Recessions and job prospects

[zaprowsdower]

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@Greybeard

I think the small firm route is actually a better one for most new law school graduates than the document review route, in terms of career development.

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<p>These jobs are not necessarily easy to come by. And many of the small-firm jobs available are at slip-and-fall or insurance defense shops, which probably don’t open a lot of doors. Even non-paying positions are competitive at this point.</p>

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Things are likely to get better, even for those who borrowed heavily to fund their educations.

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<p>I suppose that, if you can’t get any job at all, things would almost have to get better for you professionally. Unless you default on your loans, in which case you may end up with terrible credit and significant debt for much of your life.</p>

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@Corbett

In the past, underemployed college grads had to start at the ground floor before the could work their way up.

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<p>An additional problem with law is what I guess you could call “path dependence”: if you don’t start working at a big firm or prestigious government agency right out of school, you probably never will. And a lot of boutique firms, banks, hedge funds, etc. hire primarily from those firms and agencies, so those jobs may be closed off as well.</p>