Paralegal profession is a bad idea
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I would strongly recommend against any profession in the legal arena unless you want to become an atty. Working for attys is unpleasant to say the least. The hostile environment of a law firm is stressful, and I've seen a few legal secretaries go out on stress leave. Seeing a law staff member cry at work is not unusual. Many attys are hard to please no matter what you do, and sometimes it can be hard to hold onto a job, not because of your work performance but because many attys will find something to criticize no matter how well you do your job. There's more than one way to do a certain task. You chose one way, and he criticizes you for not doing it the other way. If you ask him which way he'd like it done, he's angry that you bothered him.
Most paralegals/legal secretaries will get fired once or twice in their careers. Again, it has nothing to do with poor job performance. I was fired once in 8 years that I worked in this field. It's very stressful to show up everyday to a job, continuously feeling like you're skating on thin ice because the vibe you get is that you will be let go at any time. When you know you are an intelligent person with outstanding skills and attention to detail who shows up to work on time every day and thoroughly completes projects, there's not a whole lot you can do about that. Yeah, I could look for another job, but unfortunately, job jumping won't get you away from it because this is an industry-wide problem. At one job I was completely burnt out and thoroughly exhausted. Every ounce of my energy and strength had been zapped. I just let them fire me. I wanted to live on unemployment even if I couldn't afford it. I just needed a break. During my 8 years in this crap, I worked at 4 firms and temped at 3. Only one of those firms had a decent environment. None of them, however, gave yearly raises that matched the going rate despite stellar employee reviews.
There is a demand, not because the number of available jobs is increasing but because more and more paralegals and legal secretaries are tired of the nonsense and leaving the field. I live in a large metropolitan area. I know of at least two community colleges in my area that discontinued their legal secretary programs because not enough people enrolled to keep it open. More and more people are becoming aware of the problems in the legal industry and are avoiding this field.
And as far as pay goes, it's not that great. It's dead end because there's no ladder of success to climb. If you are young and single, it might be a good way to generate some work experience, but as you get older and want to advance your life, it's not a good choice. If you're an ambitious person who wants a career with promotion opportunities, this isn't for you. If you are an independent thinker and a natural leader, this definitely isn't for you.
Another thing, I can't emphasize the attorney maltreatment of staff enough. If you are single and middle-aged, i.e., no husband with a good job to fall back on and too old to go back home to the parents, that gives the firm leverage against you. They see you as someone less likely to quit, and they might stick you with the more undesirable jobs (difficult atty), and your raises might be worse. If you're a single mom (like me), that can give the firm yet more leverage. They would expect a single mom to be someone who most needs a job and most likely to put up with the most crap to keep it. My last employer was shocked when I walked in and told them I was leaving. Unlike most people my age (believe me, I'm older than dirt), I moved back home with my kid. That meant leaving the state and giving up everything I had. As a paralegal, however, I didn't have the ability to accomplish much; so I had very little to lose in starting over.
Yelling, slamming doors, things slammed down on desks are normal occurrences in law offices. If you stick around long enough, you will see an atty throw a notebook at a staff member and maybe even see physical confrontation (it happened at my firm once, but I missed it because I just happened to leave early that day for an interview at another firm!). Best case scenario - you will be spoken to condescendingly every now and then, and you won't get too much overtime. That's another thing. They don't respect you and think the world revolves around them. So get used to an atty putting projects that take 3 hours to complete on your desk after 4pm and telling you he wants it complete and on his desk before you leave that evening.
One more thing about pay-The only way to maintain a decent salary is to change jobs every 2 years or so. Year-end raises might match cost of living, but it's very rare for a year-end raise match the going rate for legal staff. New paralegals and secretaries get hired at the current rate; so they make more than those with seniority, believe it or not (assuming the new hiree has about the same experience as the tenured employees). This is another way the firm uses its leverage with its employees. They know that most people don't like change and would rather keep the same job - it's scary to start over elsewhere because the law field has an industry wide hostile environment - and in a situation like that it's better to stay with what you are familiar with. Chances are high that changing jobs will get the person right back into the same situation anyways, except that she did bump her salary up a little. The firms know that a paltry raise usually isn't enough to send a lot of its employees packing; so why should it pay good wages when they get the same quality employees for less?? A law firm will milk its employees for everything it can possibly get but will give back barely enough to keep the employees coming back.
If you are considering paralegal as a career, I would recommend the following books also:
"When Smart People Work for Dumb Bosses..."
"Coping with Toxic Managers..."
"When you work for a bully..."
There are many other great books like these, too many to mention.
Also familiarize yourself with the EEOC site as well as that of the Dept of Labor or Labor Commissioner for your state. And one more thing... get used to documenting EVERYTHING.
