Health / Wellness

What To Do When You Know Law Isn't Right For You But It's All You Know

Trust that with time, consistent effort, and perhaps a bit of luck, you too can find yourself in an unexpected career that you adore.

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Jeena Cho

Jeena Cho

I’m a podcast junkie. Recently, I heard two episodes related to career transitions that depart from how most of us think about it. First is Tim Ferriss in an episode titled, The Return of Drunk Dialing. In the episode, he gives some helpful advice to an aspiring podcaster. Tim suggests committing recording a set number of episodes prior to starting and see it as an opportunity to learn a concrete set of skills.

This is useful in at least two aspects. First, by saying, I am going to commit to recording at least six episodes, so that I can get more skills at interviewing people, you are ensuring that no matter whether your podcast is “successful” or not, you’re still gaining concrete skills from the experience.

I think this is a useful way to view our career as well. Rather than saying, I’m going to work at this law firm for eight years with the goal of becoming partner, say, I am going to work here and gain X, Y, and Z skills.

Like my podcasting example above, by focusing on the skills you’ll gain, rather than your status or success, you are moving away from external measures of “success” (i.e., whether you’ve made partner) and moving to a more internal sense of accomplishment.

When I started my podcast, The Resilient Lawyer, I had four things I wanted to get out of it. First, I wanted to get more comfortable speaking and interviewing people. Second, I wanted to learn the technical aspects of producing interview format audio podcasts. Third, I wanted to interview interesting people and learn their stories. Four, I wanted to record at least 50 episodes.

After 50 episodes, I’m taking a break, but I didn’t feel bad about “quitting” because I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.

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Another episode I absolutely loved is in Start Up podcast, titled You Can’t Wear a Suit Here, where they interviewed the newest member of the Gimlet Media team, an attorney, Ngofeen Mputubwele.

My ears perked up when they mentioned Ngofeen left a large law firm (quick Google search confirmed he left K&L Gates) to work for a podcast media company, Gimlet. I don’t know about you, but I definitely felt a pang of envy because it sounds like such an awesome job. Plus, I’ve been obsessively following the journey of Alex Blumberg leaving public radio to start his own company, Gimlet.

Anyway, here’s what they said about why Gimlet hired Ngofeen:

Ngofeen is coming to Gimlet to work as a producer. And this isn’t only his first day at a new job. It’s his first day in a completely new career. Up until a few months ago, he was an attorney at a big corporate law firm in Pittsburgh. Audio storytelling was just a side project. But then he spotted a job posting at Gimlet and sent off a cover letter. He stood out for his research experience and editorial insight. And after rounds of interviews, we hired him.

There’s a natural tendency to think that the work you do and the skills you gain are baked into your job and job title. It’s important to view the skills as being separate and apart from it.

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I don’t know the full story on how Ngofeen transitioned from K&L to being a senior producer at Gimlet, but I absolutely loved the story because it shines the light on the possibilities of radically different career transitions.

In my last post, I talked about what to do when your job makes you completely miserable. Several readers wrote to me and asked what to do when you know law isn’t right for you but that’s all you know.

Perhaps you feel this way too. I find it’s a common feeling for lawyers.

My friends, here’s what I want to share with you. You can only know what is right for you through trial and error. This is a frightening prospect for lawyers because we live in a world where “errors” are not acceptable.

What if you decide to become a coder then figure out you hate coding after your first 12-week course? Rather than see it as a failure or wasted time, see it as gathering data. Now, you’ve gained some skills and you know that this isn’t the right job for you.

In that moment, you have a choice. You can chastise yourself for making a mistake, or you can simply move on and try something different.

Trust that with time, consistent effort, and perhaps a bit of luck, you too can find yourself in an unexpected career that you adore.

For those of you who are considering a career transition, my Shape the Law co-founders and I are offering a one-hour online workshop on November 15th. We’ll be combining concepts from design thinking and mindfulness and applying it to career transitions. All the details can be found here.

Jeena Cho is the author of The Anxious Lawyer: An 8-Week Guide to a Joyful and Satisfying Law Practice Through Mindfulness and Meditation (affiliate link). She is a contributor to Forbes and Bloomberg where she covers diversity/inclusion, resilience, work/life integration, and wellness in the workplace. She regularly speaks and offers training on women’s issues, diversity, wellness, stress management, mindfulness, and meditation. You can reach her athello@jeenacho.com or @jeena_cho on Twitter.

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