Sounds kind of crazy right. Getting into law school, especially the best one in your country, is by no means a small achievement. Youโve gone through the endurance test that is the LSATs, youโve spent hours nit-picking through your applications, and youโve spent countless all-nighters trying to get through your classes with a not too mediocre average.
Universities work in the unique industry of selling dreams and promising success. Yes theyโll make you work hard to get in, and theyโll add a lovely amount to your student debt to do so, but once youโre in, they relinquish almost all liability and youโre kind of on your own. What other business is able to capitalise on revenue in such a way, without actually having to deliver a tangible result for the outcome? Yes, theyโll make sure that you have access to the โbest lecturersโ and the best โglobal perspectivesโ, but at the end of the day, they only need to provide you with a piece of paper at the end that cost about 1/10,000th of what you paid, and validates that yes, you do indeed have the capacity to regurgitate information, albeit with a short shelf life which ends with you putting your pen down at the end of an exam.
I began my early quarter life crisis when the structured learning stopped; what many people experience as soon as they finish their first degree. All of a sudden, the world was my oyster and I could do whatever I wanted, but funnily enough my degree hadnโt equipped me with any real passion for what Iโd majored in and the only thing I knew was in fact it was exactly what I didnโt want to do with the rest of my life. Thatโs where law school comes in.
Youโre bright and talented and know if you work hard you can achieve. Law school sells you the dream, you picture something Suits-esque, then quickly tell your imagination to pipe down as that obviously canโt be realityโฆso then you picture power suits, long hours where your hair never looks out of place, and something like a superman cape where you get to save the world and validate your existence through a successful, well remunerated and satisfying career.
Woopsโฆ Youโve drifted back into Suits land.
My offer to law school was a lifeline to pull me out of the accounting world (in which I already had two and a half years of experience from a reputable firm), and was going to give me direction. I had two weeks to decide the fate of my life.
This is where some valuable lessons can be learnt.
1. Buy yourself time
I was inโฆ but I had my doubtsโฆ
โ World renowned? Yes.
โ Escape from accounting? Yes.
โ Expensive? You bet.
โ Job prospects post-graduation? Questionableโฆ
โ What I wanted to do with the rest of my career? I got no freaking clueโฆ
So I deferred for a yearโฆ a decision that proved to be priceless.
Because for me personally the pros and cons werenโt adding up, and enrolling in law school in order to not have to do something else isnโt a good enough reason to do it.
2. Lack of direction isnโt a bad thing, own it.
So I started 2015 pretty directionless and unsure of what the year ahead might bring. The dreaded question of โso what are you up to this year?โ was answered with umms and ahhโs and โyeh itโs a work in progressโฆโ Iโd left the security of my previous role, and had the security of potentially having law as an option for next year but knew my heart wasnโt really in either of those. Thatโs when the job search began.
3. Seek or you shall not find
I browsed through search thread after search thread, through every industry that had ever interested me and without any filter but location and found roles I didnโt know existed and companies Iโd never heard of, and through all that found what I was looking for. I put in applications for everything I felt remotely qualified for and interested in, even if I didnโt necessarily tick all their boxes. The more recruitment processes I went through, the more I learnt about myself and was able to reflect on everything Iโd achieved in the last four years since school had ended and everywhere I wanted to head for the next four. Amongst it all, the stars aligned, and I found the perfect gig to sink my teeth into that ticked all the boxes I didnโt realise needed to be ticked.
The new role excites both my interests and works to my skill set, and is for a company whose culture fits with my own values. Match made in heaven right. Now the next three years, instead of adding to my student debt and sacrificing earning potential, Iโll be moving up in my career, or at the least being another step closer to knowing what I want from it.
Donโt get me wrong, this post isnโt actually about law school (itโs a metaphor dahhhlings). You could replace law school and the LSAT, with medicine and the GAMSAT, an MBA and the GMAT or any other post graduate study that youโre considering enrolling in because you canโt think of anything better to do.
Of course if your passions lie in that area, and you can see yourself being more qualified and employable due to further study, then go for it!! But also consider, that employability in todayโs generation is no longer linked to holding a tertiary qualification, and getting some work experience, starting and potentially failing at a business venture or travelling the world/taking some time off to discover your passions is just as likely to convince an employer that you know yourself and understand the role and why you might want to be there.
We can no longer afford to be the generation that aspires to be doctors, lawyers and engineers like our well intentioned parents may desire. Now is the time for the movers and shakers, the innovators and game changers. We have more opportunities than ever before, and with that comes a whole other set of pressures and expectations we put on ourselves, as the bar for success gets set higher and higher, and mediocrity simply does not remain an option.
Success is defined differently for everyone, so work out what your framework looks like, and then go forth and try, fail/succeed, and repeat until youโre satisfied.
