Anyone have advice for picking your first in-house job? Anything you wish you’d considered when you first went in-house? E.g., is all in-house experience in a given field considered equal, or is there an equivalent of biglaw on a resume for in-house lateraling purposes?

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Commercial counsel roles are plentiful but they can be limiting in terms of career advancement. Product Counsel roles are sought after and can be very marketable but are less plentiful than Commercial counsel roles. M&A gives significant visibility to the C-suite but can be horrible still in terms of WLB and are harder to land. Specialized backgrounds can be more marketable than generalist backgrounds.

likesmart

Corporate/M&A/Securities will generally be the highest seniority and pay, with a more defined path to advancement/leadership than other functions.

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This sounds like sour grapes thinking. It is significantly more likely to be pidgeonholed in IP/privacy (privacy especially in compliance role - yuck) than M&A/securities where you are touching the companies most important functions, exposure to the company's most important stakeholders (c suite/board), and taking a generalist function.

All thing being equal, larger company (larger legal group) > smaller. Better training and lateral options.

likesmart

The one that you can get?

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I wish I knew how hard it’d be to get another in-house job after the first one. Thought the first one would be the hardest and anything after would be a cake walk. Boy was I wrong.

Maybe. You're not telling us your background or any relevant info. How would we know? How can we answer?

Consider your internal client. If you support a business that always has fires, you’ll likely always be on fire. The more you can understand about the business during an interview, the better equipped you’ll be to assess how demanding the role will be. Also, figure out what’s more important to you, visibility and promotion or WLB and stability. There are exceptions and of course you could be one, but it’s hard to find both. Start-ups and small legal teams will offer you opportunities for advancement more quickly, but your bigger companies with larger legal teams are more likely to offer more stability and cover for things like time off.

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Hi 🦈

I have offers from below organizations. Please help me to choose on basis of learning and work life balance.
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