To pack in my stable/flexible job that I enjoy

[RollerCola]

To re-train for a completely different career?

I'm 37 with 2 dcs 9&5 and married. I have a 2.2 degree and have worked in various aspects of finance within 5 diff companies over the last 16yrs. The last 9 yrs have been part time and i now do 4 days per week. I have a good knowledge in this area and quite a lot of experience now.

I've reached a point where I'd really like to further my career so the obvious path to take would be in finance again, maybe moving up the ladder within another new co, taking professional exams etc.

But I have a niggling ambition to study law and move into the legal profession. It's not based on anything in particular other than really enjoying the few modules of law I've studied in the past (not much), and the bit of litigation work I've done in my current job (again not much but I love it)

I have this romantic notion that I could re-train, find I'm brilliant and get excellent results, waltz into a training contract and a couple of years later be a fully-fledged solicitor doing satisfying, worthwhile work rather than number-crunching all day.

In reality I know a) it would cost a fortune b) training contracts are like gold-dust and perm jobs even more so, especially with little experience c) it's ridiculously hard work, long day, little flexibility ie the opposite of my current job.

I did look into it last year but changed my mind due to all of the above but it's still niggling away at me. There are loads of things against me (not great degree, no real experience, age) yet I'm telling myself that my work and 'life' experiences would count and my determination would get me there.

I'd happily do anything to get experience and I'm certainly not expecting to walk into anything with great pay for ages.

Oh and dh works for himself and earns v little, so no chance of him supporting us while I trained.

Now I've written it down it sounds ridiculous doesn't it? :-(

Has anyone done anything remotely like this and had a happy ending?

I applaud your ambition and understand your need to follow your dream but I would not recommend anyone go into law at the moment. There are no jobs. The problem is that every university offers law these days which means there's a huge growth in the number of law graduates coming out with their degrees and unless your credentials are stunning (I'm a little worried by your 2:2, because whilst that is not a bad thing per se, when you're facing the kind of competition that you'd be against then employers won't see beyond it ) you're going to struggle to get a training contract.

Ywbu am afraid.

Many employers in a professional field won't look at anyone who has less than a 2:1 due to the lack of jobs available.

No, but I have thought exactly the same thing! watches with interest

I, to, always wanted to do law but as said by Olympic, think carefully, if you really want to work in law. Many graduates end up in law departments, which isn't what they envisioned at doing at all, most don't get to use their degree at all.

It depends on what you call 'worthwhile', many end up on the opposite side that they wanted to be on, big business, or working for the government against the people that they wanted to do good for.

How about moving into tax? You can certainly do so with a finance background and look, say, for a position where you can do ATT exams (no stupid "start again at the bottom" contract required - you need relevant experience to get your letters); you could do the exams without any employment at all or in your current job to see how you get on.

Then, if you like it, progress your tax career from there. There is much legal interpretation, you could move into a client-facing job (e.g. in accountancy firm) and it would be building on all your experience so far.

Sorry to be harsh but I doubt you'll get a training contract with a 2:2. Certainly not a funded one. There's just so much competition in law these days, very few jobs so firms taking on fewer trainees, legal aid being cut so fewer high street firms hiring. Legal services face a very uncertain future at the moment with alternative business structures coming in. I am a lawyer and I love my job but there's a lot of drudge work particularly in the early days.

YANBU to want to do it but tbh in your situation I think you would be unreasonable to actually do it.

I don't mind drudge work and I'd happily do anything it takes to get some experience, but it sounds like it's my poor degree that would hold me back?

So even if I did well in the relevant law courses would I just not get a look in for that reason? I'm naively thinking that my age and life experience plus my 16yrs of work experience (albeit in another field) might make me stand out against all the other newbie graduates. But does the initial degree really count for so much? Is there nothing I could do to make up for that?

What about corproate law? I would have thought that your number crunching would help in some way to that.

corporate law even

I find it bizarre that 16yrs work experience would count for nothing. Perhaps you would be better off with a smaller firm that looks at the whole person than a large one which takes such a narrow-minded dogmatic view.

Why do you want to be a lawyer, anyway? Do you actually know what the job involves?

The computer will automatically reject a 2:2 app without even getting to the 'experience' stage. Sorry.

Given your situation and the current climate, it doesn't sound feasible. Though you could try talking to a few companies who do the training contracts to see what they say, and what sorts of things you'd need to do to be in with a chance.

Alternatively, how about trying to get more legal type work in your current field, ie go for where the two fields meet, and approach it from your experienced angle rather than starting from scratch.

Or, how about doing an OU degree (or similar) in law to satisfy your legal cravings for now, and to put yourself into a better position if you do decide to go into law in the future.

Actually yes, corporate law does appeal to me, perhaps because I've worked within various companies and seen how they have been set up and grown plus I have a good knowledge of company accounting. Maybe I need to think about working in a legal dept within a large company.

Yabu. Corporate law is dull

Victorialucas - that's kind-of my point.
OP - still think you should look into tax.

Have you thought about a move into insolvency instead - that requires law and is more interesting than justplain accountancy but requires a similar skillset?

my sil has just got a 1st class in law at over the age of 40

she is working in a cab as a trainee at the moment

Or forensics? Perhaps corporate finance?deals etc?

In the current climate, anyone with a stable, flexible job that they like should think very carefully about whether they want to jack it in. But if you do want to move, others have mentioned less risky options than doing a law conversion, then LPC or BVC, then looking for a training contract. Your financial experience could be very useful for a lot of jobs. What about corporate governance?

What about going into Counter Fraud. DH worked in Finance for the public sctor the moved into audit and the Counter Fraud. Your finance experience would be welcomed but it's much more interesting, you would get a working knowledge of the law.

DH would perform interviews under caution, survelliance and forensic accounting.

victorialucas is it literally that harsh - 'the computer says no'?

Thanks for your input everyone, there's a lot of food for thought and I need to go back to the drawing board now.

Forensic accounting and corporate governance etc are probably where I should focus my attention, which would use my finance experience but in a different setting. Maybe I've become too blinkered in my vision of a future in finance.

I've tended to work in small-medium companies and deal with all the usual day to day running of them but maybe I need to look at working in a specialist dept within a large company or maybe an agency that deals with lots of different companies.

Don't know if YABU or not. I sympathise, as I am in a similar position.

I also considered law. I have a 1st Class Honours degree (graduated top of my year) but still decided this wasn't a route I could take because of the expense and lack of flexibility (I am a single mother of two under 5).

If you're really serious about law, you could try self-funding a part-time GDL conversion course. You'd need about £10,000 in fees and you'd need a really strong application form, but at least you could continue to work in your current role. If you graduated really well in your GDL, you'd stand a much greater chance of gaining funding for the LLB or whatever route you chose, although once you've got the GDL, you would be eligible for a career development loan to complete your LLB.

Are you sure it's law you want to go for? I realised that for me it had much more to do with not being challenged or fulfilled and feeling that I had somehow failed to live up to my potential. I was just looking for ways to turn that around. My real dream was to become a vet, but that really was an impossibility because of the cost. Indeed, there were a lot of roles I had to discount for no other reason than cost.

My solution, which isn't for everyone, was to continue in my job but take up an a voluntary role in my community that will hopefully lead to a paid, training-on-the-job role in a couple of years time. (It might not, but it's useful experience and I'll enjoy it anyway).

As an aside, this is one area - adult retraining - in which the UK is rubbish in comparison to countries like the US, where adults can go to local community colleges and build up qualifications that can ultimately result in a degree. Over here the nearest thing we have is the OU, which is limited, and community colleges that tend to offer little more than GCSEs, languages and beauty therapy/woodworking courses.

Hoe you find a solution.

I hate to be another being negative but here I go .... I work in a medium sized law firm and there's pretty much no way you'd even get past the HR department with a 2:2. We aren't what I'd consider to be a prestigious firm but we still get hundreds of applicants.

We organise our training contracts 3 years in advance. At our Christmas Party this year, I met 3 young ladies who are all due to start training contracts in March 2015 !! They have all just finished university and will need to support themselves for the next 3 years waiting for their contracts to start. They'd also spent time with us previously as Summer Students and as far as I know 2 of them had a First and one had a 2:1.

Plus Corporate law is dull dull dull and particularly family unfriendly in terms of hours worked, etc.

If you were determined to look at law maybe retrain and look for in-house positions ?? They can often be less brutal environments and a bit more personal.

Good luck and again, apologies for the negativity.