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Question 0
Do you feel stuck?
By Christine Beckett
I’m a 27-year-old attorney who recently emerged from nearly nine months of unemployment.
I am saddled in nearly $200,000 in student loans, not to mention a couple thousand in credit card debt, largely due to furniture purchases made when I first went out “on my own.”
As a result of my unemployment, I made the move back to living on the North Shore with my parents, though now that I am back to work I have recently moved to Jamaica Plain, into an apartment with two — TWO — roommates.
I never thought this would be where I am in my life. I can’t afford to live on my own and I don’t make enough money to even pay half of my monthly student loan interest, let alone make a payment that will eventually lead to me paying them off.
Growing up — and as recently as 2007 when I entered law school, pre-recession — I thought by age 27 that I would be making close to six figures, if not well into the six figures. I’m not even close, even though I’m working my butt off. I thought I’d own a home and now I don’t know if I will ever be in a position to buy a new car (as opposed to used), let alone a house. The idea of having children, once a must, now seems so financially unfeasible that it wouldn’t be fair to have them.
I graduated law school at what seemed to be the WORST time and it turns out it’s only getting worse.
2 comments:
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“Things have been complicated most recently by the discovery that a family member forged my signature on a $15,000 educational loan.” —Morgan
Generation Stuck
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Hang in there Christine because you are actually in the field that create laws that allow hc1@conwhat you are experiancing.Gather some attorney friends in the same position as I’m sure there are many and set out to change the future so others don’t have to face what you need to. There is no reason to. False promises of lucrative careers, are just that, statistics will validate this. Good luck to you, always strive for better outcomes.
Unfortunately, law school admissions had been on the rise since the recession started a few years back. I can’t even count how many people I know that went to law school. It is a profession that we’ve been told makes lots of money, but it has become a profession where there are not enough law jobs for the amount of graduates. To add to that, starting out, the pay is quite terrible and the loans people end up with are high. So, it isn’t the profession that people thought it was. The lucky few end up with great jobs, but with too many graduates….. There has been a lot in the press about law school inflating the stats they show on what you can make after graduating and about law schools having to curb their admissions. I know someone who went to law school, graduated in 2010 and ended up in compliance. He had a bank job during law school, made tons of connections, built up his resume, then did banking compliance consulting and now is a VP of compliance at a bank, just 2 years after graduating law school. So look at other options of JD preferred jobs that might not be at a law firm.