Regardless of whether your J.D. nets you a job right away, the fact that you graduated law school illustrates some truths about who you are. If you earned a J.D. on your own merit, then you also possess:
INTELLIGENCE to think and analyze.
ENDURANCE to work past exhaustion.
DETERMINATION to walk past criticism, past fear, and past self-doubt for the sake of your greater goal.
STAMINA to keep it all up for three or four years.
AMBITION for a better life.
COMMITMENT to a purpose.
FOCUS on a bigger picture.
SPIRIT to say "yes" and "I can" despite all obstacles.
Whatever your current situation, no one can take away who you are.
What you used to succeed in law school is what will make you a success now.
The first step in healing the law school pain is to snag a job.
Easier said than done, right? Unless your mom is a judge or your dad owns a law practice, odds are that you've been singing your talents to a town of deaf lawyers. There are too many licensed attorneys for too few positions, and, for the positions that do exist, there are scads of experienced lawyers desperate to jump in.
But you already know this. You've read the endless job postings requiring "3-5 years experience" (and applied to a few anyway). You've endured the resounding silence of hiring firms.
So what to do? How to step up the hunt?
First, ask yourself three questions:
Think BIG: Who are the big employers in your area? Look for universities, tech companies, large businesses. Bigger companies hire more bodies.
Think SMALL: What niche agencies need any legal work in your area? Look for county courts, private companies in your areas of focus, specific government agencies. Small, obscure shops are overlooked by many job applicants, since smaller enterprises may not pay to list job postings on major sites.
Ask "where?": Are you willing to move? If so, how far? Check both far and near. And consider going rural (because a lot of people won't).
Next, step beyond the actions of a standard, unemployed lawyer:
Apply for everything half-feasible. Notice that I did not say "feasible." Half-feasible. If a job is mostly up your alley but requires fluency in Dari, apply anyway. Perhaps no one reading the posting speaks Dari. (That's the way I once got a job.) You never know.
Run kamikaze-style towards the applications others fear. You know that application that's 12 pages long and requires three highly job-specific essays? As excruciatingly boring it is to you, it's that excruciatingly boring to everyone else. Most people won't bother, and thus the applicant pool will be smaller. Even if you do it lamely, do it. (Note: And save those essays in a word doc. You might be able to pillage them another day.)
Ditto for company job sites that suck the life out of you. 18,000 form fields to be completed before you can register? Do it. Turn on some reality tv , and slog through the hour-long registration process. Once you're in the system, future applications will be a snap, and the applicant pool will be smaller since many won't bother. Plus, you'll be caught up on back episodes of Bridezilla and Celebrity Rehab.
Troll for backwater sites. Everyone's got search agents watching craigslist, monster, usajobs, etc, so you know anything posted there will get hundreds of applicants within a week. Get creative. Search out every county courthouse within driving distance, and then visit every single one of their individual career pages. Make a list of every company that might be hiring within driving distance, and visit every single one of their individual sites. You'd be surprised at how many jobs are hidden in the backwaters of the internet, just ready to be discovered by a dedicated few.
Be open. Unless you're omniscient (in which case you'd have known not to go to law school in the first place), you have no idea what a particular job will actually be like. The position that sounds tailor-made for your interests? Could be managed by a bunch of abusive jerks. That job that sounds like nonsense? Could be a fun gig that leads you straight to your calling. So, apply for anything reasonable that'd pay your rent, go to any interviews offered, and then make up your mind. Worst, you've wasted a couple hours. More likely, you'll get a little interview experience, learn a little more about yourself, and eventually get a job.
Hard times come, and hard times also go. Step outside the well-trodden channels, open your mind to new possibilities, and persevere. You'll get that job.
Reason 3. Noble service of others is nearly impossible when
shackled by debt.
Heartfelt plans to benefit others
are routinely crushed – pulverized –
by the inescapable weight of unforgivable debts. In recent years, many students have entered
law school with a deep and clear-minded dedication to benefit underserved
populations, only to leave three years later ready to take the first insurance
litigation or toxic tort defense job they can find.The reason?Debt.
Graduating with a shackling amount
of debt means a higher likelihood of saying yes to a job that you don’t like,
that advocates positions you don’t support, or that requires you to prioritize
billable hours over family, friends, or health. For many, the $40,000 dream job
that would help save a community is simply untenable when combined with a
$90,000 debt to repay.
Picture it:Just as you learn that you passed the bar exam,
the first payment comes due on your $120,000 debt.That’s about $782 a month, due now.[i]If you’re not working full-time, you can
defer payment for a while, but then what?Unless you move back in with family, you have a full rent to pay, plus groceries
to buy and utilities to maintain.You
need a shovel to start digging your way out; you need cash.
No one thinks it will happen to
them, yet it happens often.When you owe
the price of a mansion and have nowhere to live, you may have no choice but to
take the job that pays best.High debt
encourages compromised ethics.
The loss of the public service
dream is devastating to the student, and it is a tragedy for our country.Bright, legally savvy people who want to serve are instead putting their
minds towards new tax breaks for corporations, payment dodges for insurance
conglomerates, and liability evasion for anyone willing to pay.We’re losing compassionate, smart people
every year to law school debt, and, if you attend law school without a
guaranteed funding source, we’re losing you, too.
(If you'd like to read 49 more great reasons to stick your tongue out at every law school you pass, please feel free to check out the aptly named "Don't Go to Law School: 50 Reasons" ebook.)
Finding a job is a full-time job, yes, but it's a depressing one that doesn't pay.
So, keep working hard and slamming out those resumes (click here for tips), but for sanity's sake also make sure to claim occasional sick or vacation hours. It's easy to roll forward with the work-work-work-to-death mentality of law school, but keep in mind that, with school behind you, personal well-being is now a priority.
And don't be so hard on yourself. You will find a job. You will have reason to wear non-bedtime clothes; you will be able to buy a sandwich without evaluating your life savings; and you will visit the doctor without taking out a loan from the bank. Picture it: you in your snappiest outfit, filling out a W-2, choosing your health care provider, learning where to find extra paper clips, laughing cheerfully with new coworkers. This is in your future -- for sure.
And when you do land that full-time job, you'll quickly long for a day of skipping the commute, sitting around in your jammies, and thinking "hmm, what shall I do now?"
So, embrace those jammies now, while you have them on, and embrace this strange period as best you can.
But yes, I hear you. There's a snag.
Problem is, living fancy-free is often not, well, free. Or even cheap. On top of rent to be paid and food to be scrounged up, there's the question of how to frugally embrace all the long hours of unemployment. Merely being alive in a non-rural area is expensive, and having social fun can seem unattainably extravagant.
But fear not. Here are some suggestions for jazzing up your day, on the cheap.
Tea cozy: Send out an invite to your unemployed/underemployed friends from law school, for tea. If you'd like to be uplifting, call it an "employment brainstorming session." If you're feeling crabby, declare it an "unemployment bitch session." Suggest a local cafe, or boil some water, buy a $4 box of chamomile, and host. Make sure to include those nice people you were too busy in law school to hang out with properly -- now's your chance. (Some of my best friends from law school are people I barely had time to know in school.) In a scant hour's time, you'll all feel lighter and less isolated, and everyone will love you for being the one to make it happen.
Cheap urban frolics: If you live in a city, hit up google for a list of cheap or free events in your area. Underemployed San Franciscans, for example, can check out: http://sf.funcheap.com/events/ Excuses begone!
Even cheaper nature frolics: Go to the beach, the forest, or the desert. Sit. Look around. Even if you don't feel like it and would rather stare at the tv mourning your terrible fate, do it at least once. Slather on some sunscreen and, for an hour, trade your blues for greens, golds, and tans. Worst, you don't like it. More likely, you'll remember that this whole "life" thing isn't so bad. ("Life": noun, that thing that existed prior to law school.)
Listomania: Scribble down a list of all the things you wanted to do during law school but didn't have time for. For example, your listomania poetry might look like so:
bake muffins
sleep
drive aimlessly down coast until halfway out of gas
tell Aunt Gerty you've decided to go to law school
speed date
learn Italian (imparare l'italiano!)
learn car mechanics
wander a museum
swim
hike all day
movie marathon
eat without reading
attend a local lecture without taking notes
see friends without a clock in hand
There's a theme to these elements, and it is: you can do them now. This is your chance!
Before the full-time job finally comes through (and it will), embrace your time. Make a list, and do everything you couldn't for the last three-plus years.
Embrace this time, hard as it is. Yes, you have bills to pay and jobs to hunt down. But the job will come, and you may never have such a swath of time like this again.
Embrace this crazy, ridiculous, maddening, underemployed moment. Your future money-earning, hard-working self will thank you.
