Struggling with finances... Don't know what to do anymore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$370,000 in debt? How'd you get that much in the hole?

Hey, catch up with the rest of us by reading the entire thread!

[Anonymous]

Have you networked at all? I sympathize--it took me a long time to find my attorney job when I graduated a few years ago, before the crash.

Networking is painful, because you are really putting yourself out there, but try to see if there are any alums in DC who would be willing to meet you for coffee or chat with you on the telephone. You cannot ask them for a job, but you can ask them how they got to where they are, and if they have any leads.

Would anyone your husband works with have any leads?

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

My friend in the PMF program is working in DC, yes. He did not have any connections; he has even less money than myself (if you can believe it). He graduated #2 of his class. It's a good thing he got PMF too, because he loaned nearly $100,000 for law school and $60,000 for undergrad. I believe PMF offers some sort of loan repayment.

The public defender friend (from Emory) had no connections either.

I have another friend from Miami Law who got a $70,000 job, but his father is a partner. And no, they can't hire me -- his father could barely get the other partners to hire him (it took a year of coaxing and begging to get him on board).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again... My husband is being an asshole because our friend from a fourth tier law school in Florida got PMF (Presidential Management Fellows), and another friend from a fourth tier law school got a job as a public defender. In his mind, this means there are "plenty" of jobs for lawyers and I'm just being lazy.

Where did they get those jobs? Here in DC? What kind of connections did they have?

[Anonymous]

Edit: I got mixed up. Our acquaintance from Emory got a mid-sized firm job. The one working public defense went to Loyola of New Orleans.

[Anonymous]

P.S. Apparently lots of fourth-tier students are eligible for PMF?

https://www.pmf.opm.gov/FinalistSortBySchool.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP.....I have a day job as well as two passive income websites.....the first one makes around $10,000 a year and the other one is making around $5,000 a year. This could be a great way for you to slowly pay off debt over time. Once you put the hard work in to developing a website, you continue to earn money, with much less work over time. There are minimal costs to starting these websites ($299 a year) and have been a great way for me to save up money.....I got into it because my day job somewhat bores me and I love knowing that I have these websites if things ever went south at my day job. If you're interested, I could share more info with you....let me know The company that I use to develop the websites is called sitesell.com

PP, what do you sell or do on your websites to generate income?

[Anonymous]

OP Update:

Some language immersion place just emailed me for an interview; they supposedly pay $40,000-50,000. I can speak Chinese and Japanese due to growing up with a quasi-"Tiger Mom" (without the tiger $$$, unfortunately). God I hope this works out.

[Anonymous]

OP, as back-up info, even after only working 10 months at your previous job before you got laid-off, you should still be eligible to receive unemployment benefits. I worked 4 months at a company before I got laid-off during the last recession and I got unemployment checks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP Update:

Some language immersion place just emailed me for an interview; they supposedly pay $40,000-50,000. I can speak Chinese and Japanese due to growing up with a quasi-"Tiger Mom" (without the tiger $$$, unfortunately). God I hope this works out.

I've been on your side OP this whole time, but now I am starting to question my support. You went to a first tier law school, speak fluent Chinese, Japanese and English, and you cannot find something? The economy sucks, but I think those skills are pretty rare. The bad grades hurt you for the first job, but if you can find SOMETHING in international law using your language skills, I can easily see you lateralling into a big law firm that has international offices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP Update:

Some language immersion place just emailed me for an interview; they supposedly pay $40,000-50,000. I can speak Chinese and Japanese due to growing up with a quasi-"Tiger Mom" (without the tiger $$$, unfortunately). God I hope this works out.

You can make way more money doing foreign language doc review....like $40-50 an hour.....

[Anonymous]

he loaned nearly $100,000 for law school

He borrowed.

I know correcting someone's English is obnoxious, but I'm doing it here because if you are putting yourself out there as someone who can cope with the requirements of practicing law, you really need to make sure you're presenting yourself as someone with a flawless command of the language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP Update:

Some language immersion place just emailed me for an interview; they supposedly pay $40,000-50,000. I can speak Chinese and Japanese due to growing up with a quasi-"Tiger Mom" (without the tiger $$$, unfortunately). God I hope this works out.

I've been on your side OP this whole time, but now I am starting to question my support. You went to a first tier law school, speak fluent Chinese, Japanese and English, and you cannot find something? The economy sucks, but I think those skills are pretty rare. The bad grades hurt you for the first job, but if you can find SOMETHING in international law using your language skills, I can easily see you lateralling into a big law firm that has international offices.

Holy Shit!!!! With your skills you can't get into international business law? Ummmm....There's something we are missing here.

Is this story a plant?

[Anonymous]

Well, obviously I'm having problems because I'm NOT good at what I set out to do... I stated several times that I received terrible grades in school. I was *expecting* to be able to "cope with the requirements of practicing law" because I score well on tests, but I great overestimated my skills and performed terribly in law school.

I stated that I *speak* Chinese and Japanese. I can sort of read in Chinese if there's pinyin (my weekend Chinese school wasn't the greatest about teaching us how to read/write). Unless these international law jobs only require someone SPEAKING in those languages, I doubt I could get hired.

[Anonymous]

Seriously! OP, with those skills, you need to apply to the State Department. They would love to have someone like you!!!

[Anonymous]

They'd hire someone who could only speak in other language? I applied to DC Public Schools last year and checked the "languages" box on the application and no one hired me....