Top Law Schools

I have an interesting situation I wanted to get someone's take on.

I currently work in a "JD Advantage" position making 80k. Hours are very good, benefits are middle of the road. However, 1.) The job is not very stable (I find myself not doing anything for days on end), 2.) I absolutely hate this job. Its extremely boring and mind numbing with no real light at the end of the tunnel, 3.) I really enjoyed law when I was an associate at a law firm even though I made less to work more hours. I went to law school to be an attorney and as long as I have a decent environment with manageable work hours and no psycho bosses I feel much more interested in what I would do compared to where I am at now 4.) I am building absolutely zero transferable skills to any industry. I can teach a college intern with average intelligence everything I do by the end of the week. 50% of my job is secretary work, data entry and copy and pasting or making graphs. I already hate the job, but the lack of transferable skills is gonna make it harder to leave the longer I stay and if the company, which like I said isn't stable, goes under, not sure how easy it will be to find a job.

I currently have an offer from my dream job (as in, I went to law school for this). Better benefits, top notch stability, good people, hours roughly the same, and a mountain of difference in terms of interest in the job plus builds a ton of transferable skills.....and it pays 55K.

I have monopoly money debt. Its not gonna get paid off no matter what I make. On my current salary I can put away a decent amount each month, have a nice emergency fund and save for a house. With the job I was offered I would be close to paycheck-to-paycheck (About $400 left over at the end of the month). No huge raises in sight either. I realize I could always lateral after 2 years of building up substantive skills, but thats not a guarantee and I feel like depending on that is kinda like going to law school with intent to transfer.

Thoughts? Questions? Complaints?

Anonymous User wrote:I have an interesting situation I wanted to get someone's take on.

I currently work in a "JD Advantage" position making 80k. Hours are very good, benefits are middle of the road. However, 1.) The job is not very stable (I find myself not doing anything for days on end), 2.) I absolutely hate this job. Its extremely boring and mind numbing with no real light at the end of the tunnel, 3.) I really enjoyed law when I was an associate at a law firm even though I made less to work more hours. I went to law school to be an attorney and as long as I have a decent environment with manageable work hours and no psycho bosses I feel much more interested in what I would do compared to where I am at now 4.) I am building absolutely zero transferable skills to any industry. I can teach a college intern with average intelligence everything I do by the end of the week. 50% of my job is secretary work, data entry and copy and pasting or making graphs. I already hate the job, but the lack of transferable skills is gonna make it harder to leave the longer I stay and if the company, which like I said isn't stable, goes under, not sure how easy it will be to find a job.

I currently have an offer from my dream job (as in, I went to law school for this). Better benefits, top notch stability, good people, hours roughly the same, and a mountain of difference in terms of interest in the job plus builds a ton of transferable skills.....and it pays 55K.

I have monopoly money debt. Its not gonna get paid off no matter what I make. On my current salary I can put away a decent amount each month, have a nice emergency fund and save for a house. With the job I was offered I would be close to paycheck-to-paycheck (About $400 left over at the end of the month). No huge raises in sight either. I realize I could always lateral after 2 years of building up substantive skills, but thats not a guarantee and I feel like depending on that is kinda like going to law school with intent to transfer.

Thoughts? Questions? Complaints?

What the hell is monopoly money debt? I don't think the IRS cares about what you call it.

Dream job is TCR.

Are you willing to disclose in which industry you currently work ? I have friends with engineering degrees who have similar complaints working in nuclear power plants.

How old are you? Do you want kids? Are you getting close to that time? I would take the dream job. But if you're 35 and want kids its time to suck it up, you know?

Seems pretty clear you want to take it; I think you should. You have at least some kind of emergency fund in place right? Saving away 400 per month isn't exactly nothing (assuming no unexpected expenses). And I assume you will be eligible for a promotion/raise at least someday right?

sparty99 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I have an interesting situation I wanted to get someone's take on.

I currently work in a "JD Advantage" position making 80k. Hours are very good, benefits are middle of the road. However, 1.) The job is not very stable (I find myself not doing anything for days on end), 2.) I absolutely hate this job. Its extremely boring and mind numbing with no real light at the end of the tunnel, 3.) I really enjoyed law when I was an associate at a law firm even though I made less to work more hours. I went to law school to be an attorney and as long as I have a decent environment with manageable work hours and no psycho bosses I feel much more interested in what I would do compared to where I am at now 4.) I am building absolutely zero transferable skills to any industry. I can teach a college intern with average intelligence everything I do by the end of the week. 50% of my job is secretary work, data entry and copy and pasting or making graphs. I already hate the job, but the lack of transferable skills is gonna make it harder to leave the longer I stay and if the company, which like I said isn't stable, goes under, not sure how easy it will be to find a job.

I currently have an offer from my dream job (as in, I went to law school for this). Better benefits, top notch stability, good people, hours roughly the same, and a mountain of difference in terms of interest in the job plus builds a ton of transferable skills.....and it pays 55K.

I have monopoly money debt. Its not gonna get paid off no matter what I make. On my current salary I can put away a decent amount each month, have a nice emergency fund and save for a house. With the job I was offered I would be close to paycheck-to-paycheck (About $400 left over at the end of the month). No huge raises in sight either. I realize I could always lateral after 2 years of building up substantive skills, but thats not a guarantee and I feel like depending on that is kinda like going to law school with intent to transfer.

Thoughts? Questions? Complaints?

What the hell is monopoly money debt? I don't think the IRS cares about what you call it.

Its a term used fairly often on TLS. It means my debt is so high that it will never get paid. I have both fed and private loans (privates will obviously get paid eventually, federal will not, ever, barring an offer for biglaw money), and my calculations of budget are based on PAYE for the federals plus 10 year repayment for the privates. Its monopoly money because there is zero difference to me whether I have 250k or 450k in debt, its always gonna PAYE cause it will never get paid in full.

Are you willing to disclose in which industry you currently work ? I have friends with engineering degrees who have similar complaints working in nuclear power plants.

I work in compliance for a bank. Its basically data entry, copy and paste spreadsheets, make a graph, "analyze" (as in, look at it with hopefully above average IQ) financials to see if anything looks off, etc.. The work is very easy, its also the most boring work I have ever done.

If the dream job is PSLF eligible, then without a doubt do it. If not... maybe. Depends how badly you want to actually be a lawyer, and how unstable your current job is.

flawschoolkid wrote:How old are you? Do you want kids? Are you getting close to that time? I would take the dream job. But if you're 35 and want kids its time to suck it up, you know?

I'm 27, no kids, someday would be great but I can wait 5-6 years if needed.

Seems pretty clear you want to take it; I think you should. You have at least some kind of emergency fund in place right? Saving away 400 per month isn't exactly nothing (assuming no unexpected expenses). And I assume you will be eligible for a promotion/raise at least someday right?

My current emergency fund would cover at minimum 6 months if I was fired the day after taking the new job. However, the new job seems to have rock solid stability so I would just have to suck at it for this to be a problem. And yes, I am leaning towards taking it and most of my friends and family are very much in the "take it" camp, but I will take any opinions I can get. Toughest decision of my life easily.

A wise man once said: YOLO.

In all seriousness, take the dream job and don't look back. You'll make it work because it'll be worth it.

take the dream job, cut your expenses, and work your butt off to try and make more money. waiting to take your dream job is like saving sex for old age, just dont make no got dang sense.

.

I would take the dream job. I think your chances of moving to something that pays better AND that you like after getting skills in the area in which you want to practice are much better coming out of the dream job than out of what you're doing now. My sense is that people move jobs quite a bit more than TLS posters tend to realize - it's getting a job and getting experience to start with that's the really hard part.

It's funny because when you're making decent money in a shitty job, you wind up hating it and dreaming about taking a lower paying job that's more interesting and substantive. Then after a couple years in the lower paying job, you'll absolutely hate it and start thinking that a shitty job with good pay would be a billion times better. This profession kind of fucking sucks in that there's a real lack of middle ground. I feel like the only place where there's actually a balance is fed government jobs, but there's always so much fucking competition for those, where it winds up being basically like a lottery between the top 25-50 applicants or so. If your job wasn't such a dead end job, I'd probably say to stay put, but it might make sense to get out since it sounds pretty dead end-ish (assuming you'll actually be developing marketable skills at this new job).

Take the dream job. You only get one life, do you really want to spend it in a state of misery for a paltry $25k more per year? Plus, it sounds like your current job is dead-end and builds no transferable skills.

Anonymous User wrote:I have an interesting situation I wanted to get someone's take on.

...

I have monopoly money debt...

Wow!! Actually lol'd. I've yet to see that one. Thanks for the laugh.

Thanks for all of the replies and thoughts on this thread (this is OP).

I decided to take the job. After running my budget at least 200 times i will definitely be ok, albeit no more random weekend $1000 getaway on a whim. The prospect of giving up that much money is scary as hell to be honest, but the job I'm accepting has truly been my dream as long as I can remember, and the benefits and job stability are much higher than where I'm at now. We shall see how it goes, but for now I am giving up $ for happiness.

good choice. i know lots who gave up money for happiness and it always ends up positively.