How hard to boomerang back to biglaw after 6 months in-house at a FAANG? Forum

[Anonymous User]

C/o 2016 and I’m in a new city that doesn’t have a lot of what I used to do (think finance but now outside of NYC/etc.), so would require a bit of a retool. T14 LS and previous firm was ~V50. Fine with a healthy class year cut, just want to get back where I’m now pretty sure I belong.

Wish the market had not started falling apart just as I made this mistake .

[Elston Gunn]

Why did you go in house in the first place? What don’t you like about the job? I ask because if you’re at either (a) Amazon and disappointed you’re working the same amount on less interesting stuff for less money, or (b) one of the currently struggling FAANGs and worried about your job, I wouldn’t give up on in house altogether. Even at 6 months you’d probably have a good chance at making a move, especially since, eg, everyone understands why people are trying to leave Meta and won’t question the quick change of heart.

[Anonymous User]

Why did you go in house in the first place?

Had to move cities for family reasons, and because (i) it seemed like it would be difficult to sell a re-tool to firms here (which is still a concern), (ii) I had an in at this company and got an offer quickly and (iii) I was billing unsustainably at my old firm (I was well regarded and rewarded with lots of pie) and in-house gets talked about like the greenest pasture, so I decided to go for it. I was really excited at first.

What don’t you like about the job?

In biglaw I ran the show (I ran the deals, managed juniors, clients called me, was always treated with respect, etc.). Here I’m just a lackey for a sales team that treats me like shit. In biglaw I never felt like my time was being wasted even if it was late at night or on a weekend/holiday. Here most of my days are wasted in stupid meetings listening to people run their mouths for “visibility”. I also miss billing time and having a hard number by which to gauge my performance. I also underestimated how much I valued stuff like having an office and the general prestige of being at a good firm. I could go on—I think I’m just better suited for biglaw. I hated that they ran me into the ground with hours and made me cancel vacations/weekend trips all the time at my old firm, but now that I’ve seen the other side I think I’d rather hate my job occasionally for those reasons than every day for all the reasons I haven’t liked in-house.

I ask because if you’re at either (a) Amazon and disappointed you’re working the same amount on less interesting stuff for less money, or (b) one of the currently struggling FAANGs and worried about your job, I wouldn’t give up on in house altogether.

Dead on. The former. Have seen a few threads on here lately with others feeling similarly, it’s a huge legal department that went on a hiring spree so I think there are others in this boat. My first thought was to jump to another FAANG/similar when I thought the reasons you listed in (a) were the only reasons I was disappointed, but having now spent a lot of time being introspective about why it’s not working (which I went into a bit above) and listening to folks talk about in-house jobs at other companies (which don’t sound all that different w/r/t what I’m not liking), I think it’s more that in-house itself just isn’t a good fit for me.

Even at 6 months you’d probably have a good chance at making a move, especially since, eg, everyone understands why people are trying to leave Meta and won’t question the quick change of heart.

Making a move back to a firm, you mean, or a different company? My thinking is that I’d rather burn the “whoops my bad, can’t blame me for trying but it wasn’t for me” narrative on jumping back to a firm ASAP instead of using it to change companies (which would mean I’d have to spend at least a year to not have back to back short stints, which would make it even harder to go crawling back to biglaw since I think I’d be problematically senior at that point and it’d look like I was desperate to stay out of a firm).

[Anonymous User]

I think your plan makes sense. I also just recently went in-house. I've had a different experience since I luckily got an M&A/development role and I'm managing outside counsel / interfacing with senior leadership. Still odd hours sometimes but still much better than the firm since outside counsel turns documents and still interesting work. But there are folks at my company that support other business teams that can be hit or miss so I can definitely see someone not being satisfied with the day-to-day. I also think it's hard to really get a feel for it on the front end.

Easiest approach would be to lateral back to your firm but sounds like geography is the issue. I know the market has cooled but I think you still should have success lateralling into a different firm if you are patient and market yourself correctly. You may also consider looking for in-house positions with roles that are a better fit. But I get that you may not want to take the risk of moving into another in-house role that doesn't fit.

[nealric]

I think there are far better in-house jobs than the one you have ("supporting" a sales team sounds awful), but if you know you are not in the right role, then no reason not to start looking. You'll only find out how difficult it is if you try. Does your old firm have an office in your new city? Can't hurt to reach out.