See Jane Get Rich

I had lunch with an attorney from the General Counsel’s office at my internship site and I ran over some of my plans with her.  The current plan is to get a non-legal regulatory job and then use that experience to get a legal job.  I told her I knew going the non-legal path first would make everything a little bit more difficult but if I wanted to avoid gaps in my resume, I should take a non-legal job for 1-2 years. 

 The attorney told me that going the non-legal route is not only makes obtaining a legal position down the road difficult but it is also a highly risky path to take.  She said she had seen too many lawyers get stuck in non-legal positions and advised me to proceed with caution.  Also, my legal skills would get shoddy from disuse.  According to her, a law school graduate becomes a lawyer by doing legal work and getting feedback from other lawyers.  It took her three years to feel competent in her skills as a junior lawyer.  Integral to that transformation from law student to lawyer was doing legal work and having feedback from lawyers. 

 I also discussed with her another problem with pursuing a non-legal job.  Your colleagues can feel intimidated by you.  I am already experiencing this at my internship site. 

 A lot of things she said was hard to swallow and the only consolation at the end of the meal was that she picked up the check.

Last year I made a big fat mistake by paying $310 for my tax preparation.  This year I did my taxes using H&R Block’s free tax prep software for my federal and then paid $10.55 for DC and home state.  It wasn’t worth it to pay $10.55 each for the home state one but it did save me a whole lot of time so I forked over the money.  It feels so good to be done.

Federal $6,834

DC: $921

Home State: $24

Cost: -$21.10

Total = $7,757.90

I met an attorney and I told her about how I was on Plan C and she tooked at me and said “you don’t really want a job!” 

“What do you mean?  I want a job.” 

“No, you don’t.  If you really wanted a job then you would have also applied for state clerkships and you would have…”

Jane: “But, I don’t want to do state clerkships.”

“See, you don’t want a job.”

Jane: “No, I don’t want ANY job.”

“I would much rather you be in a position to turn down a job than have nothing.  You are working on plan A, then on plan B, now plan C.  By working on things consecutively, you are setting yourself up for failure.  You gotta have Plan’s A through Z and work on as many of them as possible.  You have to stagger your approach.  You have to do a full force job search none of this oh, I think I will like this.  I need you to spend at least 2 hours a day looking for a job.” 

Jane: “Two hours a day?!”

 ”There’s 168 hours in a week.  What?  You don’t have two hours to spent searching for jobs?” 

Jane: “I can try to find two hours.”

“And, you can’t be egotistical.  This is not the job market for that.  I graduated from a top law school and worked at some of the best firms.  I applied for 150 jobs last month.  Guess how many calls I got?  I got 4 interviews.  In any other market, my resume would have been snatched up but not in this market.” 

And…

I met this attorney on Friday.  Before then, I didn’t think this consecutive job searching was a bad thing although I knew it wasn’t the best way to go about it.  In some ways she is right about the fact that I don’t want a job.  I don’t want any job just to say that I have a job.  I would much rather leave the legal field behind and jump into something else rather than trying to make my way through a dead end profession where even a former Skadden associate like this attorney can’t find a job based on her superb qualifications.   But, I am thankful for this encounter because it did force me to sit down and make a list of A through Z options to pursue after graduation.  And, it did make me start spending 2 hours each day starting yesterday.

I am currently on Plan C.

Plan A was to get a job at the firm that I worked as a summer associate at.  The attorney in charge of the summer program told me that I was getting an offer, so I didn’t look at alternatives.  Towards mid to late August, I found out that I was no-offered.

Plan B was to apply for a federal clerkship position.  I was behind in the application process because I abandoned it as soon as I was told about the offer, but somehow I got my applicated together and applied.  I got one invitation to interview from a judge.  He said that he had 600 applications for his one position and of that 600 he was interviewing 20.    I wasn’t the one person out of twenty who ultimately ended up with the position. 

Plan C  I decided to go with my current internship site because I believed I was more likely to obtain an entry level position with this organization than the internship offer from the more prestigious governmental agency.  I applied for two positions with this organization.  I reached out to a recruiter and she informed me competition was stiff these days with each position getting 300 to 600 applications.   If a position with this prospective employer doesn’t work work out then I need to consider alternatives. 

Readers: What, if any, mistakes am I making with my job search?  

I’ve woken up to find out that there is a possible emergency brewing in my family.  My grandmother had a fall yesterday and she is currently hospitalized.  There are some possible complication’s that at this time sounds like a stroke.  But, we are not sure at all.  I am hoping that she will stabilize.   

If this situation gets worse then Bum, my parent, will need to fly out to the “Old Country” to visit my grandmother.  And of course, that means I will be the one shelling out the dough to get Bum there since Bumt doesn’t want to dip into the money that is being saved for the first installment on my loan.  Translation =  there isn’t much saved to begin with. 

I’ve about $10k in hand that is easily accessible.  If this situation gets worse then I will, without a doubt, shell out for a trip abroad and wait to impart a financial lesson about the importance of emergency funds to my parent (!) later.  I checked the flights and right now they are coming in at $1,140. 

This is such a delicate personal situation that I don’t think this is the time to cut Bum off to show that I am no longer the safety net.  This situation has definitely shown me that if I don’t set up some ground rules then I can easily become an ATM.

Update: 2/19/2010

My grandmother is doing much better and we do not believe that she had a stroke.  Thank you for your support.

Destination:  Millionairehood

Departure: 2008 – Age 24 

Arrival: 2028 – Age 44

Speed: Aggressive.

 My blogging friend Don and I decided to buddy-up and join J. Money’s Millionaire’s Club.  It is an e-club for prospective millionaires.  The only requirement is that you make the committment and list the steps you will take to achieve your goal. Right now, since I haven’t landed a job yet I have no idea about my earning power but I am going to estimate conservatively and give myself 18 more years to achieve my goal.  I plan to become a millionaire by doing the following things:

1. Develop multiple income streams.
2. Diversify my career.   
3. Invest wisely for retirement.
4. Live below my means.
5. Give back to the community.  

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 I used GoDaddy for the domain registration even though I absolutely hate their commercials with the same old tired “sex sells” formula.   I already had an account with GoDaddy and I liked their prices. Be careful when dealing with GoDaddy for backordering domaings.  They have some really really shady practices.  For backordering domains, GoDaddy = Super Shady.  Whenever I make a GoDaddy purchase I always Google “GoDaddy Coupon Code” or something to that effect to find coupon codes that work.  The “Extra Discount” shows how much I saved because of a coupon code I found online right before checkout. 

I use Word Press hosting because in my PF blog reader days I found Blogger to be too cumbersome when you wanted to comment on someone’s post.  I still find Blogger incredibly annoying and difficult to use when commenting, but I love that commenting on other Word Press sites is easy as pie. 

Here is what my blog is costing me a year:

 So, how much did your blog cost?  If you are using a free service, do you think you will upgrade in the future?  

It was a tough decision to make but I decided to cut my internet.  First and foremost, it is sucking up a lot of my time.  One of my personal goals this year was to watch less youtube and not play around on the internet.  One month in, I realized that I am not doing a very good job.  You see, I have a huge addiction  appreciation for foreign movies.  I watch movies in at least 10 different langugaes.  So, its time for the stick.  Second, it is really not a necessity for me.  I am at school at least three to four days so I can check my email and blog.    

But, it will hurt.  A lot.  In late September, I got my internet connection for the first time  in all three years of law school and I told myself that I would cut it if it got to be too much of a distraction.  It has. 

Do you consider the internet to be a necessity or a luxury?  How do you control your internet use?

Update on the Externship

My 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 reworking my resume and cover letter to apply for a regulatory position within the organization.  My boss told that me that managers hate to hire lawyers because after getting one or two years of experience they leave the position quickly in pursuit of better things.  

I went straight through undergrad to grad school and then to law school.  I have no professional experience other than working for Big Law firms during the summer.  For the first time, I am working outside of a law firm context with non-attorneys.  It is a whole new world for me.   Here, are a few things that stood out to me.

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Okay, let’s break down why January 2010 was the most expensive month of my life. 

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