Reply to Trying to handle baby + big law and failing miserably. Talk me down.

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "Trying to handle baby + big law and failing miserably. Talk me down."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why can't you just take a leave of absence while you raise your child? Big law is NOT worth it. The $$$ is not worth it. [/quote]

Because I pay ~7k a month to student loans. Mistakes were made.[/quote]

Oh, I'm sorry--I didn't realize that. How many years do you have left on that loan?[/quote]

About 11 months!  :)  Minimum payment is less, but I try to dump in as much as I can. [/quote]

That is awesome. If I were you I'd get out as soon as the loans are paid off. There is always a reason to stay, but unless you absolutely adore your work, you will be much happier just about anywhere else that has reasonable hours and a decent salary. Like another poster, I was also at "family-friendly" A&P, and literally no one from my associate class is still there. And neither are many of the partners I worked for. I left 9 years ago, a month after my loans were paid off, and I don't regret it at all. I took more than a 50% pay cut to go to the government as a GS-13, but 9 years later, I am a supervisory GS-15 litigator with a flexible job. I work 45-50 hours a week, with one day of telework, and if I don't hit my hours in the office, I put in some time at night or on the weekends when the kids are in bed -- but I don't mind it because it's my choice to do that. I love my work, I love my colleagues. I make a little over 150k. Small change compared what I could make at the firm but probably half the hours and less than half the stress. With young kids (kindergarten and preschool), it's so worth it. Yes, I wish I'd made more money so we could afford a bigger house, but I am so glad I got out when I did. DH did the same (left before I did in fact) and he is equally happy. Of everyone I know who left Biglaw, which is dozens of people, only one admits to regretting it -- and she had gone to DOJ where she worked the same hours on the same sorts of cases but made half the money. So she went back. And she does not have kids so she's not a true comparator.

Also, you never know how long it will take you to leave. You might as well start networking and keeping an eye out for opportunities now, since you already know you don't want to be a lifer.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics