listing the partners followed by the associates assigned to their team.
“Mr. Beltran—Makayla Hammon, Dilan Phan, Ramona Dalton.”
A guy in the center of the room turns to two girls sitting beside him and they give each other surreptitious high fives.
Thaddeus Welch, Vihaan Robles, and Andy Pace land on Mr. Pruitt’s team.
My name is called next, first up for Amaya Chandra’s team. After me, she calls the name of two other girls. One of them sits over near the window by herself. She looks back at me and shrugs as if she doesn’t really care that we’ve been placed on the same team.
I’ll take it! Open apathy is better than blatant loathing.
Also, I’ve managed to evade landing on Hudson Rhodes’ team. Of all of Barrett’s advice, at least I lucked out in that regard.
She finishes assigning everyone else. The blonde girl up front—Kendra Crane, I learn—doesn’t get her name called until the very end, and I smile (internally) with glee over her assignment for two reasons. One, she’s been placed with Hudson. Two, rather than being placed with two other new associates, she only gets one other team member: the boy near me.
Makes sense. There’re only eleven new hires in this room; one team had to be one short. Oh well. Poor Kendra will have her work cut out for her, that’s for sure. I do hope Barrett wasn’t exaggerating about Hudson. It’d be such lovely karmic retribution if he was an absolute monster.
When Kendra realizes her lackluster placement, she immediately raises her hand in protest. Bold. I expected her to sit quietly and take it on the chin.
“Excuse me?”
“What is it?” Bethany asks, not even bothering to look up. She’s reviewing her memo, likely confirming she’s done everything she’s supposed to do so she can release us into the wild. We’ve already taken up too much of her time.
“I was hoping to be placed with Ms. Chandra rather than Mr. Rhodes,” Kendra says kindly. “I was on her team while I worked as a summer associate, and when interviewing for this position, I was told I would likely be working alongside her again.”