Making a Career Change
Most people make a career change at least once in their life. If your present career is not completely fulfilling or is not meeting your needs in some way, then finding a more satisfying alternative may be the answer.
Making a career change is a monumental decision that should not be taken lightly. These seven steps to making a career change can help guide you through the process and lead you to career success and a more satisfying occupation.
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4 Law School Trends
Law school is changing. Here are four trends that are impacting legal academia:
1. Fewer Law School Applicants -For the last five years, a recessionary economy has prompted a sharp increase in law school applications. However, this year the number of students taking the LSAT plummeted to the lowest level in 10 years, according to the Law School Admissions Council.
2. Law School Transparency - The debate over law school transparency continues as students and experts claim that law schools are fudging their employment and admissions data in order to falsely inflate their rankings.
3. LSAT Debate - In recent years, many have argued against the reliability of the LSAT and its ability to accurately predict success in law school and law practice. Some industry insiders are advocating replacing the LSAT with a better test or forgoing a law school admissions test altogether.
4. Two-Year Law School Programs - In response to student concerns over the time and expense of obtaining a law degree, a select number of law schools have implemented accelerated law school programs that can be completed in fewer than the normal three years.
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Job Seeking Tips for Older Workers
Older workers - those age 40 and over - are a unique segment of the job force. Today's mature workers must compete against an ever-growing pool of young, fresh, and eager employees. Age discrimination, although illegal, is common in many industries, including the legal industry, and older job seekers must take care to present their age and experience as an asset. This new series of articles focuses on the unique concerns of mature job seekers and offers tips and advice from career counselors, social media experts, HR professionals, resume experts and workplace experts from around the country:
- Job Networking Tips for Older Workers
- Resume Tips for Older Workers
- Interview Tips for Older Workers
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Returning to School Later In Life
Sometimes creating the life you want for yourself requires returning to school. If you're age 35 or older, age can pose an obstacle to furthering your career. Perhaps you have a full-time job or a family to raise. Perhaps you struggle with financing your education or fear that you will have nothing in common with classmates who are decades younger.
Is going back to school in your mid-life or Boomer years worth it? Many who have done it say yes. This inspiring collection of back-to-school stories chronicles the obstacles and victories of returning to school at a later age. These older students provide unique insight into the mid-life education journey. Many students made dramatic career changes and learned a lot about themselves in the process. Perhaps their stories can inspire you to do the same.
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Too Old for Law School?
Corporate downsizing, job loss and pay freezes have forced many workers to consider a career change. Law is a popular second career since many believe that a legal career offers financial stability and prestige.
If you're age 35 or older and considering law school, you should know that you're not alone. Today's law schools boast an older population than in previous decades and in some law school night programs twenty-somethings are in the minority. Discover the advantages of going to law school later in life as well as the disadvantages.
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Erosion of the Legal Industry
The legal profession has often been viewed as a path to wealth but today that is not necessarily so.
According to a recent report by Bloomberg News, the legal profession is suffering a long overdue shake-out. Crippled by a surplus of lawyers (in 1950, there was one lawyer for every 709 Americans. Today there is one lawyer for every 257 Americans) and the erosion of lawyers' income-adjusted revenue, earnings and opportunities in the legal profession are not what they once were.
In the past several decades, revenues at large firms have outpaced inflation. "If combined revenues at the 50-top grossing firms had increased at the rate of inflation from 1985 to 2010, the total revenue number would be $6.9 billion in 2010. In reality, it was $48.4 billion," the report states. Unsustainable rate hikes and excess labor are not the only reason for problems in the legal profession. Other underlying issues, according to the report, include:
- The recession
- Over-staffing during boom times
- Incompetent management
- Dated partnership model
- Decline of white-shoe law firms
Will the legal profession ever return to its pre-recession glory days? Perhaps, but not before technology, non-lawyer roles and new processes reshape the playing field.
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Earth Day and Green Law
Sunday, April 22nd was Earth Day, a day in which individuals and organizations promote awareness and appreciation of the earth and environmental issues.
As consumer concerns about environmental issues influence corporate strategy, many law firms and legal organizations have jumped on the "green" bandwagon to better serve their corporate clients. Environmental law is hot and new practice areas such as renewable energy, organics and climate change have emerged in response to concerns about global warming and other green issues. Learn more about "going green":
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Preventing a Toxic Workplace
Nearly 85% of bullying goes without intervention and thousands of employees miss work every day for fear of bullying. Bullying in the workplace is a pervasive problem that creates a toxic work environment. It is important for employers to understand how bullying affect a target's personal life and creates problems in the workplace such as stress, turnover and conflict. Law firms and legal employers must create parameters to identify, remedy and prevent workplace harrassment. Here are three steps employers can take to prevent a toxic workplace.
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Are You Vulnerable to Workplace Bullying?
Nearly half of the American workplace has been bullied at some point during their work life, according to a recent survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute. What type of people do bullies target? Could you become a victim?
While there is no single profile of a bully target, victims of bullying do share a number of common traits. The most significant trait is that bully targets pose a threat to the bully in some way. Bully targets are often popular, competent, confident and ethical, characteristics that may threaten a power-seeking bully. In addition, bullies often target those who are unlikely to retaliate or report their actions. This profile of a workplace bullying target outlines the common characteristics shared by many bully victims.
For more information on bullying, see:
- Bullying Facts and Figures
- Types of Bullying
- Bullying Stories
- Bullying Legislation
- Workplace Harassment
- Dealing with Workplace Bullying
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Sharp Drop in LSAT Takers
According to the Law School Admission Council, the number of students taking the LSAT is at a 10-year low. In the largest percentage drop ever, the number of LSATs administered this cycle plummeted over 16%, it's lowest point since 2001, the LSAT blog reports.
It appears that the stampede of students to law school, which spiked during the recession, is finally receding. A stagnant legal market and the enormous costs of a law school education are among the reasons that students are forgoing a legal education.
In addition, law schools have received a great deal of bad press recently. The media has focused on some law schools' practice of spinning data to falsely inflate their post-graduate employment numbers (and their rankings). In the last several months, class action lawsuits have been filed against more than a dozen law schools alleging that they fraudulently inflated their employment numbers, enticing students to enroll in law school only to find a legal market glutted with unemployed attorneys.
Students are realizing that law school is not a guaranteed ticket to a six-figure salary and students set on a legal career are pursuing other career options.
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