My daughter is a college sophmore thinking about law school. She’s also an artist (but wants to earn money so is looking to more lucrative careers!).
I’m a lawyer who has held a variety of positions - I found them all interesting, challenging & fulfilling. However…folks on another CC thread (“scholarships for law school”) have opened my eyes to the way many areas of the legal profession have changed over the past 15 or so years - and it doesn’t sound pretty! Yikes!
So for a kid who is not a fan of medical-related work nor math/science type stuff - are there some recommended career paths/majors that would bode well for future career that is challenging/rewarding and at least somewhat lucrative/with advancement potential?
(I’ve talked to her about data analytics and IT security but that doesn’t seem to garner much interest!). I’m getting nervous about continuing to encourage her in the direction of the law if things are so bleak there!
Data analytics will require knowledge and skill with statistics as well as the subject area of the data. IT security will require some knowledge and skill with CS, although it is not always a purely technical area (some aspects of IT security involve understanding how people can fall for scams to reveal their passwords etc. and how to prevent that).
In terms of earning money, how much she actually needs to earn to make a comfortable living will depend on her spending habits. Someone who is naturally frugal may have more career options in terms of finding lower income careers to be financially acceptable, compared to someone who has high spending habits. The debt burden for school will also be a factor here.
She can merge the two. I am sure that doing something like providing legal advice on issues of copyright is a possibility, and it doesn’t need to involve the uglier sides of the legal profession.
Of course, merging art and tech is a new a booming field that she could explore.
There should be a career counselor center on campus and internship opportunities.
There are thousands of worthwhile careers beyond STEM and law. She will need to determine that. There are also many careers where a law degree may be useful that are not tied up in large firms or other people’s political agendas.
Let her find her path. She may enjoy being on a college campus where the arts have a place of value and she goes into college administration. There will be thousands of public sector career opportunities to solve our future problems and we need to encourage our smartest and brightest to consider public service. There are museums in need of creative and innovative individuals to establish sustainable paths forward for their existence. There are school districts in need of therapists who use art and creative methods to help our young citizens overcome trauma. All of these can be well paid jobs that may allow her to use her strengths.
I had thought a college advisor might help - but hers seems to just encourage her to take more and more advanced classes in art and law - not really expanding into other areas.
I’ll ask her to reach out to the career center - and the ideas of merging art and tech and art and law are intriguing!
In terms of undergrad debt - our family goal is for her to graduate with none (hoping all goes as planned!).
Came across something about UX design and social science degrees. I have no idea what is involved, but see e.g. (hope this link is ok - an internship listing Oracle ) Note the potential creative angle.
If she is interested in sustainability, there are many possibilities, from policymaking/advocacy to consulting to working inside companies and investment institutions to help with the green transition. As with other occupations, private sector jobs tend to be more lucrative but those positions may require experience that can be acquired through advocacy (usually non-profits) and public sector roles. So, a career in sustainability could span a variety of interesting roles.
Thank you so much for these additional tips! She is (as are many, now) interested in criminal justice reform.
I can say these few posts have given me some hope as to options for her (of course the call will be hers - just will give info). After hearing about all the negatives re: the law (from folks in areas I have not practiced recently) - it was a bit disconcerting/depressing!
Thanks, bouders. I know that person’s perspective was on the extreme negative end (due to their own experiences, presumably). But, I can see some truth to many of the points made (even though extrapolation to ‘everyone/everywhere/forever’ was unduly broad).
From what I have seen, a strong legal education can open many doors outside of law and law firms, in the US and abroad. So, no need for despair. But it is legitimate to question the cost of a JD degree, particularly if earned at schools outside of the top tier.
My hope would be that she would read class descriptions, take a variety of colleges courses, and then decide her direction.
I work in state parks. We have 1500 people doing everything from maintenance to planning education programs to ensuring compliance with natural and cultural resource protection laws.
Even though I’m happy in my career, I find city/urban planning interesting.
There is an inexpensive career interest and aptitude test called YouScience. It was recommended to me by a friend who works in data analytics. My son took it a few years ago and it was helpful. He even used some of the descriptive language in his generated profile in his college applications.
The positions that marry high pay and the arts are hard to come by. But if she is willing to pursue art on her own time or as a side hustle until she stumbles on something big, she could land a higher-paying career by specializing in something highly technical like employee benefits.
It isn’t the most exciting area, but it always needed and people will pay for what they need. She could pursue a career in HR, focusing on benefits and/or management. Or, if she still wants to do law, employee benefits lawyers have steady work with predictable hours and less billable hour pressure. Amending endless employee benefits plans may sound boring to many, but it can provide good work-life balance at a higher salary.
If that sounds like torture, I had the same thought as another poster about looking into a user experience UX job. It veers into the data science/tech lane, but with more focus on the presentation/communication side. You might look at informatics programs like the University of Washington’s iSchool, which seems to draw both librarian/library science people and computer science/big data types.
Paralegal. No law school debt. Minimal, if any, loss of income (opportunity cost). Lots of positions available. Pay can exceed $100,000 without the need to reside or work in high-cost Manhattan, San Francisco, LA, etc.
Some states permit paralegals to get certified in a specialty area & open their own practice. (These are under-served areas of the law which do not generate high fees.)
As opposed to UX design which is more about the psychology of a product, as an artist she might be more interested in the User Interface (UI) design side of things. The two are linked but UI design deals more with the appearance side of products.
Another lucrative outlet for art is industrial design.
I think the key is to find an internship next summer to get exposure to potential jobs she might like. S did a think tank internship after sophomore year but then switched to consulting after junior year in a similar area (with a job offer at the end of it). Some of his friends (graduating next spring) didn’t do anything in terms of internships and still have little idea about what they want to do.
The ideal is to build a coherent portfolio of experiences where on campus experiences complement what you do in the summer. Has she been involved in any career related clubs? If not then now is the time to try that, for example there are usually a number of consulting or business related campus organizations.