Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Great Article from an Ivy League school
http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/node/72301
The Daily Pennsylvanian has published a new article at the University of Pennsylvania about the truths of legal employment.
It is surprising that an ivy league university is taking a positive step towards giving accurate employment figures, when the T3/T4 toilet law schools tend to publish the most inaccurate and fraudulent employment information. The article describes how many law schools are now using greater transparency to disclose the accurate employment information of recent graduates in full time, part time and non legal employment. Hopefully more law schools will follow and get rid of their misleading employment statistics.
The American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division is now taking steps to make sure that potential law school students have a better understanding of what they are getting into before they take the LSAT and go to law school.
The word is getting out that law school isn't really worth it for most people, unless you attend one of the T14 elite institutions. Also, if you are a "pre law major" in some economically useless major (sorry to be so harsh), it is not too late to change your major to something more practical. The real world is not kind to liberal arts majors and If you don't believe me, then watch the video above.
-The Poor Paralegal
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Howdy! I just found your blog and I think most of these paralegal programs are just as much of a scam as law school. I did my paralegal program at uc berkeley extension, and I thought I would get a good job. I figured since it's the #7 law school in the country, then I should be able to find a decent job. It was a huge mistake and now I have 17k in loans and no job offers. I am still temping and I regret going. It was a waste of time and money. I've talked to students at boalt hall and many of them were struggling. The law is beyond saturated--too many workers and not enough jobs
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Poor Paralegal. I will post a link on JDU. The legal field, in its entirety, is overaturated.
ReplyDeleteThe saturation problem has been slowly building for years. I know many people who worked in Big Law for years who have been laid off and cannot find jobs as legal secretaries, clerks, and paralegals. A few attorneys I know who were let go from Skadden and Latham had to take serious pay cuts. One attorney I know who was downsized two years ago decided to quit and no longer practices law. It took me two years to find another legal position when I was downsized and I have ten years of experience as a paralegal and I graduated from a 1T UGC. I would not recommend entering the legal profession unless someone has connections.
ReplyDeleteIs even attending a T14 school good enough these days? When you hear about HYS grads having trouble finding legal jobs, you KNOW that the legal field is in deep you know what...
ReplyDeleteIf you can get into a T14 school, it is still a worthwhile investment if you have a clear sense of what you want to do with your education, and have realistic expectations for life beyond graduation. I have a good friend who is graduating from Cornell Law this spring, and while she is graduating in the top 25% of her class and looks to have secured a good job, she told me herself that many of her classmates will likely not find work as a practicing attorney. And this is from a T14 school! Those attending T3 & T4 schools, who don’t graduate at the top of their class, don’t have a fighting chance.
ReplyDeleteThose going to law school today cannot claim ignorance as an excuse as to why they can’t get a job. Anyone doing even a tiny bit of research understands the state of today’s legal marketplace. In fact I would LOVE to talk to a group of students at a T3 law school and ask, “Why did you decide to attend law school, and what do you think are your realistic chances of securing attorney work when you’re done?” I’m sure I’d be blown away by how clueless many of them truly are.
There is still plenty of economic opportunity in America. You just have to find an unfulfilled need, and then fill it. I started a resume business on the side last year, and was surprised at what LITTLE effort it took to get clients. In fact, I had to start turning people away because I wasn’t willing to work more than 15 hours/week above and beyond my “day job”.
People – especially legal professionals - need to fundamentally reconceptualize their notion of “work”, and what it means to have a “job”. Legal professionals typically have in-demand “soft” skills. But they need to be creative about employing those skills in a manner for which there is market demand, and get away from the mentality that “work” necessarily means showing up some place 40 hours/week. As I know personally, if you can put up a nice website offering “interview coaching”, resume preparation, “personal PR services” (like helping people establish a successful profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, a personal job-hunting website, etc.), you can make good money. Yes, it requires some hard work on the front end, but as Mark Twain famously said, “Most people miss out on ‘opportunity’ because it often comes dressed in overalls, and looks like work.”
Poor Paralegal, you should keep improving this site and start using AdSense on it, perhaps courting temp agencies to advertise here, maybe start accepting paid “Work wanted” ads or very inexpensive “Help wanted” ads for your local legal market, start a monthly fee membership portion of the site for career leads, etc. I can think of 20 ways you could monetize this site. While doing this, you should start working to increase your Google page rank for important keywords, and keep working to build your “brand”. Yes, this would all require some hard work and thought, and no, you’re not going to be an overnight success. But I can think of a ton of potential opportunity with this site. And that’s the real difference between people who are and are not finding economic prosperity these days: Some are better able than others to recognize and then capitalize on market trends.
I’m not trying to be “preachy” here. Just stating that opportunity, is what we all make of it. Frankly, most people are better served by punching a clock, because they can’t or don’t want to do the work or take the risk required to capitalize on market trends. And that’s fine, too.