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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Any Paralegals out there? I need your thoughts!
MH is considering going back to school and getting his paralegals certicate (he already has his BA in political science), he currently is working in sales and hates it! (For those of you who read my post below, they gave him his job back but he going to continue looking)
Granted I know it's gonna be different for everyone but some questions I have are:
Was/is it hard to find a job out of school?
What is your salary like?
What are your hours like?
Do you like your job? What does it entail?
Would you recommend someone else to become a paralegal?
Anything else you'd like to mention?
Re: Any Paralegals out there? I need your thoughts!
My salary is OK, not great. Eighty people applied for my position so the attorney knew she could get someone and not over pay.
I work 40 hours a week usually, unless a trial is coming up and then it's about 45-50.
I love the work I do. I draft pleadings and correspondence, go through discovery, perform research, meet with clients and supervise a staff of four.
I'd recommend it to someone who likes writing, can take criticism well and is organized.
If he can, your husband should try to go to the local community college for a paralegal program. My school only charged $5/credit hour as opposed to a lot of schools where you have to go into debt to get the certificate. My education (32 hours for the post-degree program), including books, cost under $1,000. And absolutely make sure to volunteer or intern.
I would look very carefully. The paralegal market is saturated and you aren't just competing against paralegals, but unemployed JDs willing to work as paralegals.
In my area there has been massive wage deflation. Contract paralegals used to get $18-22/hr. Now they are getting $12-15/hr for most assignments.
I know recent paralegal grads who are working for less than $10/hr at smaller firms.
I want to echo this. I got my paralegal degree 5 years ago and the paralegal market was already saturated by the time I graduated, I ended up going in a completely different direction career wise and never looked back. It's even worse now and there are people with law degrees willing to work as paralegals now. If it's something he thinks is a good fit for him and he'll love it, and you know the market in your area isn't saturated, that's one thing. I tell people I know back in the midwest to pick just about any other degree because graduates are working as filing clerks and receptionists at law firms for $10/hour trying to break into the field.
I think that if a Paralegal is what he thinks he would like to do, then he should totally go for it. I think the Paralegal certificate and the Policitcal Science Degree could land him some pretty interesting jobs. Working as a Paralegal doesn't always mean working for a law fim. I work for a Fortune 500 Corporation in the law department and love it. I've had my job 6 years now and hope to keep it until I retire. Working in house for a corporation you do not have to bill hours like you do in a law firm, you are salaried and the benefits are typically much better than a firm. I would think that he could use the political science degree to his advantage and score a paralegal job working for the government or a firm that does work for various political organizations. If I were you I would have him research the Paralegal opportunities on USAJOBS.com and see if those interest him prior to starting school. (they could require you to move though) Look around in your area at Monster and the various other job sites to see how many jobs are posted and what their qualifications are. See if he likes the descriptions of the work described. Make sure he obtains his certificate from a program that is recognized by the ABA. This is extremely important. Good Luck!