Biglawyer --> Software Engineer Forum

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone talk me out of seriously considering it? I am a V50 corporate lawyer in a smaller legal market with a heavy tech presence (think Portland/Seattle/Austin). I am kind of sick of the mindless paper-pushing that is my life and much of corporate law in general. Not sure if things will improve much if I go in-house (is mindless drudgery for 8-9 hours a day (likely at a paycut) that much better than mindless drudgery for 10-12 hours a day?). I'm looking for a job that is more intellectually challenging and still pays decent. I was a liberal arts major, but am pretty geeky, good with numbers (took a bunch of math classes in college for fun) and LOVED AP CS in high school (but for various reasons transitioned away from it in college and beyond). I fantasize about doing a coding boot camp or even going back to get a bachelors in CS. Anyone else have thoughts about this somewhat unusual transition? Is your average software engineer job at a reputable tech company just as much of mindless paper-pushing? Not gunning for Google/Apple here. Just any ~$125,000 gig (+ a working spouse) would be more than enough for me in this city.

[Anonymous User]

Well I won't say no if that's what you are really looking for but what you learn in AP CS is the first week materials of intro CS class at college.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

I’m in NYC big law. Two associates at my firm (one junior and one senior) left big law, went to coding school and are now coders. I’m not exactly sure but I think the salary immediately out of coding school is around $100k.

[totesTheGoat]

I went the other direction. Worked a few years as a software engineer before law school.

I thought that I was escaping a boring, isolating job to a career with regular human interaction and creativity. Instead, it is more of the same. Between the time when I started law school and the time I finally quit my software job, I had transitioned into a role that made it quite bittersweet to leave. I actually enjoyed my software job at that point.

However, there is still a bunch of rote mechanical process that happens in coding. I hated bugfixing, and that's all you do for the first few years.

On the other hand, I'm currently in-house, and while the paper pushing aspect never goes away, I still do a bit of coding. Not as much as I would like, but 3 or 4 hours/week on the not-insanely-busy weeks. My manager seems genuinely interested in my projects and my ability to take some of that clerical paper pushing and handle it via automation. The vision is to have a system where the secretarial work is automated, the paralegals are using their paralegal degrees every day, and the lawyers are engaged in legal decision making every day. Point is that i have an outlet for my creativity and there are genuine attempts to improve the working conditions in-house. Can't say the same for my experience in biglaw.

Oh, and the software dev salary probably won't start above 6 figures unless you plan on living in a HCOL area. $75k is probably more reasonable everywhere else.

[Anonymous User]

Sounds like grass is greener syndrome. Half the engineers (I am counting software developers) I used to work with fantasized about going to B-school or even law school because they thought it was more interesting that what they did. Maybe pick up coding as a hobby or something, but when you are doing it 60 hours a week, I wouldnt expect it to be that fun and interesting.

[nealric]

Well I won't say no if that's what you are really looking for but what you learn in AP CS is the first week materials of intro CS class at college.

I suppose it depends on the school. My first week of intro to CS was mostly just an explanation of what an object oriented language was and writing a “hello world” program. While I never took AP CS, I certainly HOPE there is more to it than that.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Back in 2004, AP CS 1 and 2 placed you out of the first year of intro CS at state school or one semester of accelerated intro CS at more prestigious school. But thanks for the feedback everyone. I realize it’s a pretty bizarre move that smacks of grass is greener unless you are doing it truly because you love coding.

[claptrap]

I went the other direction as well (from software into public service rather than big law). I found coding to be very enjoyable in its own way, but it was rather ruined for me once I got a taste of litigation by way of mock trial. I still enjoy tinkering as a hobby but I don't think I could ever go back to doing it for a living. I do find that the background comes in handy in a lot of different (though somewhat niche) ways in my practice as an attorney.

That said, I only just recently surpassed the salary I was making in software before becoming an attorney, so the switch was definitely a poor financial decision on my part.

You shouldn't have any trouble finding a ~$125k software dev job these days in the areas that you mentioned. I agree with the earlier response that they will be a bit rarer in smaller markets/non tech hubs where the talent competition is not as cutthroat.