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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It may not be a strong cover letter, but it's gotten me several interviews. It's the interview stage where I lose the prospect -- they start questioning my background, I get nervous, they ask what I want to do in 10 years, why I went to law school if I want to work in education/marketing/insert random field, etc.

you need to focus all of your energies in law. not marketing or teaching. you have a great resume, you just are not looking in the right places and the economy sucks.

first, send your resume to the temp agencies.

second, don't worry about getting laid off. Not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He works at a non-profit organization in the energy sector. I've been trying to be vague because I'm pretty sure we're the only people from our school in the DC area.

I understand that other people are going through the same predicament. I suppose I'm paranoid about people we know finding out how badly my family is doing. Like I said in my other post, my former supervisors (who I'm Facebook friends with) don't even know that I'm still unemployed.

OP, if you went to a "mid-first tier" law school, then I sincerely doubt that you're the ONLY people in DC who went there. Every other person in DC is a lawyer and I can't think of one law school that isn't represented.

You know both Chinese (just generic "Chinese"?) and Japanese...yeah, right....why not Korean too?

You've been looking for jobs on Craigslist and never happened to stumble upon the "legal/paralegal" section and all the temp/contract jobs and agencies listed there?

My friends, this is starting to stink.

[Anonymous]

I AM getting off this website. I was going through one of my neurotic freakouts last night, so I started this thread looking for some "creative" ideas and I actually got a lot of good ones.

The fact is that I've paid off 13K of credit card debt in the past (in a ridiculously short amount of time, even), and I'm going to pay off my cc debt again.

I was one of those overachieving teenagers (with summer internships at publishing companies) when my friends were flipping burgers. I am NOT giving up or drowning in self-pity anymore (though it certainly felt good to whine last night); I know I can find something (somewhere) soon.

Thank you all again for the helpful suggestions. I'm off!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And no, I submitted my resume to his employer twice for some research analyst positions and they rejected me both times. His supervisor said they were looking for someone with "stronger quantitative skills."

When I asked whether your coworkers at DH's employer might be able to help, I meant in the sense, has he informally networked with them on your behalf? Perhaps, he has a coworker who knows someone in international law/consulting who could use your language skills? You and DH, and your friends, need to start brainstorming about who to network with.

You have a lot more going for you than you realize. Interviewing and the job hunt process is kind of like dating--how you see yourself is how the world sees you. Chin up.

[Anonymous]

I know exactly one person from my law school in DC. She graduated in the late 90s and she no longer works for Steptoe Johnson, per their website.

I know how to speak in those languages because I AM Chinese and Japanese (and Malay, too, actually). Don't believe me? Email me at my email address ([e-mail]) and I'll skype you.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I can't believe I'm back on the website just to prove my ethnicity and background.

I'm probably going to out myself in the process, but I don't really care. I went to a first tier law school in a rural state. You figure it out. My husband has a bio on his organization's website. Email me if you really want it.

I attended the Chinese school located in the Evangelical Free Church at a certain college town in Iowa for 13 years. I learned Japanese from my parents, who lived in Malaysia after both of their parents immigrated from Japan. Want any more personal information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know exactly one person from my law school in DC. She graduated in the late 90s and she no longer works for Steptoe Johnson, per their website.

I know how to speak in those languages because I AM Chinese and Japanese (and Malay, too, actually). Don't believe me? Email me at my email address ([e-mail]) and I'll skype you.

I'm beginning to understand why you can't get a job, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He works at a non-profit organization in the energy sector. I've been trying to be vague because I'm pretty sure we're the only people from our school in the DC area.

I understand that other people are going through the same predicament. I suppose I'm paranoid about people we know finding out how badly my family is doing. Like I said in my other post, my former supervisors (who I'm Facebook friends with) don't even know that I'm still unemployed.

OP, if you went to a "mid-first tier" law school, then I sincerely doubt that you're the ONLY people in DC who went there. Every other person in DC is a lawyer and I can't think of one law school that isn't represented.

You know both Chinese (just generic "Chinese"?) and Japanese...yeah, right....why not Korean too?

You've been looking for jobs on Craigslist and never happened to stumble upon the "legal/paralegal" section and all the temp/contract jobs and agencies listed there?

My friends, this is starting to stink.

stop being a jerk.

[Anonymous]

You will get a job... my dear from your email you were born in 1984? you are so young my dear! only 26 or 27??? you will be completely fine in 10 years, i promise. focus on temping. if you passed the bar you can get doc review, maybe for years, until you can get more consistent work. i do agree with the PPs who said you are either interviewing really badly or are not looking in the right places. i am in a similar situation to you but thankfully without all that debt. i have applied to probably 500+ jobs and only had 3 interviews since I finished the bar last july. none of the interviews have lead to full time employment but i am doing doc review and its going just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:P.S. how do temp agencies work? Do you have to pay them money, or do they take part of your paycheck?

OMG! You're a barred, unemployed lawyer looking for work, desperately seeking ANY type of job and you haven't even looked into these temp agencies? No, you do not pay them. No, they do not take part of your paycheck. The firm who hires you pays them in addition to you for having found you. The agency is your employer and does payroll.

Go sign up with various agencies, not just one. Your story is a dime a dozen--you are an unemployed lawyer needing to make ends meet before you make your next step, end of story. Doc review requires a JD, a bar, DC-bar pending in DC, and a minimally functioning brain stem. Nothing more.

There are quite a few threads on DCUM before about which agencies to sign up with, etc. Look on craigslist in the legal section, there should be plenty of positions from agencies posted. Stop "struggling", freaking, despairing, etc.--get thee to a temp agency now. Really, that should have been stop number one for you. You don't have to be a lawyer forever. This is to pay the bills.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP. What I'm confused about with the temp route is -- if you temp, where does that lead to? Like, there's no possibility of landing a FT job there, correct? I mean, I had some friends who temped, but then they ended up 1) leaving law completely, or 2) hanging up their own shingle. So my reasoning is -- if I'm going to leave law all together, why wouldn't I try to go back into education (which is the only real work experience I have, other than summer stints at publishing companies) instead of temping and THEN leaving the field? Wouldn't lots of temp work on my resume be worse?

[Anonymous]

OK, I feel like I'm getting WAY too many conflicting advice. Last night I was all ready to start a babysitting business, and now people are telling me to apply to state positions (even though, as I stated, I do NOT know how to write in Chinese or Japanese; I went to a ghetto Chinese school that rented its space every Sunday from 2-4 from an American church for heaven's sake). The way I see it, I have two options:

1) Do what I'm doing -- apply to every job in the world out there regardless of whether it requires a law degree or not.

2) Temp and then... (?)

[Anonymous]

You said you were struggling with finances. So get a legal temp job that pays well, pay your bills. Breathe a bit. Take time to come up with a plan. While you are temping, come up with your longer term plan and keep applying for jobs in the field where you want to end up.

And stop specifying in your cover letter that you "speak" Japanese and Chinese. As you point out, you don't read Chinese and that's what would be most helpful. Focus on what skills you actually have that would actually be applicable for a given job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. What I'm confused about with the temp route is -- if you temp, where does that lead to? Like, there's no possibility of landing a FT job there, correct? I mean, I had some friends who temped, but then they ended up 1) leaving law completely, or 2) hanging up their own shingle. So my reasoning is -- if I'm going to leave law all together, why wouldn't I try to go back into education (which is the only real work experience I have, other than summer stints at publishing companies) instead of temping and THEN leaving the field? Wouldn't lots of temp work on my resume be worse?

I thought you needed a job yesterday. Legal temp agencies are hiring right now. Instead of posting on this thread you should be looking into applying for DC bar admission or finding MD temp jobs.

Apply for the education stuff too, but the way you started this thread, you and your family were flat broke and DESPERATE for money - it wasn't about you finding a career, it was about you putting food on the table.

[Anonymous]

P.S. to the ass**** who asked about "Chinese" being generic.

My teachers at Chinese school spoke Mandarin because they were from Taiwan. All my Chinese neighbors spoke Mandarin; they were primarily from Taiwan (I am not). My family lived in Malaysia for decades; they spoke Hokkien and Malay (I never learned Malay, though). I did know how to read/write in Chinese as a little kid, but I forgot pretty much all of it after going to college.