Posted on 12/28/2013 4:49:57 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As the New Year looms, many law graduates with heavy debt have yet to find work as attorneys — including the author of the self-deprecating new blog "Law Grad Working Retail."
The blog's anonymous author graduated from a law school that was in the top 50 ranked by U.S. News and World Report. He was on law review and even got a summer position at a firm after his second year. He didn't get a job offer though.
This grad still hasn't found legal work and took a job selling cologne just before the holidays to make ends meet. Now he says he's "liveblogging the loss of my last shred of dignity." His blog is both funny and heartbreaking.
The funny parts often involve his coworkers assuming he can answer every law-related question they have. His coworker Shaina grills him after it's discovered that another coworker named Julian is apparently "robbing the stock room blind." Here's the exchange:
"LawGrad, you a lawyer," Shaina began, "can Julian sue the store?"
"For what?"
"You know, accusing him of stealing because he’s Mexican."
"But he was stealing."
"So he can’t sue?"
"No."
Shaina also asks random questions like, "Is it illegal for a hospital to turn you away at the emergency room?" LawGrad tries to tell her he's not actually a lawyer, but she doesn't seem to get it and asks him at least three times what kind of law he practices.
"I told her cologne selling law," he writes.....
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
ping
Should the word section not read suction when it comes to the attorney suction in the yellow pages?
Too many lawyers try to practice law. Too many engineers work as engineers. Too many accountants work as accountants. These three professionals can often find bigger bucks doing things like sales, management, etc.
If you take greed out of the equation for becoming a lawyer there is unlimited opportunity to serve the community as a legal proffessional and make a decent living.
they do but it sure seems like 90% of the jobs created now no longer lead to a middle class existence.
I agree. I would never become a lawyer, unless it was to serve to make a community better.
Thank you! My feelings exactly! I worked everything from construction to pizza delivery befor I graduated from law school and passed the bar, and I tell my kids I’d do ANY honest work that put food on our table. The entitled arrogance of the last couple of generations is pathetic.
Agreed. I joined the Air Force 3 weeks after the bar results came out and got six years of invaluable experience while serving my country, got out to work for the big firms, hated it, have been in practice with my dad for 20 years. Nobody owes me nuthin’.
The average age for a welder now is almost 60.
We’ve got an entire generation of people that don’t want to WORK. SO MANY OF THEM SHOULDN’T EVEN BE IN COLLEGE.
We’ve got all these illegals over here because so many of the “working age” people are wasting 4-6 years on a political science degree instead of doing something society needs.
We need to quit funding college grants and loans that produce more lawyers and political science degrees. Colleges and universities are milking the taxpayer.
He took a risk to go to law school. It didn’t work out. Too bad. He might should take a look at going to a trade school now. Something that will prepare him so that he can get a real job.
We sure have a bunch of Nelsons on Freep. You know the kid from the Simpsons always going “Ha Ha’ at others misfortunes.
We have more people and not enough jobs. What someone did 20 years ago to get by and eventually thrive doesn’t always cut it any longer. I know i got a job interning in a business i had no background for 35 years ago. I’m still doing the same thing. Today only someone with a degree in business can get that intern position. At a larger firm its a masters or don’t apply.
Instead of mocking people and immediately saying oh they must be a liberal either outright or by inference we’d be better served recognizing the game has changed and what worked in the past is no longer applicable, at least much less so.
I for one would rather discuss solutions than to stand back and mock. It’s not like conservative politicians don’t either read sites like this or have someone do it for them and gauge the temperature of the base. We can make a difference outside of the voting booth.
Since when does working an honest job equal loss of dignity? You do what you HAVE to do to survive. I have a lot of respect for people who take whatever job they can to make ends meet. Time was, that was what made America great.
You are correct, and that’s exactly what their professors and advisors tell them NOT to do, because “it looks on your resume like you can’t get a job”! Wait, whaaaattt?!? I could not believe it when my college age daughter told me that. She thought it was BS, but that.s what they’re told. You know, by the advisors who have never held a job in the private sector....
My only caveat is your use of the word “better.” Too many lawyers litigate against legitimate activity out of some PC belief that the world needs to be greener, more inclusive of sin, or in some other intrusive way “better.”
Did I force him to go to law school and spend all that money on tuition? He thought he was going to have it made in the shade until the 2X4 of reality hit him upside the head. I’ve done jobs that were probably “beneath me” but I didn’t look at it that way, I looked on it as a blessing that I could feed and clothe my family. Now I’m disabled and can’t do a “go to the office” type of job for 100 different reasons. At least he has a job.
I thought about going to a trade school at night, and eventually using the trade to supplement my current job, even though I make good money. Then again, I live in Ct, and my good money is siphoned off with high property taxes, 2nd highest gas prices, and a moderately high state income tax.
Among the very worst degrees to have right now:
1) MBA. This has become the “anti-degree”, in that job applicants are omitting it from their resumes, because many companies will hire someone without an MBA preferentially over someone with an MBA, for the same job and same pay.
2) Law degrees. This bubble has burst, in that there are far too many lawyers, far too few jobs, and even the slavery-like jobs of entry level lawyers are occupied for the foreseeable future.
3) Arts and Architecture and Athletics. Physical arts and Music has never been a good way to make a living. Architecture has never had many job openings. And the vast majority of Athletic degrees go into Physical Therapy, where entry level jobs require a Masters’ degree.
4) Literature and Social Studies. Most of these graduates end up in generic lower middle management jobs, unless combined with an Education degree, which lasts for a few years but eventually requires a Masters’ degree in something.
I work in an office of 40 engineers. The administration assistant (secretary) manages the office. You get on her bad side, you will be speaking to the manager about your “options”.
Perhaps, but generally speaking, well ranked law school grads have secured jobs well before passing the bar. They usually take the bar at the end of July while their job starts in June. Job offers at decent firms are generally made many months before that. Taking a bar review class is expensive (about 4 grand) and it may be that this jobless grad hasn't had the wherewithal to take one.
If someone goes to trade school and makes wise decisions, they can own their own business and make good money.
Remember “Joe the plumber?” He was a plumber making over $200K per year.
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