What should I do? Forum

[miamiman]

romo, i think you belong in a law school classroom. my 10 cents

[nycparalegal]

I got a paralegal job in 2007 and I graduated in 2005. It takes awhile but you need to learn to do things besides just send out your resume.

LOL it took you two years in a booming economy to get a paralegal job, so OP should have no problem ITE! Just network!

It's been really hard to get a job period. Go ahead and google and you will see that it wasn't easy in 2007 either. It took everyone I knew, who wasn't an engineer or had family connection, months to find a job.

You forget that a lot of the law firms laid off a shit load of their support staff. Biglaw firms regularly recruit every year due to attrition alone and I know for a fact hiring is starting to ramp up because a lot of firms are starting to get a pick up in work.

But, if you want to believe it's impossible then go ahead. Nothing is going to be giving to you on a silver platter.

[romothesavior]

romo, i think you belong in a law school classroom. my 10 cents

Thanks miamiman, I really appreciate it. What makes you say that?

[miamiman]

romo, i think you belong in a law school classroom. my 10 cents

Thanks miamiman, I really appreciate it. What makes you say that?

you're committed. you know what you want. youve put yourself in as decent a position as possible to realize that goal.

you can't time markets. you can't time this market. the economy is improving but who knows what would happen any which way (deferring, delaying, starting in the fall, etc.) if you know you want to start, then start.

[eldizknee]

.

[jackalope11]

I agree with miamiman, but would also like to put my two cents in:

1. I know that bashing the economy is popular here, and I risk the TLS ire by bucking the trend. However, in the end, we only need to worry about what the economy for lawyers in three years is going to be, not what it is today. I know that SA jobs for 1L's have been few and far between but, with your schollys, school represents a great opportunity, IMHO.

Dean Pless recently advised that there are the beginnings of an upward hiring trend for legal employment which started in the last 6-8 months. After giving nothing but honest answers all the way through the admissions process, I would be shocked if his statements relating to this were untrue. (Also, FWIW, he advised that a problem they have is trying to get graduates to consider staying in the Midwest, excluding Chicago, of course. Since you already want to stay, then I would think that would play in your favor.)

2. Employment for lawyers, despite being fair-to-moderately cruddy compared with the past, is STILL better than most of the alternatives. Double check me here, but the employment for 20-somethings is at almost all time lows. Newsweek had something a couple of weeks ago about un / under - employment for people in that age group being around 30%.

Certainly wouldn't try to dissuade you from working for awhile if you really wanted to, but you seemed pretty hyped about LS before. Not to mention, you have some great opportunities at good schools, and it would be a shame to give them up... Not for nothing, but with the nature of LS applications, you never know what kind of applicants you'll be competing against in a couple of years. (Not that you wouldn't be strong against them too, but a bird in hand... ya know?)

Either way: Good luck, Romo!

[nycparalegal]

I got a paralegal job in 2007 and I graduated in 2005. It takes awhile but you need to learn to do things besides just send out your resume.

LOL it took you two years in a booming economy to get a paralegal job, so OP should have no problem ITE! Just network!

It's been really hard to get a job period. Go ahead and google and you will see that it wasn't easy in 2007 either. It took everyone I knew, who wasn't an engineer or had family connection, months to find a job.

You forget that a lot of the law firms laid off a shit load of their support staff. Biglaw firms regularly recruit every year due to attrition alone and I know for a fact hiring is starting to ramp up because a lot of firms are starting to get a pick up in work.

But, if you want to believe it's impossible then go ahead. Nothing is going to be giving to you on a silver platter.

I wasn't trying to make fun of you, just pointing out that getting a job without a law degree isn't necessarily any easier than getting one with a law degree. Lots of people seem to think that getting a $30k-$40k/yr job is still easy, when in fact it's really not unless you're accounting/engineer/or some other useful degree (and even then it's still pretty hard). I graduated in 2008 and I still have friends who are looking for entry-level work while doing part time catering to make ends meet. Sorry if my post came across as attacking you personally, wasn't meant that way at all.

I shouldn't have taken it so personally, but I really believe that if you're not committed to the idea of law school and don't really want to go then you shouldnt go until you know for sure. It's a three year commitment and thousands of dollars.

I appreciate the fact that it was so hard to land an entry level job. I learned a lot of different skill sets and got a realistic view of the job market.

I'm not saying it's easy.