Career Tools

I have been listening to postcasts from this website during my morning workouts and anytime I am out running errands during the day. As I am have not been working for the past two weeks, Career Tools helps keep me mindful of my career path. Most of their tips revolve around how to organize your time at work so that you are keeping contact with your network, making the most out of conferences and other work contacts, and standing out from the crowd. The hosts meander and sometimes it takes a while for them to get to the point, but it's a free resource that I recommend to people like me at the start of their careers.

600th Post!

It's my 600th post! When I started this blog, I was a newlywed, just starting to study for the LSAT and think about which law schools I would apply. Now, I've been married just over five years (happy anniversary, Monster!), have been called to the Bar and am (sometimes frantically) looking for my next gig.

All in all, life has unfolded pretty much the way I wanted it to since I began this blog. I have had incredible highs, have fulfilled my academic expectations, have grown closer to my sisters and family, am around to see my nieces grow up. I live in the Most Livable City in the world, smack downtown in a highrise. I can cook, I have friends with something interesting to say. I am loved. Life is really good.

But sometimes I get freaked out by the unknown. When that happens, cartoons help.




Happy 600th post to me!

Limbo

I had two promising job interviews last week & haven't heard back from either of them. After taking the weekend off, I am back on the hunt today. But there are very few jobs to be found on the usual law boards. This means I must dive back into attending CBA events, meeting law friends for lunch, volunteering at the clinics for ledes. There is a stillness to my life right now, like I am suspended above it watching it go on. I am worried and tired all the time and wonder what my next move should be.

Robert Frost's poem applies to my mood:

I'd like to get away from earth awhile/
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate wilfully misunderstand me/
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return.

Law is about confidence and ability and right now I am shaky on both counts. I try to remember that once I start working I will miss this time for myself, when I could get in a good sweaty hour workout in the mornings and plan out delicious and healthy meals, when I could read and run errands and make appointments without worry about how they fit into the schedule. I am lucky that I have a very supportive husband and a beautiful little spot in the city from which to perch as I continue my search. Still, I am a worker, not a homemaker and I am happiest when my days are full of projects and deadlines.

Interviewing

Today was the second day I interviewed with partners of firms. Yesterday, I met with three partners of a small firm and today with two partners of a large firm. It was my first large firm interview and I was not disappointed. Everything I have come to understand about large firms was true -- the resources, the work, the billable hour targets.

I believe I did reasonably well in both interviews (better in the first than the second, but you never know about these things). I hope to hear back from one or both in the near future and, in the meantime, am checking a bunch of to-dos off my list. When I received the news that I would not be hired back, I thought I would have lots of downtime to work out, run errands, contemplate life. While I am thrilled to have offers of job shadows and interviews to keep me busy, it has also kept me from making doctors appointments and just generally getting my life and health in order. There are so many things to do, so many things I could feel anxious about. Like my interviews!

But I am not going to do that. Instead, I will be grateful for the opportunities I've had, and make time in my schedule to set up doctors appointments this week (as well as run, write thank yous, organize my job search, workout, plan tomorrow's menu for the hockey game, read, and clean.)


Since this is a time of transition for me, the season of commencement addresses take on special meaning. Here is one of my favorites of the year, Conan O'Brien at Dartmouth.



"The point is this: it is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It is not easy. But if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst to profound reinvention." - Conan O'Brian's Dartmouth commencement speech."

The (Not-so-Daily) Squishy & Squashy