To ask for your careers advice (law degree)

[getyousome]

Sorry to post here but have seen such excellent advice given in the past.

I'm midway through a distance learning law degree. I have relatable but not direct legal work experience.

I'm in my early 30s and have a young family. Whatever route I take can't involve a pay cut from my already not too well paid job. Full time is fine. I want to provide a good income for my family long term.

What advice would you give?

I suggest careers counselling at your university - some service are very useful. You have to take it all with a pinch of salt and be really clear with them about what you need and where you are in life but you've done that here so that's fine.

Also, there's a good book called something like "your life's journey" by Erica Sosna that might give you a boost with thinking it all out.

Hopefully you'll get some more specific ideas here soon!

Have a look on your local council's website. They often have legal assistant jobs available. That might be a good stepping stone to a solicitor job if that is what you are eventually aiming for. The pay is around £20k at my local authority. But this is in the North East so depending on where you live, you may get more.

Why did you do a law degree op, what do you want from it? Do you want to be a barrister, a solicitor. Specialise in any given area?

If you wish to qualify as a solicitor you could work as a paralegal to earn as you do your lpc . You don't say how much you earn so hard to comment.

I think deciding what you wish to do with your degree and why you did it in the first place is the first step.

You need to get work experience as quickly as possible. That will unfortunately be difficult if you already work full time.

I'm afraid you're at a disadvantage anyway doing your law degree by distance learning and that training contracts are hard to get, not well paid, not even vaguely family friendly and will frequently involve a relocation.

where are you based? what area of law are you interested in? what are your academics like?

Hey - aforementioned Erica Sosna here to the rescue!Three things to consider:

1. What is it that you are really excellent at? Once you know what that is you can find a role that allows you flex that muscle - if you think about your current role and even you outside of work - what is that you cannot stop doing? For me for example, it's talking to strangers and i have created a job that makes a great living out of doing that.

1. Have faith - law and legal skills are very transferable. As an experiment, take a job description from a role you think you might like and highlight the skills that you already possess - you may be surprised.

1. Think about environment and field - if you give some consideration to the kind of sector you might like to be in or the size of company you like to work it - it helps to narrow down your search.

A pay cut is rarely necessary with a switch - its all about selling your previous experience and added value. You can get in touch with me via my website if you'd like to talk more www.ericasosna.com

Whilst Angliski's advice might be sound in general I would say that its not necessarily the best advice for a career in law which requires very specific steps to be taken before you are qualified. Obviously if you're not bothered about being a qualified lawyer then fine but then you just have a degree, the same as any other degree really.

What is the job you do now? Is there an area of law that is related?

E.g. We have someone who used to do property development work and then qualified as a solicitor. They have lots of useful insights for our commercial property team!