| Topic Name: |
Alternative Careers for Attorneys |
| Message Name: |
good for you |
| Date Posted: |
11/20/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
I have been an attorney for almost 2 years. I'm already burned out. Believe that! I know so many people in this field that are just settling, because this is the only field they have a degree in. I decided not to settle. I walked out of a firm and have been unemployed for 6 months. Regrets, "I have a few" - Should I have walked out? Yes. I was coming home crying every day, miserable because I was one woman attorney among 9 other men. They would make some sexist comments, disgusting ones, eyeing me up and down, etc. I got sick of it. They critiqued (unecessarily) everything I did. I put up with it. But when the insults started, that was it! When I think about it in retrospect, I feel that I made the right decision. True, I am unemployed and in debt, but I have my integrity, self respect, and sanity in tact. Still no job and I don't want to practice law any more. What next? That's what I want to know. What are alternative fields with someone with a J.D. and a bachelors in Criminal Justice? How limited am I? Problem is, I don't have experience in any other field? Is the bottom where I have to start in any field? Did I go to law school for nothing? Help? Anyone with the same problem? I don't mind making less money, so long as I'm happy. |
| Message: |
Sounds like you made a great decision to get out of the cesspool culture of the law firm you had been with. I am a psychologist specializing in career planning. You need to do an assessment of yourself and organically grow the answer as to what you should do from that assessment of values, passions, motivated skills, interests, etc. Check out What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles.
Ps...my son is a first year law student....interested in public interest law and child advocacy in particular. Are you sure no area of the law is of interest to you? Not all attorneys are underdeveloped jerks.
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