Career Planning

I love hearing from applicants with whom I crossed paths in years past. Here's an update I just received from a soon-to-be JD. It's a great reminder not to tack on graduate degrees willy-nilly, but to think hard about how a more general degree (like an MBA)  stacks up against more specialized ones.

In my last email I told you that I was considering getting a MBA because of my interest in working for the Justice Department or the SEC. I am no longer considering pursuing a MBA because I found a graduate program that is more suitable to my career interest. After [X Law School], I am going to get a Masters in Forensic Accounting at Georgia Southern. I want to tell you about this program in case any of your clients have an interest in pursuing white collar prosecution. Georgia Southern is one of three universities in the country that offer a Masters in Forensic Accounting (Cornell University and Washington University are the others).

What makes Georgia Southern good for me (aside from location) is that Georgia Southern agreed to waive the GMAT requirement because I have demonstrated that I can handle a graduate workload. After completing the Masters in Forensic Accounting, I will be able to sit for the CPA; the school uses the Becker model (I am not sure who or what that is, but I hear it's effective) to teach the CPA. I will also take the CFE [Certified Fraud Examiner] exam after I finish the program. I hope this information helps.

I'd love to hear from others who are choosing (or have chosen) among general and specialized degrees. What makes the most sense for you? Please share your thoughts.

I am often asked "How much would I make as a public interest lawyer?" There are many types of public interest law (see my blog posting from February 2009); accordingly, there is a wide range of salaries, depending on the type of work, employer, and location.

Most federal agencies use the "General Schedule," or GS Pay Scale, which has "grades" and "steps" to cover salary ranges. Happily, there are significant cost-of-living increases for some metropolitan areas. Federal banking regulator positions, with agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission, pay on a higher scale. Raises allow many federal attorneys to earn six figures within three years of their start dates.

Entry level salaries for positions with state government (including assistant district attorney and assistant attorney general jobs), public defender offices, and non-profit organizations vary considerably, from $34,000 to over $90,000. For more information, see the research about public sector salaries compiled by NALP, the Association for Legal Career Professionals.

 

Nicole Vikan is a graduate of NYU Law School. She spent her first law school summer at a large law firm, and her second summer in the Homicide Investigation Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She returned to the District Attorney's Office after graduation and spent five years as a criminal prosecutor, handling cases such as robbery and assault. Nicole then joined Fordham Law School's Career Planning Center, where she advised students seeking employment in the private and public sectors. She is currently a career counselor at Georgetown Law Center's Office of Public Interest and Community Service. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Nicole works with law school applicants and people exploring legal careers.

I live in the Northeast. As I write this blog, it is sunny, but freezing cold outside --- somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 below with the wind chill. That's probably why I scheduled this week into the 52 week plan now - I want to look ahead to summer and remind myself that it will be warm again! Regardless of where you live, it would be a good idea for you to look ahead to your summer now. Why? Because thinking about it now gives you time to make the necessary supporting plans and then execute those plans. It ensures that you can have the summer you want to have.

So grab a few sheets of paper and prepare yourself to dream a little about the perfect summer after high school graduation. Answer these 10 questions and you'll have the outline of a plan for your summer and some obvious next steps for turning the dream into a reality.

1. When will your summer officially begin? Generally it is after graduation, but it may be different for you.
2. When will your summer officially end? Generally it is the day you arrive at college. Since we're dreaming now, pull out the calendar for your top pick school and see when you have to be on campus.
3. Do you want or need to work to earn money for college? Where might you work? When do you need to apply? What would your ideal schedule be?
4. Do you want to complete an internship or service project to build your skills and deepen your sense of possible career paths? What opportunities are available to you? When are the application deadlines?
5. What do you want to do for fun? Where, when, and with whom?
6. Do you want to plan some special times with your family or close friends to celebrate your graduation or to say goodbye as you leave for college?
7. When are you going to have some "down time" to just be and recover from the crazy, hectic time of senior year before starting on the new adventure called college?
8. Do you need to do some reading or complete a class before you arrive at college in the fall?
9. Does the college have a required Freshman Orientation? If so, when? Are there any optional add-on Freshman Experiences that you'd like to consider? What are they?
10. How are you going to get to college? How much time will it take?

That's it. Summer planning is almost as easy and as much fun as summer itself. Now schedule the things you need to do over the next two months for sure (e.g. apply for jobs, internships, or service projects or plan graduation celebration) and leave the rest until May 1. At that point, you can finalize the plan because you'll know where you are going to college.

As for me, I'm going to check out the recommendations on kayaks and plan a quiet water kayaking vacation for me and my husband. And of course, I'll include some stops at colleges that I've never visited so I have more information for my next class of applicants!

Comments or Questions?

Share your summer plans with us, particularly if they include some beach time!  Let others know about opportunities that are great for the last summer before college! 

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.

How much do things like determination and grit correlate with future success? It's a big question, and one that intrigues me as a former admissions officer. After all, the gatekeeping function of admissions is to scour all these imperfect proxies (some might say tea leaves) to try to predict the future success of all those wonderful applicants.

On that subject, a recent article by Amanda Ripley in the Atlantic Monthly caught my eye. Many of my blog readers have heard of Teach for America, the non-profit that sends talented and eager college graduates into inner-city and rural schools to teach disadvantaged students. It's a very competitive admissions process to join the "corps" (as they're called). Last year, Teach for America chose 4,100 out of 35,000 candidates, and during the 2008-09 school year, 11 percent of Ivy League seniors applied. It's a very popular career choice for college seniors.

So Teach for America has all this mad talent to choose from. Over the decades that their own researchers as well as outside researchers have been measuring their teachers' success in the classroom, some interesting findings have emerged. The factors that correlate most strongly with great teaching (which they measure very scientifically) are:

• a previous track record of perseverance and passion for long-term goals, or "grit"
• "life satisfaction" (measuring how content they are with their lives) and
• two kinds of performance in college:
  
  • GPA and
  • leadership achievement, a "record of running something and showing tangible results"

Another fascinating finding: an applicant's overall GPA wasn't as good a predictor of success as the GPA from the last two years of college. It turns out that hitting some speed bumps the first few years and being able to get your act together the last two years demonstrates something important about you. That's the kind of thing one may have already suspected intuitively, but it's great to have some data to back up the intuition.

While those findings relate to success as a classroom teacher in particular, they do strike me as having wider applicability that college and grad school applicants might find interesting. What's the take-away? You should still treat your GPA and test scores as paramount -- those are the indicators that will matter most. But if you can also demonstrate perseverance and stick-with-it-ness (whatever your particular challenges might have been), and you are the kind of student who has seized leadership opportunities outside the classroom, you have a lot of great qualities to show off besides the numbers.

So if your applications are still a ways away, think about the choices you can make between now and then that will let you show off these kinds of qualities. And if your applications are starting to sneak up on you, take inventory of your achievements. What concrete achievements can you highlight to demonstrate perseverance and leadership? How are you going to showcase them? It's not enough to say you are a leader and someone who perseveres. You'll need to back it up with a track record proving those things.

This Atlantic article has so much interesting data and examples to chew on, with implications far beyond teaching skills. Take a look, and please leave a comment with your thoughts.

A current law student wrote to us seeking advice:

I was curious if you could speak to what factors a law student should consider when choosing between firm offers during this unique recruiting season. After narrowing down my choices, I have been advised to go with my gut. However, I was hoping there were other, more concrete factors to consider other than my gut. I am concerned that my decision could land me a job with a firm who will let me go within my first year of employment.

This is indeed a "unique recruiting season"; within the past two years, many law firms have cut the size of their summer programs (or cancelled them altogether), laid off associates, and even conducted partner lay offs. According to Law Shucks, 5,404 lawyers were laid off by major law firms between January 1, 2008 and September 7, 2009. See Greg Henning's posting, Warning: Read at Your Own Peril, for a discussion of this gloomy situation.

Unfortunately, no one has a crystal ball to tell current law students which firms will be on solid footing at this time next year and beyond. In the employment market as well as the free market, past performance is not a guarantee of future results-but you can use past performance as an indicator. Research what has happened during the economic downturn at the firms from which you have received offers. Take a look at the American Lawyer Layoff List and consider these questions:

• Has the firm laid off employees?
• Did it lay off associates, partners, or staff?
• How many people in each of the categories above were laid off?
• When were the layoffs?
• Were employees laid off in one office or nationwide?
• Have associate salaries been cut?
• Did the firm renege on offers to incoming associates or summer associates?
• Has the firm deferred the start date for incoming associates?
• If so, how long is the deferral period?
• Did the firm offer a stipend to deferred associates, and if so, in what amount?

See also this posting by Anna on other signs to look for.

Careful consideration of these issues will help you determine which firms are "most likely to succeed" in the coming months and years. However, try to combine what you learn from your research with your gut instinct, if possible; for many people, happiness is a major factor in their ability to thrive at work.

 

Nicole Vikan is a graduate of NYU Law School. She spent her first law school summer at a large law firm, and her second summer in the Homicide Investigation Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She returned to the District Attorney's Office after graduation and spent five years as a criminal prosecutor, handling cases such as robbery and assault. Nicole then joined Fordham Law School's Career Planning Center, where she advised students seeking employment in the private and public sectors. She is currently a career counselor at Georgetown Law Center's Office of Public Interest and Community Service. As part of the Anna Ivey team, Nicole works with law school applicants and people exploring legal careers.

 

Lately, there seems to be quite a bit written about salaries and salary negotiation (we did an interview on that subject recently for an article in the Wall Street Journal). Salaries may at first seem like a bit of a non-topic, considering the state of the economy.  However, we do know if there is any group that it is really going to push the envelope, it's Gen Y, so we wanted to give you some guidelines to think about.

If you are in the process of securing a position:

1.  Be realistic, and don't be too picky.

Anything paid is a plus in this economy. What matters is that your career is moving forward. Remember that many young people are going the unpaid route just to keep their foot in the door. If taking a lower salary means getting a roommate or even moving home for a short stint, don't panic. Everyone is adapting to the challenges of the economy, and it may be your turn.

If you are lucky enough to be entertaining an offer, keep the following questions in mind. Answering these questions may help a lower salary seem more palatable.

• Will I learn new things from this role?
• Will I be learning things from established employees with a lot of experience?
• Does this role satisfy a skill or experience requirement that I will need in
  the future?
• Are there chances for advancement at the organization later on?
• Is this an organization known to help young people move forward with their careers?
• Is the organization known to be fair in terms of salary and bonuses overall?

Remember not everything is salary. Keep a clear head even if you are greatly disappointed with the salary you are initially offered. Try to extract your ego from the process and remember that working is good...being unemployed, not so good. Always remain gracious and polite when receiving any offers. Don't write off offers that you think are too low, especially if you have student loans or other debt to consider. There may be other things that the organization has to offer in the overall scheme of your career.

2. Do your homework.

Review websites to get current info about salaries. You could try www.salary.com or www.payscale.com. Others sites like is the bureau of labor statistics - (www.bls.gov.) are a bit more detailed, but offer info about your job in specific settings, and that can make a big difference in salaries. Keep in mind that even in the same field, the setting in which you work and area of the country can change a salary dramatically. For example, will you be in a school vs. a hospital setting vs. a business setting?

Also, remember that cost of living is quite different from place to place. Visit sites that help you compare how far a salary can actually go from one place to another. Try sites like www.bankrate.com that offer detailed information concerning cost of living indicators such as housing, food, and utilities.

Finally, know the credentials that affect salaries in your chosen field. If a master's degree means more dollars in your field and you have a bachelor's degree, know that there will be a difference in salary without exception. Be familiar with the credentials and certifications that affect eventual salaries in your field.

3. Get a realistic salary preview from insiders.

Use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn to make contact with people in your field and explore what managers are actually offering younger employees. Don't rely on rumors or urban myths or outdated information, because today is much different than two years ago. Remember you may be competing with other individuals with years of experience. You can ask for information about raises and bonuses as well. If you are still in school, contact the college recruiting center - they are a great resource about salary and hiring trends.

If you already have a job and want to negotiate a salary increase:

1. Think long and hard about the timing of your request and the state of your organization.

If you have witnessed recent layoff and concessions among other employees, you definitely do not want to talk salary at this time. Be happy you are still employed and wait a while and reevaluate your options. Nothing will make you look worse than demanding a higher salary in the midst of a severe downturn. Don't move forward - sit tight even if you think your salary is on the low side.

If it appears that things are stable or improving at your workplace, read on.

2. Know how your experience and performance stack up against others in your role.

You need to look around your workplace and assess how you really stack up. Is your salary really low when you are compared with your co-workers? Do you have the credentials to move up the pay scale at your workplace? If you haven't completed your graduate degree or that certification program that has been recommended, now is the time to think about how that will affect a request for an increase. If you can swing it, find a way to beef up your resume and round out your credentials before you ask for an increase. 

3. Make yourself a more valuable employee before asking for more money.

Consider the following:

• Have I spent enough time in my current role to be a proven entity - in other words if you left, would you be missed?
• Has your performance stood out in a way that sets you apart from your peers?
• If you imagine your manager reviewing a list of employees and having to cut one loose, would it be you? Why not?

Remember that spending a year or two in a role doe not guarantee a promotion or a salary increase; those have to be earned and justified. In the meantime be sure that you are continuously increasing your value within the organization.

If after considering everything we have discussed, you still think it wise to negotiate, do so. But proceed with caution and be prepared to justify your request thoroughly. Let us know how things have worked out by posting a comment.

Marla Gottschalk is our workplace and career coach. She and Anna have conducted surveys about Gen Y in the workplace and will be publishing the results soon.

In the coming weeks, when the new law school year begins, 1Ls will face new campuses, courses, and classmates--and so will transfer students. Hundreds of law students try to transfer every year, sometimes for personal reasons (a partner gets a job in a different location, a family member in one's hometown becomes ill, or financial concerns warrant a move from a private to a state school) and oftentimes for strategic career-planning reasons: the students hope to graduate from higher ranked law schools that they couldn't gain admittance to as first-years. (Note that a law student may apply to transfer prior to his 2L year, but a student who spends her 3L year at another school is a visiting student and will graduate with a degree from her home school.)

The Law School Admissions Council provides important advice about some of the potential downsides of transferring: students may lose scholarships; they may not be eligible for journals or moot court until their third year; they may be admitted too late to participate in all aspects of early on-campus recruiting programs; popular classes may be full; and their G.P.A.s and rankings from their original law schools are not counted at their new schools. The LSAC also states that "[s]tudents often comment on the loss of community and close friendships they made in their first year when they transfer to another law school," but I think the potential benefits of transferring outweigh this particular concern.

Ideally, you will put time and effort into your first (and only!) round of law school applications and gain admittance to a well-regarded school that works for your needs. A highly-ranked (top fifteen) law school will help you gain maximum access to federal judicial clerkships, large law firm jobs, federal attorney honors programs, academic teaching positions, and other highly competitive opportunities. Back in September 2007, Anna blogged about the importance of attending a highly ranked law school and cited her book, The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, where she wrote,

The top fifteen [law schools]. . .offer a level of job security that other law schools can't. . . .Once you get to the second tier and below, you need to be at or near the top of your class to end up at a top firm in your region or with a top judge in your region (the national market is a much more difficult proposition), and people in the bottom half of the class often face grim hiring prospects.

In today's legal market, where top firms are cutting back on summer associate programs or canceling them altogether (see Greg's recent post here), both your school and your grades take on even greater importance (read my recent post here). In this climate, some applicants are already considering the possibility of transferring next year. Can one start out at a lower-ranked law school and reapply as a 1L to more competitive programs?

Because law school ranking and reputation are so important for career prospects, it may be worth the time, effort, and drawbacks (as discussed above) to apply and transfer to a top school. However, you should only enroll in a law school from which you are willing to receive your JD -- transfer admissions are extremely competitive, and you cannot count on being able to leave your original law school for a more prestigious school. When you apply as a transfer, your undergraduate G.P.A. and LSAT scores are not the key factors for the admission office -- your performance as a 1L is what will determine whether and where you are admitted. Only students who perform at the very top of their classes at lower-ranked schools will be admitted to top tier programs; at Georgetown Law, competitive candidates are typically in the top 15% of their current law school class, and the likelihood that any one student will be in that top 15% is low.

So if you're planning on applying to law school for the 2010-2011 academic year, it's time to think carefully about where to apply and get started on making your applications as effective as they can be-so you won't feel a need to repeat this process again.

 

Nicole Vikan is a graduate of NYU Law School. She spent her first law school summer at a large law firm, and her second summer in the Homicide Investigation Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She returned to the District Attorney's Office after graduation and spent five years as a criminal prosecutor, handling cases such as robbery and assault. Nicole then joined Fordham Law School's Career Planning Center, where she advised students seeking employment in the private and public sectors. She is currently a career counselor at Georgetown Law Center's Office of Public Interest and Community Service. As part of the Anna Ivey team, Nicole works with law school applicants and people exploring legal careers.

On July 17, Greg blogged about how some large law firms are delaying start dates and canceling summer programs. Large law firms typically recruit students with high grades from highly-ranked law schools. There will be fewer opportunities to make $3,000 a week at big law firms next summer, and students with weaker grades and/or from lower-ranked schools face greater challenges than in past years if they want Big Law jobs.

Rising 2Ls and members of the incoming Class of 2012 should start budgeting now for (or plan on juggling barista or bartending jobs with) unpaid public interest legal internships next summer. Though financially challenging in the short term, unpaid internships are great investments for the future. Almost all non-profit legal organizations, government agencies, and judges hire unpaid legal interns during the summer and school year. Happily, there are paid public interest opportunities as well, and some law schools provide summer funding for students who choose unpaid public interest positions.

Recognize that "unpaid" does NOT mean uncompetitive -- apply early, explain your interest and skills in a well-written cover letter, and consider a wide range of opportunities. Many law students will be clamoring for volunteer jobs with agencies like the Department of Justice or organizations such as the LatinoJustice PRLDEF (which has gotten considerable press recently thanks to former board member Sonia Sotomayor).

Also, students may find paid work at small and midsize law firms. As discussed on the WSJ Law Blog, some small and midsize law firms are hiring more attorneys (!) to help with increased workloads, as corporations take advantage of the lower prices offered by these firms.

Law students hoping for exceptionally high salaries, expensive lunches, golf outings, and other hallmarks of traditional Big Law summer associate programs need to adjust their plans. But if you are willing to explore a wide range of options and work hard to find a (perhaps unpaid) job, you can enjoy a terrific summer and build solid legal skills that will impress any future legal employer.

 

Nicole Vikan is a graduate of NYU Law School. She spent her first law school summer at a large law firm, and her second summer in the Homicide Investigation Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She returned to the District Attorney's Office after graduation and spent five years as a criminal prosecutor, handling cases such as robbery and assault. Nicole then joined Fordham Law School's Career Planning Center, where she advised students seeking employment in the private and public sectors. She is currently a career counselor at Georgetown Law Center's Office of Public Interest and Community Service. As part of the Anna Ivey team, Nicole works with law school applicants and people exploring legal careers.    

When you sit down to write your “Why MBA” application essays this year, there’s a big rule to keep in mind: tell us your back-up plan. That’s the advice we heard over and over again from top MBA admissions officers who met with us at our annual AIGAC conference in June.

Why? Because the world has changed, and times are tough. Round 1 applicants who sat down to write their essays in August and early September of last year lived in a different world, one in which they weren’t too worried about finding jobs after graduation. All that changed in mid-September 2008, and since that first lurch towards economic meltdown, applicants no longer have that luxury. As a result, one of the phrases we heard over and over again from admissions officers was: “Have a plan B.”

Read the rest of the article here.

The Dow Jones started really tanking in October of last year along with the rest of the economy, but it felt as if the economic impact on legal careers was delayed. Whispers of cuts at top law firms grew louder in early 2009, but most firms hung on until the bitter end to announce the unthinkable: layoffs of attorneys.

One of the best sources for following these developments, Above the Law, has described its coverage as a "Nationwide Layoff Watch." Not what you want to hear if you're in the market for a job.

But now the economy looks like it may be turning around a bit, the Dow had a great quarter, and interest rates haven't gone through the roof. The housing market is seeing some positive signs. The future looks bright...right?

Not so much. The delayed impact on the legal world continues, and it's starting to hit the summer associate programs for next year. Firms have begun to announce that things will not be any better a year from now, when rising 1Ls will be hoping to land a coveted summer job and (hopefully) permanent employment.

Morgan Lewis, the 12th highest grossing law firm in 2008, has canceled its summer program entirely.  Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe recently announced that it will push back the start of recruiting and delay future start dates. These are two huge firms; one can only guess how many others will follow suit in the coming months.

Some schools are trying to remain optimistic, advising students to adapt to the market by applying to a broad range of employers and "secondary markets." Sure, tough times call for a more flexible approach. But when Harvard career services officials are suggesting that students look at Milwaukee, you know things are getting ugly.

Given the lag between the impact on the US economy and the legal market, don't look for things to change anytime soon. The Class of 2011 is feeling the pressure right now, and chances are the Class of 2012 won't be seeing any real improvement.

Gregory Henning is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia Law School. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge R. Lanier Anderson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and then became an Assistant District Attorney in Boston. As part of the Anna Ivey team, Greg works with law school applicants.