Can You Get Ahead & Still Have a Life?

Hello, and welcome back. In this edition we explore how women are rethinking ambition, their careers and boundaries. Plus, how college seniors’ hiring prospects are shaping up amid a looming recession and the recruiting secret that’s helped make the Houston Astros World Series contenders again.

This is a short version of The Wall Street Journal’s Careers & Leadership newsletter. Sign up here to get the full edition in your inbox every week.

Can you have a great career without the long hours? Younger women are trying to find out.

The pandemic’s shakeup of work and life has had lasting effects on ambition for a lot of women.

For some, the past few years have prompted a reassessment of how much they’re willing to give to their careers at the expense of family time or outside interests. For others, many of them younger professionals, seeing the ways other leaders have allowed work to subsume their lives is a turnoff. After a spell of workplace flexibility few would have imagined before 2020, many women are now asking the question: Can you get ahead and still have a life? 

Read the full article here.

College Seniors Can Expect Lots of Job Offers Next Spring

A bellwether survey of employers suggests the class of 2023 will graduate into a job market at least as strong as this year’s, despite recession worries.

Of 246 employers surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, half said they plan to increase the number of new graduate hires in the spring compared with the Class of 2022. Employers in the finance, insurance, real estate, computer and electronic-manufacturing industries stood out as especially hungry to hire new grads.

Read the full article here.

The Recruiting Strategy That Helped the Astros Become World Series Regulars

Houston’s knack for finding Latin American pitchers who had been passed over as teens has been key to the team’s ability to reach a fourth Series in six years.

Read the full article here. 

Elsewhere in The Wall Street Journal

Check out some of the Journal’s other best-read stories on work life and the office over the past week:

• JPMorgan, Macy's and Other Companies Reveal What they Pay Workers As Deadline Looms (Read)
• U.S. Wages Rose Rapidly in Third Quarter (Read)
• U.S. Jobless Claims Rose Slightly, Hover Close to 2019 Average (Read)

This is a condensed version of WSJ’s Careers & Leadership newsletter. Sign up here to get the WSJ’s comprehensive work coverage in your inbox each week.

This newsletter was curated by Lynn Cook, the WSJ’s careers and work bureau chief. Let us know what you think by dropping us a note at careers@wsj.com. 

Photo credits: Aaron Durall for The Wall Street Journal; Delcia Lopez/Associated Press; Kevin M. Cox/Associated Press