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 ...
Yes, better is a bad word. What is better for me, is not better for others. However, I would use my own morals and judgement as a guide. I think more associate myself with Christian charities and gun rights. BTW, I have no immediate intention of becoming a lawyer.
What a pompas ass hat. He/she needs to get a real job before trying to bilk anyone out of their hard earned money instead of not doing a good job of representing his clients. A dose of “real life” might make a real difference in how they see their clients instead of how they can steal what they have.
Not true. Doctors are being replaced by physicians assistants and nurse practitioners at a rapid rate. And the compensation rate of doctors is way down while their malpractice insurance is way up. Doctors are taking part time work (I know some). Not retail, still in the medical profession, but below their educations. And RN jobs aren't as easy to come by as they once were.
I agree. I have a cousin who is an electrician. He worked for a company for about 6, but they laid him off, because of the economy and use blown through his 3 weeks of vacation when they had a major customer. I don’t if I agree with their decision, but he set up his own business 2 years ago shortly after being cut. He makes nearly $125,000 himself, and has hired 2 employees. Needless to say, he is doing well.
If this lawyer were worth his salt, he would’ve found a way to sue the maker of the cologne he’s selling.
: (
“In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail-maker.”
—Thomas Jefferson, letter to Jean Nicolas DÈmeunier, 1795
Certified electricians and plumbers make decent salaries and there's a demand for them ... unlike lawyers. Further, most skilled trades people don't enter their chosen field with large student loan debt issues biting at their heels.
>>graduated from a law school that was in the top 50 ranked by U.S. News and World Report.
The fact that there are enough law schools in one country to have a “Top 50” is a big part of the problem.
Its not like the mortality rate for lawyers is higher than that for convenience store clerks and we need a steady stream of replacements. Although that would be AWESOME if court cases were decided by Thunderdome! Two lawyers go in. One lawyer comes out.
I enjoyed his blog entries.
He is not whining about the unfairness of it all,,,,he is just saying it sux. I agree...retail does suck. I feel for the earnest clerks...not the ones who act like they are doing you a favor by ringing you up but the ones who actually SEEM to care. Their jobs are thankless and they catch a lot of crap.
This guy has an out eventually. The people he works with pretty much do not. I know: they threw away their choices in education and all that...but they are stuck in a consumer driven economy.
i’m not going to argue. The point is and always will be jobs. We had a massive middle class because of jobs and it’s shrinking into poverty year by year.
That is now the ticket.
He’s got a better chance now of making $200 K+ than the guy that went to law school and incurred all that debt. He likely won’t have as much stress either.
My B-I-L is retired now but owned a plumbing company for decades - a wealthy man.
He always said there are only two things you need to know about being a plumber:
1. Sh!t flows downhill, and
2: Do NOT bite your fingernails!
You are correct, the market for jobs has changed and it is wrong to mock those suffering from it. It is wise to learn from it to help others and yourself.
FWIW, after I got out of law school I had to take a $30,000 a year pay cut to take a job as an Attorney. It took me at least a couple of years to get to the point where I didn’t have to work weekends at my other job.
Most law school grads these days have no real job experience. They go straight from kindergarten to law school grad without ever having to flip hamburgers or wait tables or pick strawberries or mow lawns or even toss newspapers. And when they finally get out of school they think the world owes them a living.
In most places, your toilet doesn't overflow every day, either, LOL.
Joking aside, I completely agree. Culturally, a large segment of the population has been indoctrinated with the love and expectation of easy money.
The best way to be successful is get the best job you can, and do your best at it.
Work hard. Show up early and leave late. Be professional. Do your best at every task handed to you, no matter how unimportant or menial.
Volunteer for the scut jobs and do them well. You will earn the respect and friendship of your peers, and the gratitude and positive notice of your superiors.
Basically, add as much value to your employer as possible. Do this, and you will be noticed in a positive way. (Unless, of course, you work for a union...then you might be in trouble)
If you do this, you will advance. You won’t sweep floors or sell cologne forever. And that won’t be lost time, either. Those jobs aren’t meant to be stayed in, and anyone who does stay in them for a long time is either doing them poorly or doesn’t have the capacity to improve.
And the thing is, you can learn from doing those jobs, you can learn plenty that will be invaluable. That was the best thing the military did for me.
In the military, you have to do a lot of scut work, work sometimes isn’t even necessary, work that is tedious, work that is disgusting. (I slipped and accidentally buried my arm nearly to the elbow in a broken urinal that had days-old, BLACK urine up to the lip while trying to clean the outside of the taped off ceramic opening) I had my entire body covered in jet fuel that turned my skin red where my clothes rubbed against my skin. I changed aircraft components on a flight deck above the arctic circle, and when I badly skinned my knuckle when a wrench slipped, the nickel sized flap of skin refused to even bleed. It just stared at the snowy white disk of exposed tissue, and it only bled later when my hands finally warmed up. My hands became so abraded and punctured that the act of reaching into my pocket for change was enough to make me wince in pain.
But all those jobs imparted valuable lessons on me that I have never forgotten. First, there IS dignity in them. Well, maybe not the cleaning of urinals filled with stale black urine, but...there is VALUE in them. Lots of value. Even in the absence of everything else, you can get value from “Hey. I am doing this for a job, and it kind of sucks. I want to work harder to get to the point where I tell people to clean the broken urinals with black piss rather than do it myself!” or “I love being a mechanic, but I hate being covered with fuel, grease and having my hands mangled all the time. I am going to get into the supply chain of parts!’ and so on.
I will bet money that every successful person had jobs that didn’t pay well or they didn’t like, but they learned a lot from them. I know I did.
Lastly, there are three things related to this that piss me off:
1.) People that whine about about their job.
2.) People that look down their nose at a job.
3.) People that try to increase the wages of low level jobs so they can make a “living wage” off of them.
I’m having a hard time feeling any sympathy for a lawyer.
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