About a month ago I switched from ID to Tax Law (2nd year atty)… And so far, I feel like an idiot. How long does it take to feel like you know what you’re doing?

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4th year tax attorney. Done tax the whole time. Still feel like an idiot every day. But that’s part of the fun of tax!

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I had a tax professor who worked at Wachtell, Harvard honors and everything. He told me it takes at least ten years to truly understand the practice. Don't sweat it

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I have 7 years of experience in law firms and Big 4, and I’m a CPA and an attorney with a JD/LLM. Tax humbles me every day. There’s too much nuance to master everything.

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5th year, big law. I feel like I should be wearing a dunce hat all the time.

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Still learning every day after 18 years. This is why tax practice is the best!

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5th year and run my own firm specializing in tax: I still feel like an idiot

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10 years

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15 years in with an LLM too…and still learning! I didn’t really start to feel comfortable until my 10th year of practice, though.

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In tax, at least 4 to feel less of an idiot, but I agree with A1, not sure it ever goes away.

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The other answers are too scary from my perspective. 25 years of practice under my belt and I think that 18-36 months will give you enough knowledge that you’re not scared to answer the phone. You’ll still be learning every day, but that is the time period by which you’ll know something.

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You’ll start seeing the forest from the trees in about 5 to 6 years. Don’t sweat it.

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My tax prof used to say you wake up one day after 10 years and all of the sudden you know wtf is going on

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So the consensus seems to be that you can just hope to know something having to do with the job so you feel less stupid. Got it.

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