Originally posted.om careers but posting here for traffic...
Hi. I am a 38 year old mature student about to go into my third year of a Social Policy degree. I'm considering postgraduate options and feel a bit at sea. I'm hoping to find family or welfare rights lawyers that might offer me some genuine insight into realistic career prospects.
I have a background in the third sector, doing admin, project management and governance work for youth work and drug and alcohol charities. I did this work succesfully for 15 yeas before starting a degree when my son was small. I started my degree because I wanted to focus on policy making/research rather than project delivery.
I'm enjoying my degree and I'm good at it. Despite lockdowns and school closures I've had firsts for all my work. I work hard, but it does play to my natural strengths.
I am a bit concerned by the lack of clear career paths with a social policy degree, and I'm not sure if a postgrad would add anything to my earning potential. I'm not looking for serious big bucks, but I do need to be able to support my family.
I'm interested in welfare rights and social policy related to family, and wondered whether moving into these areas of law would be a viable career move. I'd have to do a conversion course before a Masters, so it would be a big undertaking. But I think, from the information I've gathered, that it would suit my strengths, chime with my social justice values and give a decent, long term, structured career path.
The thing is, "The Law" is such a mystified career for people like me. I'm from a working class family where no one went to university. I flunked school because of mental health problems, despite being pretty bright. The only representation of lawyers I see is high flying hot shots on the telly earning megabucks. My gut tells me there just be 1000 everyday, jobbing lawyers, passionate about their work and fairly well renumerated, for every 1 of these, but they're never represented anywhere. How do I find out what realistic, non commercial or criminal law careers are like for someone coming to it as a second career, without an Oxbridge education and living outside of London?
Any advice/reality checks welcomed but do.please be kind.