So I guess we've established...
... that there isn't any particular career that appeals to me - or if there is, I haven't identified it. And in the absence of any particular passion, one might as well go for something that pays well. So I suspect I ought to start applying to the Big Four and their smaller equivalents. Thing is, I have such a poor track-record with applications - including similarly 'professional' firms - that I'm feeling rather too jaded to bother trying. And I doubt that "I'm not particularly interested but I thought I might as well apply"* is going to convince anyone that they want to employ me; obviously real, held-since-childhood ambition to spend one's working life plugging numbers into Excel or whatever accountants do will be what they're looking for... Ho hum.
When I mentioned yesterday to someone that accountancy didn't exactly sound like fun, his reply was "so, what job is?" I don't think I'd really considered before that what one would like to do or is interested in is actually unimportant. Perhaps I need to change my perspective. I've also been trying to get to grips with the idea that people have A Job, which is What They Do all the time... it feels to me like it's kind of trivial unless it's government-related [well, public-sector in general, including non-corporate law and the production of arts including music, literature and architecture: things that improve or enrich beyond simply proferring wealth] or academic; everything else is just about profit, isn't it?
That said, I suppose I don't have an ideological problem with the idea of providing a product or service and getting money for it; it's the idea of professional services [snigger] and consulting firms making profit by making profit, that kind of meta-level in which what's being provided isn't even real, that I can't get my head around.
[sigh]
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*Disclaimer to the Anonymi, who tend to think I'm really that stupid: of course I wouldn't actually say that...
When I mentioned yesterday to someone that accountancy didn't exactly sound like fun, his reply was "so, what job is?" I don't think I'd really considered before that what one would like to do or is interested in is actually unimportant. Perhaps I need to change my perspective. I've also been trying to get to grips with the idea that people have A Job, which is What They Do all the time... it feels to me like it's kind of trivial unless it's government-related [well, public-sector in general, including non-corporate law and the production of arts including music, literature and architecture: things that improve or enrich beyond simply proferring wealth] or academic; everything else is just about profit, isn't it?
That said, I suppose I don't have an ideological problem with the idea of providing a product or service and getting money for it; it's the idea of professional services [snigger] and consulting firms making profit by making profit, that kind of meta-level in which what's being provided isn't even real, that I can't get my head around.
[sigh]
---
*Disclaimer to the Anonymi, who tend to think I'm really that stupid: of course I wouldn't actually say that...
posted by Z31 at 11:43 am
6 Comments:
Even non-corporate law is about profit at some point; otherwise there wouldn't be such a furore about criminal barristers' pay. I think it's misleading to think that it's just the corporate lawyers are the ones obsessed with money etc; the main point I guess is that corporate law is generally to do with business transactions and businesses in general.
(I made up my own definition of non-corporate law.)
Fair enough; I don't really know much about the legal profession beyond the vague understanding that there are lawyers who argue bravely in court to convict/spare some young defendant (à la Atticus Finch), lawyers who find out whether your new house is on the route of the Maatloooooock Expressway, and lawyers who work in those big shiny office buildings you see in careers guides, doing unspecified things...
Oh and patent attorneys, of which there seem to be an unexpectedly large number of firms.
Don't forget the lawyers who will make a fortune off the McCartney/Mills split; the ones employed by the government; the ambulance chasers; I could go on for ages!
Shiny building lawyers are a breed unto themselves.
Gosh, they're everywhere aren't they! Though I hadn't realised that ambulance-chasers actually went to law school...!
I largely trust your advice not to try to become a lawyer, but I do wonder what would've happened had I tried to take a law degree instead, four years ago...
I wonder what it would have been like if I'd decided to do medicine!
I don't think ambulance chasers go to law school intending to become personal injury lawyers - it just sort of happens!
One of the reasons I'd be discouraging is because you'd have to do the conversion course which is just the 7 core subjects over a year. In theory there's nothing wrong with the course but I think the people who do it, unless they have experience in the area they want to go into already will find it a bit isolating. Isolating in the sense that you don't get broader knowledge, it's just about getting the exemption subjects done. The way really to do it is to convert to the Law Tripos while still an undergrad and do it in 2 years; you get the seven subjects done but also get to pick three more to make it more enlightening!
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