Post
by Nulli Secundus » Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:31 am
This is another version I started, not yet finished but I am taking suggestions now so that I know whether this is worth working more on or not.
July 21st, 2010, Wednesday, 11:42 am. 48% of the work week is complete. While seeing a week as if it is something like an installation bar on the computer, complete with percentages, is nothing unusual for me; this time I actually stopped to consider what I was doing. I realized I started seeing weekends as mini-objectives to reach just shortly after getting this job and ceteris paribus, I had 1886 more weeks to do that until retirement. I realize my problem is not unique, a recent research shows that 65% of people think their jobs are below their capacity and hence, boring. I figured to be somewhat unique within that majority, I needed to actually address the problem of finding a job that will both keep me sufficiently interested, in line with my potential and preferably doing this as soon as possible; instead of letting the problem fester in my subconscious for another fifteen years, only to come bobbing back to surface during my mid-life crisis, in the form of “I could have accomplished so much more, I wasted my life...”.
In my case, making this resolution worth more than a new year’s resolution, a subclass of resolutions which are notorious for never being acted upon, seemed quite hard; since the alternatives were not exactly clear. Regardless of my thoughts about its relative challenge level compared to perceived potential, my job as an auditor at Turkish Court of Accounts, which is the theoretical equivalent of Government Accountability Office is considered as among the best as far as being a civil servant in Turkey goes. As for private sector in Turkey, since there is no concept of graduate school in Turkey, I would be expected to start from scratch for more working hours and considerably less compensation and considering when you decide to alter the trajectory of your life, that change is expected to be positive; it was not really an option.
Regardless of this initial setback, my options, if any, would have to be among those that rely heavily upon my current skill set, that I acquired working as an auditor and otherwise. Working as an auditor, the most important skill I gained and what constituted the only fun part of the job, was quickly analyzing facts of a case and deducing which of the myriad laws and regulations of Turkey applied to that particular case and how the interactions between various, usually conflicting, regulations affected my report regarding the case. Which is, hopefully except the conflicting regulations part, what is expected of one, on a very basic level, in a law school education and a law career later on.
I decided that having honed this skill compensates for approximately four years I would be losing compared to a normal student starting law school with some work experience. However, changing one’s country and incurring a (from where I am standing) humongous amount of educational debt at this age and in this economy are great risks, the risks I am willing to take only if I receive the JD degree from one of the best law schools; which is why I am applying only to X Law School.
I see graduate school, specifically law school as a very viable way of resetting my career and also if it lives up to the hype, for hopefully having the pleasure of sharing the classroom with genuinely competitive and similarly gifted individuals, a pleasure I have been denied thus far. And considering a 95th percentile LSAT score qualifies one for a MENSA membership, I believe I will find all the competition I will ever need and more at X Law School, which will only increase my focus and determination as has always been the case.
