Dear law student. You told me the other day you were thinking about a paralegal job. It is one of the most common conversations I have with law students.
This video of an earlier post might help answer some questions for you …
When you’re thinking about a paralegal job, being clear about what you want from the experience can help with identifying where the experience is taking you. It can also help you set some time limits and goals and to check-in regularly about whether the job is getting you there.
One of the things that law students often say is that they took a paralegal job because they thought it would lead to an offer of a graduate job. But, like any job offer, think about if the firm you are working in is really somewhere that you could see yourself working in one, two or three years from now.
If it is, great! But you might want to check that your assumption about what will happen in the future is right. Your loyalty is valuable. If you have decided that this might be the firm for you, it might be a good time to think about sitting down to talk to your principal about what might happen in the future.
That can be confronting for both you and your principal. Don’t spring it on them one day in the lift. Think about making a time. Forewarn them that this is a question that you’d like to ask them. It is an excellent opportunity to get feedback on how you’re going and things that might be worth focussing on.
And what’s the worst that can happen? Finding out that there might not be a job at the end is valuable information to have. You can do some future planning.
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