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Getting in the Game
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January 27th, 2010seejanegetrichCareer, Great Recession, Law School, PF Lessons

In my last post, I pointed out that I made a difficult yet strategic decision. The difficult decision was between two externship choices. Internship 1 was a regulatory externship where I would get to do legal work. Internship #2 was also with a regulatory body but the internship would not be legal but it would be more related to my Master’s degree.   I was hoping to do both internships but I was told that I could do only one because to do both would be a conflict of interest.

I had to make a decision about which internship to go with. If I am only thinking about the short-term then the best choice would be internship #1 because it is a legal internship that would relate to the kind of courses I am taking right now. Internship #1 is a highly desirable experience for a law student.   Internship #2 offeres regulatory work which isn’t strictly legal. It also offered a smaller department to work in and a director who seemed eager to mentor incoming externs.

I chose internship #2 and here’s why.

Mentoring – I felt that internship #2 had a director who was more focused on mentoring. As a recipient of really good mentoring from many of my current and former mentors I strongly believe in it. I need to have an ally or a “true fan” on my corner.   Having a mentor can smooth the road to attaining many goals.   I need to be very careful about that crucial “first job” of my career and I can see myself being part of this organization and growing within in it.    My director knows that I turned down a very sweet legal offer for the chance to work with her. Coming in to an organization with a favorable impression is golden.

I mentioned in my last post that I needed to get in the game.   By getting an externship I am on the sidelines watching the game closely. My goal now is to make a move from the sidelines to the actual field and get in the game. In other words, I need to land a job here.

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Tags: Career, Externship, Law School

7 responses to “Getting in the Game”

Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog January 28th, 2010 at 07:04

Congrats on making the decision. I’m pulling for you to get a job there!

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- admin January 28th, 2010 at 20:15
  
  Thanks Kasey! It would be a great place to launch my career and I hope it will work out too.
  
  Reply
WellHeeled January 29th, 2010 at 21:37

Congrats on the externship! What is your masters degree, btw? Did you get your masters before law school? Or are you doing a dual-degree?

Reply
admin January 31st, 2010 at 10:13

@WellHeeled
Thanks! No dual degrees since that would just add to the 3 year law school process.

Reply
eemusings January 31st, 2010 at 15:08

Good luck – I think you made the right choice, you need to be thinking long term right now for furthering your career, and it’s great that you have a mentor there who can guide you ahead.

Reply
admin February 1st, 2010 at 08:35

@eemusings
Thanks! I hope that this detour will work out for me in the end, too!

Reply
Don@Moneyreasons February 7th, 2010 at 11:24

Hmmm, I must have been asleep when this was article was posted! Congrats, sounds like a good move!

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See Jane Get Rich » Blog Archive » We’re not in Big Law Any More, Toto February 6th, 2010 at 20:31

[...] externship work is going well. See my post Getting in the Game for more details about my externship site choice. I am learning a lot and I am in the process of [...]

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