And, oh yeah...
The other thing going on right now is that I am waiting to hear from the lawyer who has been conducting the investigation to interview me to make sure I'm ethically sound enough to be a member of the Maryland bar. All my paperwork is in; we're now in the "my people will call you" stage of scheduling.
The funny thing -- and very commonly the case for me -- is that this guy, a partner at a DC firm, is younger than me by a bunch of years. I know because I looked up his bio on his firm's website. ::sigh::
Because of the dissonance between our ages and experience, these kind of situations can be awkward at first. I am (was?) well-established in one realm of DC life -- the civil rights community -- but I'm a complete newbie at the law. When interacting with folks who are well-established in the law but younger than I am, those people often treat me as junior to them because I'm a newbie to the law thing whereas I am more inclined to treat them as colleagues because I consider myself a professional and I am used to interacting with other professionals in this manner. This situation can be awkward, but I'm used to it and don't get offended (usually) when folks do this. Hopefully my interviewer-guy isn't the type to pull hierarchy. Because that's annoying.
I once had an associate (who was younger than I am) at a firm tell me in not-so-many-words that I had it easy as a law student because the real world is much harder. To which I wanted to respond, "FUCK YOU. I have been working my ass off in the 'real world' for more than 15 years AND I worked full time throughout law school, unlike your pampered little ass that didn't have to juggle both work and class at the same time. So shut your condescending little trap because I know what hard work is in a way that you don't. Bitch." But I didn't. Obviously. But I thought it. (Also obviously.) Grrr...
Anyway, this ageism thing is an issue that I confront all. of. the. time. It's not always a problem because I look about ten years younger than I am, but when it happens, it does get tiresome to be spoken down to. Also, I think the fact that I have a longer resume than most newbie law grads has actually hurt me rather than helped me in my law career, despite the lip-service I get about my "interesting background" and "fantastic experience". I'll post more on that another time, but suffice to say, it hasn't yet helped to have 15 years of non-legal (but still relevant) work experience. I remain sans job for the fall.
But I'm also sanguine. Tomorrow, I'm off to avoid reality in Puerto Rico. Interview with lawyer-guy soon. If I pass the bar (fingers crossed), then I have to trundle up to Baltimore for a professional responsibility class on May 19th. May 21st I walk and get my piece of paper (which will read that I graduated February 1st). And everything is official.
Then what? Find a job.
The funny thing -- and very commonly the case for me -- is that this guy, a partner at a DC firm, is younger than me by a bunch of years. I know because I looked up his bio on his firm's website. ::sigh::
Because of the dissonance between our ages and experience, these kind of situations can be awkward at first. I am (was?) well-established in one realm of DC life -- the civil rights community -- but I'm a complete newbie at the law. When interacting with folks who are well-established in the law but younger than I am, those people often treat me as junior to them because I'm a newbie to the law thing whereas I am more inclined to treat them as colleagues because I consider myself a professional and I am used to interacting with other professionals in this manner. This situation can be awkward, but I'm used to it and don't get offended (usually) when folks do this. Hopefully my interviewer-guy isn't the type to pull hierarchy. Because that's annoying.
I once had an associate (who was younger than I am) at a firm tell me in not-so-many-words that I had it easy as a law student because the real world is much harder. To which I wanted to respond, "FUCK YOU. I have been working my ass off in the 'real world' for more than 15 years AND I worked full time throughout law school, unlike your pampered little ass that didn't have to juggle both work and class at the same time. So shut your condescending little trap because I know what hard work is in a way that you don't. Bitch." But I didn't. Obviously. But I thought it. (Also obviously.) Grrr...
Anyway, this ageism thing is an issue that I confront all. of. the. time. It's not always a problem because I look about ten years younger than I am, but when it happens, it does get tiresome to be spoken down to. Also, I think the fact that I have a longer resume than most newbie law grads has actually hurt me rather than helped me in my law career, despite the lip-service I get about my "interesting background" and "fantastic experience". I'll post more on that another time, but suffice to say, it hasn't yet helped to have 15 years of non-legal (but still relevant) work experience. I remain sans job for the fall.
But I'm also sanguine. Tomorrow, I'm off to avoid reality in Puerto Rico. Interview with lawyer-guy soon. If I pass the bar (fingers crossed), then I have to trundle up to Baltimore for a professional responsibility class on May 19th. May 21st I walk and get my piece of paper (which will read that I graduated February 1st). And everything is official.
Then what? Find a job.
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