Biglaw associates: What career would you rather have done? Forum

[Anonymous User]

A common thread among biglaw lawyers is the grass is greener in that field or my friend makes just as much as me but doesn't hate his life... So what better way to consolidate all of our complaints! I for one wish I had gone directly into securities/brokerage out of UG, I had an opportunity to join a small highly successful company and chose to go to law school instead .

So what about everybody else? Where did you go wrong?

[84651846190]

Going to law school is really just a lazy choice, if you're smart and could have done other things. I blame my decision to go to law school on laziness and inertia. It's just too easy to get a huge chunk of loan money and convince yourself that three more years of school will help you. I could have stayed in tech and been happy. I'm guessing folks with less useful UG degrees might be more pleased with their decision to go to law school, but it was not the right choice for me.

[zot1]

I'm just here to bet that the most common answer will be tech.

Also, now that I'm going through the process of buying a house, I've come to realize that getting a student loan is waaaaaaay too easy.

[jkpolk]

I'd have become a landmark preservationist. Or maybe a brewer. Or possibly an economist modeling random stuff for industry. Or maybe a park ranger. Or maybe I would have opened an American bar in Thailand. Or maybe I'd be a sea captain. All of those and many others sound preferable

[deepseapartners]

I'm just here to bet that the most common answer will be tech.

[TheoO]

Going to law school is really just a lazy choice, if you're smart and could have done other things. I blame my decision to go to law school on laziness and inertia. It's just too easy to get a huge chunk of loan money and convince yourself that three more years of school will help you. I could have stayed in tech and been happy. I'm guessing folks with less useful UG degrees might be more pleased with their decision to go to law school, but it was not the right choice for me.

I wish there was a good way to get it into peoples' heads that law school is not the solution to a quarter-life crisis.

[Abbie Doobie]

i would not go back into tech...a lot of the complaints i have about law also apply to tech and office jobs in general. i'd become an electrical contractor and start my own contracting business or become a house flipper if i had the capital.

[glitched]

I have a bio background so I would probably say medicine. Industry and academia was never appealing to me. All my old classmates are matching right now and posting it all over Facebook so I can see what could have been. With that said, I still wouldn't change my mind. It's a close call, but I would hate to be starting right now another 4-6 years of hell, depending on specialty. They'll likely have the upper hand when they're done. I'll have to revisit the question then.

Also, pharma litigation is still steady, and in theory should be heating up. And no trolls. That probably helps.

[krads153]

I have a bio background so I would probably say medicine. Industry and academia was never appealing to me. All my old classmates are matching right now and posting it all over Facebook so I can see what could have been. With that said, I still wouldn't change my mind. It's a close call, but I would hate to be starting right now another 4-6 years of hell, depending on specialty. They'll likely have the upper hand when they're done. I'll have to revisit the question then.

Also, pharma litigation is still steady, and in theory should be heating up. And no trolls. That probably helps.

Some specialties have relatively easy residencies - like family med, peds, anesthesia etc. The only really bad specialties hours wise (from my understanding) are surgery related ones and OBGYN. If I had known how relatively easy some residencies are compared to biglaw, I might have done medicine instead....but I think my ultimate best choice would have been to skip grad school entirely and just become a programmer. My undergrad is top ranked for engineering - everyone got and gets six figure jobs straight out even with really shitty GPAs. Programmers don't work biglaw hours, make six figures, get equity in companies, etc. Also they have a real skill that's hard to learn when you're older. Plus you can work from literally anywhere and it's much easier to open your own company as a programmer - very little start up capital needed. Engineers had to work their asses off a lot more than most people in undergrad, but at least it paid off early for them.

[Johann]

if i wanted to gun, tech for sure. the ROI is just too good to ignore.

id probably prefer a more stable 9-5 job though, so either supply chain management/logistics or data analysis at big companies.

[Tiago Splitter]

A common thread among biglaw lawyers is the grass is greener in that field or my friend makes just as much as me but doesn't hate his life... So what better way to consolidate all of our complaints! I for one wish I had gone directly into securities/brokerage out of UG, I had an opportunity to join a small highly successful company and chose to go to law school instead .

So what about everybody else? Where did you go wrong?

Dude the brokerage world is pretty awful. Other than for getting a little real world experience I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. If you want to make good money in that kind of work just skip UG all together and go sell cars.

[krads153]

I'm just here to bet that the most common answer will be tech.

Because it's the objectively right answer for QOL/pay/education combo. If I ever have a child, I will push them into tech and discourage/forbid them from going to grad school....

My parents, my sibling and most of my cousins are all programmers - except when my dad did a stint in IT (which isn't programming - it's completely different) when he was young, his hours have been much, much better than biglaw hours. And when he was IT, it wasn't like they had fire drills all the time (which is what happens in biglaw), just occasionally. The pay is pretty good in tech too - lots of people easily get six figures in California, Seattle, etc. straight out of undergrad. And 90% of the wealthy people I know IRL are tech people who sold their companies or start ups that went big. That's pretty much the only way to get rich these days - having your own company.

I will say a lot of people probably couldn't handle programming because they don't think that way, or they'd be really shitty programmers, but if you have even a slight knack for it, it's probably the right choice for QOL/pay/education combo.

[PeanutsNJam]

I'd have become a landmark preservationist. Or maybe a brewer. Or possibly an economist modeling random stuff for industry. Or maybe a park ranger. Or maybe I would have opened an American bar in Thailand. Or maybe I'd be a sea captain. All of those and many others sound preferable

You could easily just go do most of these things.

[deepseapartners]

I would be really interested to hear from people who wish they took a different career path that wasn't based on highest-probability-of-getting-rich. I'm really surprised that someone hasn't said so far that they wanted to enter, e.g., some kind of politics/governance career, or med marijuana dispensing, or opening a distillery, or whatever else. Or does everyone who went to law school basically just figure out that all they really wanted to do was have the best possible lifetime compensation/lifetime hours-in-the-office ratio?

Not that people haven't said those kind of things, but it seems like the only "alt-careers" that most posters have a specific desire to go back and redo are tech, finance, or sometimes medicine.

[krads153]

I would be really interested to hear from people who wish they took a different career path that wasn't based on highest-probability-of-getting-rich. I'm really surprised that someone hasn't said so far that they wanted to enter, e.g., some kind of politics/governance career, or med marijuana dispensing, or opening a distillery, or whatever else. Or does everyone who went to law school basically just figure out that all they really wanted to do was have the best possible lifetime compensation/lifetime hours-in-the-office ratio?

Not that people haven't said those kind of things, but it seems like the only "alt-careers" that most posters have a specific desire to go back and redo are tech, finance, or sometimes medicine.

Tech is the best "I don't have a trust fund and need to work" kind of job.

If I had a trust fund, I'd become a professional musician (very, very few paying jobs outside of teaching and it's much more competitive than medicine/law/tech/etc.). I almost went to conservatory back in the day, and should have honestly given that more thought. One of my childhood friends is now first chair at a professional first tier symphony (given this person was Juilliard grad and always first chair in pretty much everything) but still...it's possible .

[PeanutsNJam]

California tech pays well in areas like SF and SV because the COL there is as high, if not higher, than NYC. You think 160k in NYC is nothing? Try 140k in SV.

Tech pay elsewhere (not California) doesn't seem higher than xyz consulting or xyz analyst or whatever else it is high gpa undergrads get.

Also pretty sure it's not a cakewalk getting 6 fig starting in SoCal.

[krads153]

California tech pays well in areas like SF and SV because the COL there is as high, if not higher, than NYC. You think 160k in NYC is nothing? Try 140k in SV.

Tech pay elsewhere (not California) doesn't seem higher than xyz consulting or xyz analyst or whatever else it is high gpa undergrads get.

Also pretty sure it's not a cakewalk getting 6 fig starting in SoCal.

I know what COL is - I'm from the Bay Area originally (family still there) and now live in NYC.....that said you wouldn't have to go to graduate school and maybe it's just my circle, but nobody I knew (and I didn't either) had any undergrad loans at all. Grad school costs are just obscene now in the US - not sure it's worth even pursuing law/medicine anymore if you just look at the finances. Not having any undergrad loans and getting paid 100k or whatever in SV is fine...even with the insane COL (which btw is still cheaper than NYC outside of SF proper). Plus with tech you can move to more markets than you can with law - they are always looking for programmers in cities in the South, Midwest, etc. (with a pay cut but still, much lower COL). Law is more limiting in terms of what types of markets you can work in.

Seattle tech also pays pretty well (Microsoft). Plus the hours in tech are just better than biglaw......and I think you get more "skills" in tech than in law....

[PeanutsNJam]

I'm not saying tech isn't a great industry to get into, given the inevitable move towards automation of literally everything, but it's not nearly as romantic as people make it out to be.

If you specialize in database management like that other TLS poster, you're not going to be able to "just go" to network security or something. The "skills" you get aren't any more transferable than any other industry. I'm not sure what you mean by more skills.

You also can't just go someplace without a tech industry in what you specialize in. If you're a video game developer, good luck going to idk Indianapolis.

Engineering is a pretty sweet gig idk why it's so overlooked. Chem E, Mech E, EE, Biomed E, etc. Still not a magical paradise job though.

[Lacepiece23]

I would have still been a lawyer, but wouldn't have been greedy and did criminal defense work. I still probably will do that so being at a big firm is probably just more of a means to pay down debt. But my limited interaction being in court, in my short career, have been awesome. Awesome to the point where there is nothing else that I'd rather do with my life.

[krads153]

I'm not saying tech isn't a great industry to get into, given the inevitable move towards automation of literally everything, but it's not nearly as romantic as people make it out to be.

If you specialize in database management like that other TLS poster, you're not going to be able to "just go" to network security or something. The "skills" you get aren't any more transferable than any other industry. I'm not sure what you mean by more skills.

You also can't just go someplace without a tech industry in what you specialize in. If you're a video game developer, good luck going to idk Indianapolis.

Engineering is a pretty sweet gig idk why it's so overlooked. Chem E, Mech E, EE, Biomed E, etc. Still not a magical paradise job though.

Im mainly just talking about computer programming, not bioE, mech e, civ e, etc. And skills as in languages - if you are a programmer, you likely know and are fluent in multiple programming languages, which is hard to pick up when you're old whereas in law i feel like anybody could pick this up no matter the age

[jrass]

I'd rather have been a big law partner.

[Anonymous User]

My prospects were murdered by the recession and I didn't land the bulge bracket offer I was after (was searching circa 2009), but I did have a number of chances (interviews or interview offers) at various F500 companies, MBB and boutique consultancies, etc. I cut my interviewing and job search short once I decided to go to law school. It provided an immediate wave of comfort and security and an easy path to a mid-six figure job that I thought I would have no other way of getting, mostly because I was an ill-informed and partially unmotivated college student.

If I'd do it again, I'd try my best to focus and land a consulting job, or even just something in a corporation, stick around for a few of years, and go to B school and try to upgrade into something better.

[Anonymous User]

Literally nothing else. Biglaw was the best choice for me and it is great.

[Anonymous User]

My prospects were murdered by the recession and I didn't land the bulge bracket offer I was after (was searching circa 2009), but I did have a number of chances (interviews or interview offers) at various F500 companies, MBB and boutique consultancies, etc. I cut my interviewing and job search short once I decided to go to law school. It provided an immediate wave of comfort and security and an easy path to a mid-six figure job that I thought I would have no other way of getting, mostly because I was an ill-informed and partially unmotivated college student.

If I'd do it again, I'd try my best to focus and land a consulting job, or even just something in a corporation, stick around for a few of years, and go to B school and try to upgrade into something better.

this was exactly my situation. tried for big i-bank in '09, got nothing and settled on a boutique consulting gig where I started at 60k. worked for a couple years and then bounced to law school. i see a lot of praise for i-banks on here and i definitely put those jobs on a pedestal, but I wonder how much better off I actually would have been if I received that i-bank offer. I worked hard for 1 yr in law school then kind of chilled out except for a few stressful times over the last 2 years. i now work in biglaw and it kind of sucks but doesn't i-banking kind of suck too? I would not have needed to drop ridiculous cash on law school but for me it was kind of like going back to college (in a good way)

i think anything client-based is going to require long hours and fire drills. I definitely would have taken the i-bank offer if I received it and likely never looked back and I still fantasize about that scenario when I move colons and periods around in long ass documents. i just don't know how much greener the grass is.

[nealric]

Literally nothing else. Biglaw was the best choice for me and it is great.

I can think of more interesting or better careers, but I do think law was the right choice for me and Biglaw was the right choice starting out.