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Hi Fishes,
I am at a career standpoint where i am really confused what to do.
I have 4+ yoe in RPA .I really dont think its sustainable as a career .I am willing to learn and move into something different.
But what i am really confused is how would i manage to switch jobs without any prior experience?
I already earn 13-15 lpa,why would anyone offer me same level of package without experience?
People who do a successful career switch,please share your stories.In need of some motivation
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I’m sorry, I’m not clear on the question. Are you asking whether that experience will help you get into a T-14 or are you asking if that experience will help you either get placed into an M&A group or be a better M&A attorney?
That’s true. Law school is very litigation centric.
I can only speak to biglaw, since I spent most of my career there doing M&A. Boutique’s operate differently, so I’d keep that in mind.
Biglaw will hire you based on your school and class rank. They will take into account what you want to do, but ultimately, they place you where they have need. For instance, I was clear to my firm that I wanted be in the corporate group bc I wanted to do M&A and/or securities. They didn’t have a need for a first year corporate associate at my office the year I graduated, so they placed me in the commercial finance group. It took being a squeaky wheel (and a crazy M&A market) to eventually get them to let me switch groups.
All that to say: while having prior M&A experience would be a nice bonus, the assumption at a firm is going to be that you need to be trained from scratch. So, having absolutely 0 background in the practice area puts you at no disadvantage. However, I can imagine your first year of practice would be less of a learning curve than for other associates. You certainly could seize on that to become the go-to associate for a partner or two that you really enjoy working with. In the long run, your colleagues will catch up with you. At some point you start doing mid-level stuff that has very little overlap with what you might’ve learned as a paralegal, so that edge goes away.
Yes. I remember talking to a C-Suite about an open internship position as a 1L and I was told that the resumes that stood out had years of experience in the area I wanted to get into (Privacy).
It took me getting the highest grade in my privacy class and Acing three other transactional related courses to land a 2L position in my desired area, mind you, I also tried for M&A/transactional but got no offers after a handful of callbacks.
It also gives you more to talk about during your interviews and it’s easier to validate your interest in the practice area as genuine, not to mention it is also a kickstarter for networking in M&A.
Thank you for sharing, this was extremely insightful. I'm cautiously confident in getting into a t-14 this cycle. But I'm also very aware of how selective big law can be, hence the post. It's been difficult getting my foot in the door in big law as a paralegal. I'm being told I'm under qualified to work as a corporate paralegal due to little to no experience (tbh fair) AND I'm also overqualified to be hired as a legal assistant.
IME the best first years at a big firm were those associates that were paralegals at big firms prior to law school. In a lot of cases they were operating on the level of a second year associate right out of the gate. It will probably also give you a leg up in interviews (but you are still going to need the requisite grades). In terms of law school admissions, it’s a leg up at best - not better than other work experience. GPA and LSAT are all that really matter.