I am preparing for law school which should put me in a career that fairly well optimizes my income, while giving me a chance to use some of the rational argument skills on this site.
Honestly, I’m not that sure. I knew that there have been issues for law graduates to find jobs, but with the state of the economy the way it is, there are problems for graduates across the board, not just in law school. I’ll be graduating this spring with degrees in political science and history. So, I can try and find a job now when the market for college graduates in general is similarly bad, and I’ll likely end up working a low paying hourly office job, like customer support, or do some graduate work, like law school or a masters or phd program in one of my fields. Though there is a glut of graduates and paucity of jobs for masters and phd graduates in my fields as well. Eventually, the economic situation will sort out, and jobs will return, and historically, law has been fairly lucrative. Hopefully, this will happen in the next three years, but if I have to wait a few more years after graduation to start making big money, that’s acceptable to increase the long-term odds that I will have a well-paying job.
How sure are you of said optimization?
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/01/you-know-the-legal-job-market-must-be-bad/68852/
http://www.economist.com/node/17461573?story_id=17461573
http://lawyerist.com/law-school-admissions-bubble/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/business/global/05legal.html
http://www.calicocat.com/2004/08/law-school-big-lie.html
http://abovethelaw.com/2010/01/ivy-league-law-school-graduate-begs-for-work-on-craigslist/
EDIT: an 11% drop in applications in 2011: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704396504576204692878631986.html
Honestly, I’m not that sure. I knew that there have been issues for law graduates to find jobs, but with the state of the economy the way it is, there are problems for graduates across the board, not just in law school. I’ll be graduating this spring with degrees in political science and history. So, I can try and find a job now when the market for college graduates in general is similarly bad, and I’ll likely end up working a low paying hourly office job, like customer support, or do some graduate work, like law school or a masters or phd program in one of my fields. Though there is a glut of graduates and paucity of jobs for masters and phd graduates in my fields as well. Eventually, the economic situation will sort out, and jobs will return, and historically, law has been fairly lucrative. Hopefully, this will happen in the next three years, but if I have to wait a few more years after graduation to start making big money, that’s acceptable to increase the long-term odds that I will have a well-paying job.