Corpraider86 wrote:
Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. One other thing. What advice (if any) can you give me for entering finance or consulting with a JD degree?
I've considered dopping out and searching for a job instead of finishing law school, but that approach seems very risky considering that I won't have the fallback of practicing law if I hate working in finance or consulting.
Also, from my understanding, JD's tend to pursue careers in these fields, albeit not in large numbers. So wouldn't I be more marketable with a JD and hence be able to obtain a higher salary than I would with just an undergraduate degree?
Keep in mind that entry level positions have pretty standardized pay packages within most organizations -- the pay is determined by the job title. So if you're hired as a financial analyst for a company, you're going to be paid according to what that company sets the salary package to be for that job within that company - every person that gets hired for that job will get more or less the same pay package. The only difference could be that one person gets hired at a more senior position than another (so the pay is different) -- but in your case, why would anyone hire you to be in a higher position compared to a fresh-faced college grad just because you have one more degree?
Employers (in any industry) structure their compensation based on *relevant experience* more than anything else, not credentials, because more often than not, the more relevant experience you have, the more you can contribute to the bottom line right away. That's why entry level positions in just about any industry are so low compared to their mid to upper level counterparts. The more experience the job requires, the more the pay (generally speaking).
A JD on its own is pretty useless. All a JD does is put you in a position to pass the state bar -- and then, once you get *experience* as a lawyer, you become more marketable.
And if you are worried about hating finance/consulting, what makes you assume that your "fallback" option of law is going to be that much less miserable?
You have a lot to contemplate and ruminate on.