Deciding on a Career

Lifestyle
Job Exercise
Networking/Contacts
Legal Career Alternatives
Links

There is nothing that says that the job you take now is one that you will have to stick with forever and, in fact, most people change their career focus several times in their lives. That said, the decisions you make now will effect your future job marketability. Skills such as public speaking, strong writing and familiarity with computers provide a general skill set and will carry across sectors and positions. Knowledge of environmental law or the federal regulatory process, for example, is the specific skill set that will make you more marketable.

Now is the time to do some thinking about your long-term goals and what skills you want to cultivate in order to make yourself more valuable to an employer and the sacrifices you are willing and able to make to accomplish those goals. It is also the time to think about what you value and find interesting enough to devote a substantial part of your life to. What work is going to make getting up in the morning a pleasure, as opposed to a chore? What sacrifices are you willing to make to get there? It is one thing to dream of big paycheck and say that you want to work your way up the ladder in a large, private law firm; it may be a different story when you learn that you will be required to work at least 60 hours per week and weekends for the first 5 years of your career before you gain any standing in the firm.

Some things to consider:

Talents and abilities that you have and would like to use in a job setting
Skills that you would like to develop or improve
Activities and tasks that you would like to avoid in a job setting
Salary, location, and travel
Family responsibilities
Kinds of people and environments that you prefer
Long-term career and educational goals
Long-standing as well as brand-new interests and hobbies
Past experiences and what you have learned from them. These could be ANY kind of experience including work, volunteer, academic, athletic, artistic, and travel. Think broadly.

An Exercise

Do a survey of the want ads from at least two or three major newspapers. Clip out all the ads for positions you might want to have someday. Take it all the way up the line to VP and President, if that is your mission. Then, on three separate pieces of paper, accumulate the following information from these ads:

Page #1: List all of the job responsibilities, duties, tasks and functions.
Page #2: List all of the experience, skills and knowledge required.
Page #3: List all the keywords or industry buzzwords.

In analyzing the information, note where you are now in relation to where you want to be in the future. Take note of any and all gaps, present or future. Checkmark all the gaps that you can change before you enter the job market and lay out detailed plans for making those changes. If there are buzzwords you are not familiar with, make sure you find out. Keep your gap analysis information for future reference and update it as your career progresses. Work on closing the gap as much as possible between your academic career and the career that you are seeking. The closer you are, the easier the decision will be. For you and the employer.

What Transferable Skills Do You Have? (.pdf)

Networking/Contacts

If there is a position or area that is of particular interest to you, go straight to the source and ask questions of the people who are doing that work. You can ask a professor or university staff member to recommend someone to you, contact a professional association whose members work in a certain field, try attending meetings or workshops where you will be able to meet people in the field, or ask family and friends for contacts. You can also try writing a letter to an organization in which you are interested and requesting an informational interview. Cold-calling organizations should be a last resort and may be more successful with smaller organizations. In a larger organization, chances are that you will end up speaking with human resources personnel who understand the general responsibilities of a position but are probably not as familiar with the specific day-to-day activities. Some questions you may want to ask a contact:

What are the rewards/challenges/frustrations of your work?
How is your time allocated among your different responsibilities?
How much autonomy do you have?
What would you change about your job if you could change something?
How much of your work is done individually, how much in a team?
How much of your day/week can you plan, how much of your work comes up unexpectedly?
In what ways does your job/profession impact your lifestyle?
How did you choose this profession?
Would you choose it again?
How did you get to your current position?
Is there anything you wish you had done differently to prepare yourself for your current position?
What was the best advice you received from someone in your field when you were just starting?
What qualities do you think that successful people in your field have?
What kinds of things do you do (or can one do) outside of work to enhance your work performance?
What training and/or degrees are required/recommended for advancement?
Which schools are most highly regarded for training in your field?
What changes do you foresee as being the most dramatic in your field in the next several years?
How is technology impacting on the nature of your work and how you do your work?
How do you think the prospects for entry-level workers have changed in your field since you entered?
What do you think are the most common misconceptions that people have about your line of work?
Do you have suggestions of trade journals or books that I should read, professional associations that I should be aware of, or events that I should attend?

Click here for more information about networking.

Legal Career Alternatives

There are nearly 800,000 lawyers in the country, of whom 70% work in private law firm practice. While that is an impressive number, it also means that 30% do not work in private law firms. Nearly 24,000 are government prosecutors; 40,000 work for government agencies; 80,000 are in for-profit business; 16,000 work for non-profits; 8,000 are in academia; 23,000 are judges and 45,000 are inactive. By comparison, about 45% of first year students express a preference for entry-level jobs in large or mid-size firms, or for the clerkships that often precede large firm practice, and in fact 40% of young lawyers do find their way into large and mid-size firms. This is a higher percentage than the 28% of all lawyers so situated.

Although large firm practice captures the attention of lawyersand laymen alike, nearly half of all lawyers in private practiceare sole practitioners, and approximately two thirds are in firmsof five or less lawyers. The lawyer who defines a small firm asone with 15 lawyers has eliminated from consideration in his orher search more than two thirds of the market, not to mention the 30% of positions mentioned above. (cite: By Mark L. Byers, Ph.D.and Ronald W. Fox, Esq., FindLaw.com)

Every one of the following represents a realistic option for a lawyer - a setting in which many lawyers can be found. Of course, this is just a sampling, but it may give you an idea of where your interest lies.

Large law firm - over 50 lawyers

secured transactions
insurance defense
mergers and acquisitions
bankruptcy and work-outs

Medium large law firm - 6 to 49

real estate development
trusts and estates
taxation
patent and trademark
labor and employment
art, entertainment and the media

Small law firms - 1 to 5 (including solo practitioners associated with other lawyers)

family law and abuse
criminal defense
plaintiff litigation - toxic tort - employee discrimination
immigration
health care - guardianship - disability - right to die - elderly rights
public interest/human services

Public Interest law firm - 4 - 10 lawyers

civil rights litigation
environmental protection litigation
criminal defense
social security, welfare rights, housing, AIDS/HIV rights, etc.

Legal Services/Legal Aid

family law
housing law
criminal defense
mental health law

Non-profit organizations or associations (typical 501c3 with few or no lawyers and little litigation)

legal counsel - charitable foundation
legal counsel - university
executive director - civil rights policy and lobbying
research director - women's rights organization
program planner - physical and mental health disability advocacy organization
newsletter publisher - policy group
legal counsel - children's rights advocacy group
counselor, adviser, coach, social worker in an employment related organization
administrator of a church or temple

Association

Director
Lobbyist
Policy analyst

Bar association

executive director
continuing legal education and meeting planner

Academia

dean of students for a law school
professor or legal writing instructor - law school
law school clinical professor
faculty - college
executive assistant to the president of a college
high school principal
private school teacher

Government prosecutor

US Attorney
District Attorney
Attorney General

Government agency

legal counsel
commissioner
legislative and executive branch policy analyst

Large corporations (over 100 employees)

legal counsel for a financial institution - bank, insurance, mutual fund
legal counsel/ regulatory division head for a pharmaceutical company
legal counsel/developer - real estate/construction company
public affairs/public relations director - retail electronics chain
affirmative action director - retail apparel store chain
sexual harassment prevention trainer - sport footwear manufacturer
employee relations director - hotel chain
reporter or editor for a media company (TV, radio, magazine, newspaper)
performing artist - entertainment

Small corporations (less than 100 employees)

marketing and sales for management consultants to law firms
CEO of a family wholesale plumbing supply company
CFO - internet software development
legal counsel/director of research and development for a biotech start-up
scriptwriter for television or filmmaker
owner of a professional sports team
owner of print shop franchise

Links

Career resources from FindLaw
CareerBuilder