Stuck in a hole

In short, you're 'stuck' in a job you don't enjoy and daydream about beach holidays a lot.

Why not exploit your precocious wisdom and go travelling? Then you can come back in a few years and go through the whole process again, having realised work can be rewarding and lying on a beach is pretty dull, however cool it may sound to your mates.

Better still, go out and get that fascinating career you so obviously are wasted on not pursuing at the moment. Then tell us all about how great it is selling advertising space for a search engine and the zany dress-down policy you can now enjoy.

Betty -08 Feb 2010 | 11:38

Ditto

I can completely sympathise with the author. I too qualified in 2008 and, whilst grateful for my job, am increasingly despairing with the lack of work yet growing pressure to increase chargeable hours. A few days with little to do is a welcome break; 18 months is tedious to the extreme.

If you figure it out, please let me know.

Anon -08 Feb 2010 | 12:03

Stop moaning - you cannot compare your position to someone who has been made redundant.

If you are so unhappy, join the army - they are short of good people (as always) and you will be doing something for your country.

anon -08 Feb 2010 | 12:51

Change

Be the change in the world you wish to see.

Anon -08 Feb 2010 | 15:07

Well-written piece

Good luck with your search. You summed up your dilemma beautifully. A pleasure to read such a clear and concise piece. In your shoes I would hang on in there for a couple of years. Demonstrate that you are highly competent in your area and that you are a good team player. But indicate, possibly during an appraisal, that you have a particular interest in your other preferred area, and ask to be considered for a sideways move if an opportunity arises.

Dayglo Dave -08 Feb 2010 | 17:56

Nonsense

What naive rubbish to wistfully think that a redundancy-sponsored payout is a good thing.

Many firms in the City offered paltry payouts which might stretch to the extended exotic sojourn, but you'd probably end up living in the gutter thereafter.

Mark -09 Feb 2010 | 10:09

Sorry Mark old boy, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me

I don't blame you, and I remember when I was you. I had the "misfortune" to be canned from my former employer last year.

The payoff was enough that I needed to worry about FSCS compensation limits.

I didn't travel, I spent the summer looking for a job. This meant I got very tanned, and very beefcaked, as the weather was lovely, and I spent a lot of time in the gym. From time to time, I would have lunch with former colleagues, who didn't look happy.

A few of the people I used to work with were utter tools. No longer working with them makes me happy to this day.

And then... at the end of summer, I found a nice job in-house, which paid more than my old job, for a damn sight less hours.

So. In my case redundancy equalled:

- a few months off
- a suntan
- fitter, healthier, and a damn sight more sleep
- a better job

Now granted, the job centre was a little unpleasant. But do bear in mind that cultivating the "it's terrible out there, you'll never get another job, ever, ever, ever" idea is a good way to motivate associates to work all the hours the lord sends (and then pad some more on top of that), and so partners will love it.

But, I give you credit - well written article, sums up how I felt in Jan 09 perfectly.

Good luck to you!

Stupot -10 Feb 2010 | 10:59

- diligence other firms
- not all law firms are as dire
- bide your time, don't jump at the first offer
- when you are sure, move

Statistically, your chances of partnership are low at any firm. Therefore, you should maximise the experience (and enjoyment) you get out of the NQ-PQE7 years, so that if, as is statistically likely, you do not make partner, your options are wide-ranging and lucrative. And save your money.

Anonymous -15 Feb 2010 | 10:26

Daydreaming

I too enjoyed this well-written article and have to admit I have shared these thoughts for at least five (and all too often six or seven) days a week for the past couple of years. And I challenge the likes of Mark and Betty (or anyone else who has stumbled across, read and commented on this article) to say these thoughts have never crossed their focused minds. In the grand scheme of things though, the lump of cash I hoped to receive in return for never stepping foot inside these walls again was hardly going to change my life, and coveting the apparently lush green grass of other firms was just another way of convincing myself I was in the wrong place and urging myself to change something. I'm sure I could have had one hell of a year in dreamland before returning to reality with a thump, but if lying on a beach somewhere was really what I wanted from life I would have found a way to be there rather than leave it in the hands of my employer to send me there. I find myself reading this article from my dull City office rather than a sunlounger on a tropical beach because I was lucky enough to be at a firm that largely avoided the swathe of redundancies last year, but more importantly because I did not get here in the first place by choosing the easy life.

Jen -17 Feb 2010 | 11:59

sigh......

This self-indulgent navel-gazing goes some way to explaining why people have a general dislike of lawyers. "Oh gosh I don't find what I do amazingly exciting but I suppose I do get paid an awful lot of money to do it....." Seriously? 90% of people in the UK probably do jobs which don't capitalise on their perceived wealth of creativity. You have a job. Stop whining and get on with it. Perhaps when you are staring at your drab workspace you could think of all the poor sods who now find themselves unemployed and have to face the drab jobcentre. Alternatively do what the majority of lawyers who have deluded senses of grandeur do and start writing a rubbish book and never finish it.

Anonymous -17 Feb 2010 | 19:18