Things that are more important than money

Here is a great post on "The Simple Dollar" about 15 things the author found are more important than money.

The short list:

Experiences
Wisdom
Marriage
Friendships
Physical health
Mental health
Personal passions
Communication
Self-reliance
Security
Helping others
Personal growth
Thankfulness
Hobbies
Spirituality

 At a time in my life when I have less money than I ever have, (seriously - this includes when I was 16 years old!) I can truthfully say that all of the above have become really vitally important to me.  And I have also noticed that as I concentrate on some of these things, and worry about finances less, that I am happier overall. 

While my hobbies have changed during this period of unemployment, I still have the time to do some things I really enjoy, like going for long walks, playing tennis and reading novels (from the library, of course).  I also am very lucky to have a wonderful man in my life, whose unwavering faith in me gets me through even the worst days.  My meditation practice keeps me sane and keeps stress levels down, and I have wonderful friends, both near and far. 

No matter what your situation is, take a minute to contemplate this list, and you will notice, as I did, that life is pretty good.

Networking FAIL

Tonight, I went with my friend L, a biglaw attorney, to a pro bono event in town.  The event was billed as a "celebration" of pro bono efforts by local attorneys, but it really was just a "hey, you should do pro bono work" push from local legal services orgs.  Nothing special, and nothing that I haven't participated in before when I was a project assistant to the law school's pro bono project. 

When I arrived, the temperature in the room was about 75 degrees.  Stifling in a fully lined business suit.  Ugh.  Talk about uncomfortable! Even worse, some of my classmates who are working at firms in the area were there, and it was slightly awkward.  When I am dealing with people who are naturally introverted like some of these people, I feel obligated to take the lead in conversations, asking questions about their lives and practices, even though I could care less.  I just hate awkwardness. 

During one of the "speeches" the presenter started saying, "I am going to go around the room and ask people to introduce themselves and say what organization they are with."  And I almost had a heart attack.  Was I going to have to admit to a room full of people with jobs that I didn't have one?  The thought made me sick to my stomach.  I know that lots of new grads are still looking for work, but I think I was the only person there without an organization's name under theirs on the stick-on name badges they gave us.  Well, the speaker meant that she wanted people from the non-profits who were angling for help to introduce themselves, and I was relieved.  Incredibly relieved.  For some reason, when I am around a bunch of people who graduated when I did, and 6 out of 7 have jobs, I hate being the odd woman out.

It made me feel like a loser.  Big time.

 

So much so that I passed up any further chance to network with those in attendance, and fled with my friend right after the speeches were done.  This is totally not like me, and is very telling as to my state of mind when it comes to my career these days.  And that is just....sad. 

I am attending a training session for the bar's "lawyer assistance program" on Friday, and I am going in there with guns blazing, and will try to network my butt off, unemployment be dammed!

Ways to keep busy during unemployment

As my period of unemployment goes on (and on) I have gotten a little better at finding things to do that are more fulfilling (and slightly more productive) than the hand wringing and hoping that had been occupying me in the past 4 months.  What have I been up to?

1. Twitter: I have started more carefully following the legal (ish) things that interest me and tweeting about them.  I think that Twitter can provide me with some good networking opportunities, if I am using it correctly. Part of that is tweeting about things that actually matter, rather than just a random mindstream of my thoughts. 
2. Working out: I have been forcing myself to get out and walk every day.  I think it keeps no-job anxiety at bay.
3. Connecting: Getting better at reaching out to friends that I haven't seen in a while, and not just those in the legal profession.  Regular contact with regular people is good for my outlook.  Overexposure to a bunch of other stressed-out recent grads is not. 
4. Learning: I have signed up for some free seminars and CLEs. This will give me some new things to talk about at interviews and keeps my mind engaged. 
5. Housecleaning: Getting my stuff in order keeps my sister's basement from feeling like, well, a basement. 

Job interview on Monday went well

I had a job interview on Monday in the middle of the state to work at a legal services non-profit.  As usual, the interviewers tended to focus on the one area that I am lacking, rather than the many areas where I have a good amount of experience. 

When I was a 1L, I tried to get into the school's consumer law clinic.  Since consumer law is the one thing I knew I really liked when I was a paralegal, I thought that doing that clinic was a great way for me to expand my knowledge and get some real experience.  Before law school, I had worked on a few cases at my old firm, and really loved fighting sub-prime lenders who had sloppy bookkeeping practices and unfair loan terms.  However, I did not get into the clinic.  That year, they took 6 out of the 72 people who applied.  It was by far the most competitive clinic. What bugged me is that the students who were admitted to the clinic really did it "for the experience" and didn't have the same burning interest in the subject matter that I did.  After law school, NONE of them decided to pursue it professionally. 

And I missed the one opportunity I would have had to actually appear in court as a law student.  And potential employers never let me forget it.  At my interview, they asked why I didn't have this experience.  I explained that our school only allows clinical students to represent clients under the student practice rule.  Since my summer job was with the government, but wasn't supervised by a clinical professor, I wasn't allowed to appear in court.  I attended a lot of hearings, but never appeared on behalf of a client until an externship my 3L year.

Since about 1/3 of our students did clinicals, and I would guess that at least 60% got some court time through them, I am at a disadvantage with legal services organizations. 

At the time, our career advisers said this wasn't a big deal, but apparently it was.  I am hoping that the organization I interviewed with can look past this and see that I have a broad base of public interest experience and am passionate about doing this work. 

Otherwise, it will be more months of unemployment for me.

I am not funemployed!

I was reading an article about 20 somethings who are "funemployed" and the blogger who is taking credit for coining that term.  And I got mad.  The funemployed are young professionals who were laid off and are using their savings and unemployment compensation to do things they "always" (how long can that be when you are 26?) wanted to.  Like going to Turkey, and taking pilates classes and getting massages.  The article even discusses one guy who bought himself a $3,000 road bike when he lost his job.  WTF?

I am not sure if I am mad because I am not receiving unemployment compensation and can't join them, or if their cavalier attitude about not working and taking money from the government is just rubbing me the wrong way.  The article talks about these people using unemployment to "find themselves." Isn't that what they were supposed to be doing in college? 

Even worse is that this phenomenon and the publicity surrounding it may take away from the plight of those without financial resources to withstand extended unemployment, or those without health insurance, or people whose student loan creditors won't take no for an answer.  We are still out here America.  Living in our sisters' basements!

P.S. I get that the term funemployment is meant to make being out of work less depressing, but taking it to the extremes mentioned above is just ridiculous!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Yesterday was my Grandma's 85th Surprise birthday party.  She is an amazing woman, raising 4 kids by herself and supporting them with only a 9th grade education after my grandfather died just a few years after he returned from fighting in World War II.  Since "Grammy" lived with my family for about 8 years, my sister and I are closer to her than most of our other cousins, and we were thrilled to be able to celebrate this milestone with her. 

At the party, she mentioned again how proud she was that I was able to get a law degree, something that was unheard of during her youth, and quite rare even in my mother's generation.  Grammy isn't easily impressed, and a compliment from her is always heartfelt, and gives the recipient immediately warm fuzzies. 

When I was in law school, there were a few students like me who were first generation college graduates.  I wonder if they feel strange like I did, discussing their degrees & aspirations with family members who had no clue what goes into completing an advanced degree.  I hope that my cousins' children (and maybe my own) will see that they can do whatever they want in life, despite no one else in the family having done it before.  Corny, but true.

Phone interview went well

So, I had my phone interview today, and it went pretty well.  I still got hammered on the "why here?" question.  I answered by saying that I want to stay in-state, and would love to start my career in MediumTown, where I would be centrally located in the middle of the state. 

They responded by reminding me that MediumTown is nothing like CollegeTown or BiggestCity I have lived in before.  I fired back by saying that my parents live in a town of 1,400 people, and I love that place as much as anywhere I lived before.  That seemed to satisfy them.  If that comment gave them the impression that I am not from BiggestCity, so be it. 

Otherwise, the interview was great.  They were very impressed by my work publicizing the CCRAA (College Cost Reduction and Access Act) and my interest in consumer law.  Which was excellent. 

I have an in-person interview in 2 weeks.  Yay!

Just knowing that there is a possibility of a job in my future puts me in a great mood!

Online job hunting

Did my semi-weekly sweep of the government job sites.  Nearby cities, counties, the state job board, even the usajobs.gov site.  Nada.  Couldn't find a thing that I am remotely qualified for. 

The one thing I have learned through all this job hunting is not to waste my time applying for government jobs unless I meet at least some of the qualifications.  Trying to emphasize similarities between what they are asking for and work I have actually done never gets me interviews. 

A friend sent me a job posting paying $27,000 to work as a housing counselor.  I think at this point, I would rather work as a paralegal.  If I have to take a non-attorney job, I would rather that it pay a decent wage.  I know that most Americans would love a job paying $27K, but not those with $110,000 in student loan debt!

Phone interview next week!

I have a phone interview with another legal services organization.  This one isn't very familiar to me, because it's in the middle of the state, in a city I have visited only a couple times in my life.   Since I know that housing law is part of the position, I am going to spend tomorrow re-reading those statutes, in the hope I might be able to talk more intelligently at the interview on this topic.

From what a former employee of the organization said, the managing attorney seems to just let staff attorneys follow their interests and take some cases that are out of their job description, but in  the attorney's area of "expertise."  I am hoping that this means I could take some consumer law cases if I worked there. 

There will be, as usual, the question about my connections to the area.  I hate this question.  Why? Because at this point, I would take a job in Nebraska if it was offered to me.  I could care less about location - I just want a damn job.  So I think I am going to just flat out say, "I think I can make anywhere my home, as long as I am here in my home state, and my work is interesting." Or something like that.

Any tips from readers on how you handle interview questions like that???

Forecast: continued unemployment

The worst thing about the legal profession is that you can go on the state bar's website and see who got the jobs that you unsuccessfully interviewed for.  I really wish that this wasn't possible.  I would rather believe that the person who got the job I coveted was a superwoman (or man) who practically invented public interest law.  I don't like knowing that the winner of my job is an ordinary student, who is no more qualified than I am.  That means that I have to take a hard look at why I didn't get the job instead, and there are no easy answers to that question.

I am starting to think that I must be terrible at interviews.  During law school, I would get almost every job I interviewed for.  That streak was broken when I started looking for post-grad work.  Obviously, I am not selling myself very well at these things.  I just need to find out where I am going wrong.

Ugh.

Networking

As a 3L, I was a project assistant for the law school's pro bono program.  The program is just getting off the ground, and having some growing pains.  The program is supposed to match attorneys with students to work on a pro bono case together, but generally there either are not enough cases or not enough attorneys to match up all the students. 

Now that I am a graduate of that fine institution, I attended the "kickoff" meeting yesterday to show my support, and unabashedly do some networking with the lawyers I knew would be there.

I met two great ones who both worked for the non-profit that wants to phone interview me next week.  They gave me some good information, within the confines of the whole, "I don't want to say anything very negative about my old employer" thing.

This morning,  I went on LinkedIn and made sure I added both to my list of "connections."  Not sure if doing this kind of thing has paid off so far, but I am hoping it will someday.

Using Social Media in a Nonprofit Job Search

Leveraging Social Media in a Nonprofit Job Search

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I loved this article about the use of social media like Linked In, Facebook and Twitter in a job search. I plan to incorporate some of these suggestions myself.

Readers: How do you use these social networking sites professionally?