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: Butterflyfish

Keep paddling

I have been uncharacteristically quiet about my job search lately. Because there has been nothing to report. N-o-t-h-i-n-g. My career services office gave me what I think is really bad advice -- just stop looking, wait til after you've taken the bar. Really? REALLY? That is your career service advice -- stop looking for a job??? WTF!

[Useless Dicta]'s recent post hit home. She said:

What's been bothering me lately is the thought that after 3 years of hard work in school, 2 years of hard work at my internship, and hours of agony, I may come out of this on the other end with no job, massive debt, and facing the very real possibility that i may have to move back in with my parents.

Well, I can't move back in with my parents. I face the very real possibility that one or more of my parents/in-laws will move in with me in the next three to five years. But I am facing the very real possibility of no job and massive debt too.

[Useless] is lucky in a way -- she has come to this point in her legal education knowing exactly what she wants to do and knows what she has to do to get there. I am not there yet. I have some good ideas, and I have figured out some things I definitely do not want to do. But I am not there yet.

She said:

Is the end of the law school roller coaster supposed to be like this? Instead of relief and accomplishment waiting on the other side of the tunnel, does this story instead end with anxiety, fear, and possible failure?

I am afraid that anxiety, fear, and the possibility of failure do loom large on the horizon for me. And that does make me angry because I've worked really hard in law school and done all of the things one is "supposed to do" to assure post-grad employment.

But here is the strange thing: I have been a lot calmer and less anxious about all of this lately... much calmer than I was at this time last year. I am in the same boat as a lot of law students... hell, the same boat as a lot of lawyers if Above the Law's coverage of BigLaw is any indication of the legal market as a whole.

If we're all in this boat, panic is kind of pointless. If we're all in this boat, really, the only thing to do is to keep paddling.

The only question now is whether I compromise. Do I look for positions that do not comport at all with my goals just for the sake of being employed and getting skills and experience? Do I accept a position as a post-grad 'law clerk' or 'legal secretary' somewhere instead of being a lawyer? Do I forget the last three years happened and start looking for teaching positions?

Full post as published by Butterflyfish on March 16, 2009 (boomark / email).