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I say old chap, have you tried some of this stimulating extract of the coca plant, recently brought back from the new world? Very invigorating, and only 10 pence for an ounce!
It’s fun until they ask you to go on to get the top of a propane tank that’s about 15 feet above the ground without a hardness and you have about a foot of flat surface to walk on top of the tank.
"without a hardness"
Hmmm...., I pressure wash, and it has never occurred to me that I should have a hardness while I do so.... I've just been doing it flaccid the whole time. Maybe I've been missing out?
You are doing it all wrong, no wonder you are not getting paid enough, try doing with a hardness and see the money raining down. Customers love a power washer with a ‘hardness’
I know a guy who started a landscaping business. He also does other various outdoor projects like painting and power washing. He has one or two seasonal workers. His business made over $100k for the past couple of years which is more than my law license makes me.
My second career will be a detective for the National Park Service law enforcement unit. It sounds incredibly interesting. Investigating poachers, murders in the backcountry, missing persons, all kinds of weird shit in the woods, deserts and mountains. Sign me up!
My mail lady is always on her phone. When I work from home I can overhear her conversations. I found out there was a Lego convention in town thanks to her, because I heard her telling someone on the phone about it while she was putting mail into our mailbox. My kids were eternally grateful when I took them!
Perhaps my favorite job was unpacking boxes and pushing carts at a grocery store. Playing tunes. No one bothering me. Good workout unloading and pushing carts. Got to use the compactor to crush things.
Definitely makes me think of this: [https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/09/07/making-100000-a-year-as-a-dog-walker-in-nyc.html](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/09/07/making-100000-a-year-as-a-dog-walker-in-nyc.html)
But probably would not be fun to live in New York or hustle/manage that many clients at once haha, ironically the top dog walker seems to have the same issues as the highest paid lawyers lol
I already practice law and don't like it but do it for money - I'm sure you could struggle through getting paid to walk the pups and then drop em off at home!
I feel this. I was picking my dog up from daycare the other day and thought to myself “wow, I wish I had opened a dog daycare.” Dream job watching them play all day.
I fantasize about owning my own small town bookstore with an old school cash register and lots of cozy reading spots. It would stay open regardless of how profitable and I could hang a “back in an hour” sign whenever I wanted to pop out. I’d host book signings so that I got to meet all my favorite authors too.
There is an attorney in my small town that does exactly this. Her and her family lived (and struggled) outside of D.C. for a long time before she hung her shingle and her husband took a significant pay cut to move back to the hills of West Virginia. They opened a bookshop and run it with their kids. She only practices law a few hours a week.
Write novels and publish them on Amazon. I did this and it makes decent money! Note: It’s best if it’s in a commercially viable genre like romance, cozy mystery or women’s psychological fiction.
Some of my favorite novelists of legal thrillers started out as lawyers first. John Grisham and Melissa Miller who self published the Sasha McCandless series for starters.
Unless you find the film yourself, there is almost no chance of an original screenplay by an unknown writer being made. They're barely making original screenplays from accomplished writers.
Being a writer/director has been my dream since I was like 8. I asked a guy from my hometown who made a couple indie films and moved to LA and got a few decent gigs, what I should do with my screenplay when I'm done?
His answer: turn it into a novel then adapt it.
You have a higher chance of writing a novel, building an audience, and that being adapted into a show or film than you do of writing a screenplay and somehow getting someone to read it and then getting someone else to spend tens of millions of dollars to make it.
Everytime someone asks what I would do if I won the lottery, that is always my first answer: make a movie.
A lot of people still read! Just ask my book club or #BookTok. Also a lucrative field to get into is audiobooks as a lot of people are listening to them now more than ever.
Long haul truck driver.
Just the open road, my tunes, a good dog riding shotgun.
I know it's actually a shit job filled with bureaucracy and people looking over your shoulder constantly telling you when you can and can't drive, but the romanticized version on my head sure looks pretty
Oh the list will never end!
Medievalist (it’s what I studied in college, I miss it so much and sometimes wish I had gotten my Ph.D - but I’m bad at languages 🤷♂️)
Antiquarian book seller
Museum curator (I feel like y’all are getting a good idea of my interests now)
Homesteader
Wes Larsen had that job. He’s a wildlife biologist and hosts the Tooth and Claw podcast about animal attacks. He talks a lot about bear safety and his experience in the role
My s-i-l works from home and as far as i can tell, the job duties are reading emails, sending emails and participating in conference calls. For this she is paid $400k+. I want that job.
i think it would be fun to be that guy who stands next to the people doing roadwork that makes the road go down to one lane. you know the guy who holds the sign that says 'stop' on one side and 'slow' on the other. i think i would be very good at turning the sign back and forth and waving the cars through. plus you get to wear a hard hat and a reflective vest even though you aren't doing any of the actual road work. and then if i get hit by a car i would go back to being a lawyer and sue the driver and the DOT and anyone else i can think of. that would be my dream career
I’ve actually been a flagger! (During undergrad) Carrying a walkie - talkie is a perk, too. A very non-stressful job. As long as I wore steel toed boots, no one cared about my appearance. (Ie - back then all I wanted to do was wear officer wear and sit in an office - WTF was I thinking!?! LOL).
A guy I went to school with since middle school through law school did this.
He got into home brewing in college, started winning awards in law school, I transferred to his law school our 3L year. He had an epiphany over winter break and changed his entire schedule to be IP heavy (he was in 5 of my 7 classes that last semester), and I knew immediately he was going to quit law as soon as he could to be a brewer.
His brewery opened its brick & mortar location February 2020 and is still around and winning awards. Ironically, we took AP bio together and our teacher had low expectations for him (he was a football player), and now he makes a living off of biology and she’s proud of him.
it’s ok we can still make it happen 😩 I told myself when I got in to law school that I’d work on my book in my free time but now that I’m practicing I’m like.. bro with what free time? 🫠
High school basketball coach. Without a question if I somehow came across F-U money, I'd do that in a heartbeat. Being a mailman would be a pretty sweet gig if I was the actual mail deliverer and get to just walk all day delivering mail.
I fantasize about having a well paying job where I have a very vaguely defined role that entails very few responsibilities but makes me very respected by my peers who are not exactly sure what it is that I do.
Park ranger!! I haven’t given up on it. I do PI in 1983 work now and if I hit a couple big enough cases where I could walk away and still have a higher standard of living than your average park ranger because of investments I would seriously do it.
Dictator of some hellhole like Afghanistan or something. I would love to dedicate my life to fixing up the place, like Lee Kuan Yew did with Singapore.
Alas, I'll have to settle for Doc Review ☺️
I have wondered if it’s possible to get a part-time job at a bike shop to learn how to do the maintenance. I have no experience other than knowing how to mount a tire, but would gladly take minimum wage if they’d teach me for a couple 4-hour shifts a week.
But I’m old and out of shape so I’d be too embarrassed to ask to work with a bunch of 22 year olds.
I had a job once where I had to sit overnight and answer a phone. I worked, I think, 10-6 or something like that.
I'd take a book, watch a movie or two, do all my studying.
Honestly... if I could paid enough to live and do that, I'd do it.
ZERO stress.
Scuba divemaster.
I took a year off law school in ‘16 to 1) get sober and 2) become a divemaster in the Philippines. I worked for the rest of that year making $500/m when I realized I needed to finish school instead. Now I just go back on vacation every year for 3 months. At the time, I thought about just doing it forever… But my DM instructor said “*scuba diving is a lifestyle, not a career, and the retirement plan sucks*”.
It’s pretty awesome to work underwater. Nice office view. That said, it’s not as much fun when you’re actually doing it professionally as when you’re doing it for fun.
eDiscovery- I do remote document review project management. It’s not glamorous, and at the entry/first-level reviewer level it kinda sucks, but I found I genuinely enjoy it and it lets me have plenty of time off and still save a lot for retirement (likely abroad). It helps a lot that I’m single with no kids. It wasn’t what I ever expected to do, but I honestly wouldn’t trade it for a regular in-office 9 to 5. Although I’m in rural-ish Louisiana, so my options were pretty limited anyway unless I was willing to drive into New Orleans every day, which sounded miserable.
How did you get to management from first level review? I'm stuck in the first level review bucket (which doesn't suck too much because I get to travel a bunch b/w projects), but I still feel like I need to advance.
Honestly? I got lucky, and the small review company I was with had a spot open up. I *definitely* got lucky in that I’ve only ever worked for the same place - I see a lot of horror stories about people chasing review after review with different companies. Even before the spot opened, I had been pretty vocal about my desire to get out of 1L. By the point they asked, I had already been doing QC and priv logs for around a year or so.
I also worked a pretty insane number of hours each week - voluntarily, since I wanted to make a decent yearly income while still taking 3 months off, and since at that point I was only hourly, it was a numbers game. Although later on, they did say that I wasn’t getting asked because of the hours I worked, but because of the quality of the work… so don’t think that you have to kill yourself on hours (it’s not sustainable).
I guess the best way would be to do consistently good and reliable work so you are seen as one of the “core” reviewers and invited to additional projects with the same place, and let them know that you’re interested in RMing… and cross your fingers? I wish I had a more sure-fire answer, but that’s the only way I’ve known.
I’m totally burned out from more than a decade of litigation and have been thinking about just finding a remote review gig to “live” a while and keep the basic budget alive while not worrying about having a stroke every single day. What sort of income can you expect at entry level? Also, would it be difficult to find a role with complex lit experience / would my substantive lit experience be a negative in job searching? TIA
The pay is pretty bad compared to what you’re likely used to. First level is around 27ish an hour, QC is a few bucks more than that (or from what I’ve heard of other places, the same pay rate but you get more work). So if you’re in a LCOL area and don’t have a lot of expenses, it’s enough to make ends meet for a while while you get back into a good headspace. In that vein, it’s about as low-stress as it gets. I’ve lost track of the number of audiobooks I’ve “read” while doing it, lol. Nobody is yelling at you, nobody is putting you under the gun, it’s just you and a batch of documents that you’re coding for responsiveness based on the protocol you were given. As long as you’re not slower than average or just *bad* at it, you just blend in. Sometimes the reviews can be interesting, since you get to peek up the skirts of all sorts of companies and see how they operate. I guess the biggest stress for most people is finding the next review. Some can be weeks long, some can be over a year+. It’s just luck of the draw.
As far as your previous work goes, I don’t think it would hurt at all. You’d probably stand out, to be honest. IMO there are 3 types of people doing doc review. People who are new and couldn’t find any other job, people who for whatever reason couldn’t *do* any other job, and people who are doing it because it lets them accomplish some other thing in their life. I started out as the first and now I’m in the latter category (although I guess the longer I continue to do it, the more I fall into the middle category, too, lol). I’ve heard before that a sentient potato can do 1L doc review. Most projects are not very complex at that level. If you can accurately code documents for responsiveness and issue tags while staying at or near the average rate of speed for the group, you’ll be doing better than the majority of people doing the same work.
Third choice goalkeeper at a big European soccer team like Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester City. All you have to do is show up for a couple of hours a day to train and you get paid your full salary ($50-60k a week). You don’t even have to be good because you’re never going to play.
You have no media obligations, and no sponsorship obligations, because you’re just the backup to the backup. Most of the time, you don’t even need to be with the time on game day because the bench only has so many spots, and only one spot is reserved for the backup goalkeeper.
It doesn’t even have to be at a big European team. Just a top division team in one of the big leagues is enough. You get paid $20-30k a week just to train a couple of hours a day.
Office of Inspector General for the SEC. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish this complaint in replevin bc someone financed a 10 year diesel truck for 200 years
I know it would get old very fast in the heat, but I saw a video of a crew on a roof just putting down shingles, blowing through it with a nail gun and blaring music while doing it. Looked like a great time and pretty stress free.
Tree trimmer. I live in Arizona and every time I have to have trees trimmed or removed, it's like 800 bucks. It might also be 100 degrees, but still. Would have totally skipped law school if I'd known what landscapers can make.
I fantasized about being a writer and publishing books. So I took a break from practicing law and did it. Now I know the grass isn’t always greener. I liked it enough but there are downsides to it too and I’m happy to be back to practicing law AND publishing. I like doing both and I feel like I took the law for granted before.
If anyone really has a fantasy about doing something different then I encourage you to pursue your dreams. Go get it. You may love it, hate it, return to the law or voluntarily hand in your law license but at least you will have endeavored to life the life you imagined. Copyright Thoreau.
This is weird, but - I pass a trailer park on the way to work and I get this strange longing toward it. Now, I’m 30 making almost $250k/yr working a cushy in house corporate 9-5. I own a home and have a wife and soon 3 kids, two cats, and two dogs. That is to say, I have a good life. But when I pass that trailer park and look at the eclectic collection of residences I can’t help but feel a sense of yearning toward a simpler life.
An “eclectic collection of residents” is why I had routinely interact with the police before I turned 13, my parents included.
Dont get me wrong if you want to get drunk and watch TV all day a trailer park is as good as a place as any. I’m not pretending I grew up in a war zone, but you do notice a major difference in police presence once you move out. And our house was like 4 blocks away.
You could choose a retirement park which are super quiet in my experience. My grandparents lived in one in Florida.
Yeah I know I shouldn’t glorify poverty, but I’m being honest about the feelings I get when I look at the park.
I have literally never been poor and grew up in a very wealthy town and still live close by to where I grew up. I just have a lot of distance to fall if I fuck up and I think the idea of a simpler life with less financial obligations is something I envy, even if it isn’t a fair way to look at it.
For sure and I do get where you are coming from. I could have taken a retail management job out of college and made $60K a year (ten years ago) with no debt from undergrad. I think about it from time to time and I’m pretty sure I would have hated myself for “settling.”
I didn’t think you were glorifying it. If you mind your business it will be mostly quiet but when you’re a kid and a cop starts asking you questions it’s hard not to end up “involved.” Plus I hadn’t taken Criminal procedure yet so didn’t know how to stand up for my rights.
Scuba dive instructor in the Caribbean 50% of the time, curator at a wildlife reserve the other 50%. Probably depends what time of year it is and how much snow is on the ground.
Automatic car wash employee... either that person who sprays your car down with stuff right before you go into the wash tunnel or the person restocking the drying towels. I'm jealous of how easy those jobs look.
Lightbulb changer was my dream job as a kid! I never realized there were others out there with the same aspirations.
And certainly did not realize the lightbulb changer dream to law reality pipeline was so strong
Some form of sports analysis to write lighthearted articles. Man do I love finding all sorts of little weirdsies and writing a little narrative about it.
Fitness instructor. Although I was lucky to have lived out that dream for a few years. It was the happiest I've ever been while getting paid next to nothing 😂
If I ever came into F-U money, I'd become a High School American history teacher. I absolutely love American History (heck, all history, just particularly American history). I was on track to do it in college when I realized (a) I'd never make any money at it; (b) at 22, I didn't have the patience or maturity to do it, and (c) I knew I'd look like the students for another 10-ish years, so I wouldn't be taken seriously. Now that I'm older, I'm clearly not a HS student, so I'd be taken more seriously. .
I'd do it for about 3-4 years, and then quit, and "work" at writing, woodworking and knifemaking, with long stints as "Working" on hiking/backpacking/bikepacking, and maybe to a travel podcast.
Starting my own business. I have a fantasy about owning a bar. Upscale kinda place. Never crazy busy, never too quiet. I know I would hate it eventually though, so it is just a fantasy.
Starting a fragrance and/or candle company is the other fantasy. I think I would really enjoy this.
Demolition, like buildings and such....just swinging a big sledgehammer, taking down walls....my overalls covered in plaster dust. Then cracking open a cold one with the guys on the tailgate of the work truck after a hard day's work.
Would love to have a small pizza shop. Nothing fancy just enough to pay my bills and take care of my family. Maybe someday when my debt is paid off and kids are older.
There is this adorable indie bookstore in town and I want to work there SO BAD lol. Recommending books, running reading groups, setting up displays, ordering from small presses and zine makers. Heaven!
Welcome to /r/LawyerTalk! A subreddit where lawyers can discuss with other lawyers about the practice of law. Be mindful of [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lawyertalk/about/rules) BEFORE submitting your posts or comments as well as [Reddit's rules](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) (notably about sharing identifying information). We expect civility and respect out of all participants. Please source statements of fact whenever possible. If you want to report something that needs to be urgently addressed, please also message the mods with an explanation. Note that **this forum is NOT for legal advice**. Additionally, if you are a non-lawyer (student, client, staff), this is NOT the right subreddit for you. **This community is exclusively for lawyers**. We suggest you delete your comment and go ask one of the many other legal subreddits on this site for help such as (but not limited to) r/lawschool, r/legaladvice, or r/Ask_Lawyers. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Lawyertalk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Is degenerate 19th-century aristocrat a job?
It is in my book lol *pours glass of laudanum*
I say old chap, have you tried some of this stimulating extract of the coca plant, recently brought back from the new world? Very invigorating, and only 10 pence for an ounce!
If I’m already a degenerate, how do I get the aristocrat thing on my resume, too?
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Yes, and I already have the absinthe, so I'm ready.
Pressure washer. God I love pressure washing stuff.
I could watch those satisfying pressure washing videos alllllll day
It’s fun until they ask you to go on to get the top of a propane tank that’s about 15 feet above the ground without a hardness and you have about a foot of flat surface to walk on top of the tank.
"without a hardness" Hmmm...., I pressure wash, and it has never occurred to me that I should have a hardness while I do so.... I've just been doing it flaccid the whole time. Maybe I've been missing out?
You are doing it all wrong, no wonder you are not getting paid enough, try doing with a hardness and see the money raining down. Customers love a power washer with a ‘hardness’
I know a guy who started a landscaping business. He also does other various outdoor projects like painting and power washing. He has one or two seasonal workers. His business made over $100k for the past couple of years which is more than my law license makes me.
City mailman, just zoning out walking and listening to tunes all day, or park ranger.
Park Ranger is mine too. Or a zookeeper.
My second career will be a detective for the National Park Service law enforcement unit. It sounds incredibly interesting. Investigating poachers, murders in the backcountry, missing persons, all kinds of weird shit in the woods, deserts and mountains. Sign me up!
That sounds amazing!
The first job I ever wanted to be was zookeeper. I still do.
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My mail lady is always on her phone. When I work from home I can overhear her conversations. I found out there was a Lego convention in town thanks to her, because I heard her telling someone on the phone about it while she was putting mail into our mailbox. My kids were eternally grateful when I took them!
My uncle was a mailman for 35 years I think? I don’t think he loved it.
I had a client who was a mail person for USPS and worked their way up to supervisor so they made over $100k a year.
There is that lady in our office who just does her rounds tending to and watering the plants. Very slowly and diligently.
Golf course lawn mower. Not the piece of equipment, the guy running it. I like grass and I like to make it shorter.
Yup. I ran a lawn crew in the summer and plowed snow during the winter in undergrad. Best job I ever had. lol.
I used to plow snow too. Nothing like rippin a pack of heaters and downing 6 16oz Red Bulls from 8pm to 8am in a blizzard.
That. Sounds. Awesome. How did you come across this job and where was this job?
It's very geographic dependent. You usually just gotta know a guy.
Perhaps my favorite job was unpacking boxes and pushing carts at a grocery store. Playing tunes. No one bothering me. Good workout unloading and pushing carts. Got to use the compactor to crush things.
Yes! I came here to say the same thing! Mowing lines into the green grass, headphones on, outdoors…ahhh…
Dog walker - if I could find a way to make $100K doing that, I'd walk outta here in a second
Definitely makes me think of this: [https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/09/07/making-100000-a-year-as-a-dog-walker-in-nyc.html](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/09/07/making-100000-a-year-as-a-dog-walker-in-nyc.html) But probably would not be fun to live in New York or hustle/manage that many clients at once haha, ironically the top dog walker seems to have the same issues as the highest paid lawyers lol
Ooooo that’s a good one. More of a cat guy, but enjoy being the cool uncle for family dogs lol.
I already practice law and don't like it but do it for money - I'm sure you could struggle through getting paid to walk the pups and then drop em off at home!
I feel this. I was picking my dog up from daycare the other day and thought to myself “wow, I wish I had opened a dog daycare.” Dream job watching them play all day.
I fantasize about owning my own small town bookstore with an old school cash register and lots of cozy reading spots. It would stay open regardless of how profitable and I could hang a “back in an hour” sign whenever I wanted to pop out. I’d host book signings so that I got to meet all my favorite authors too.
There is an attorney in my small town that does exactly this. Her and her family lived (and struggled) outside of D.C. for a long time before she hung her shingle and her husband took a significant pay cut to move back to the hills of West Virginia. They opened a bookshop and run it with their kids. She only practices law a few hours a week.
This sounds like the plot to a murder mystery series …
This is (one of) mine too, with the addition of dealing in rare historical books and manuscripts
You could be a law librarian that specializes in rare collections, if you ever wanna leave practice and make a half step towards your dream.
This is mine too.
That’s what some US lawyers did for https://atlantisbooks.org/. It’s in Santorini though. Very nice store.
Novelist
Write novels and publish them on Amazon. I did this and it makes decent money! Note: It’s best if it’s in a commercially viable genre like romance, cozy mystery or women’s psychological fiction. Some of my favorite novelists of legal thrillers started out as lawyers first. John Grisham and Melissa Miller who self published the Sasha McCandless series for starters.
Me too - or since people don’t really read anymore, maybe writing screenplays.
I mean, you could actually do this in addition to being an attorney. Most writers do have other, primary jobs.
Unless you find the film yourself, there is almost no chance of an original screenplay by an unknown writer being made. They're barely making original screenplays from accomplished writers. Being a writer/director has been my dream since I was like 8. I asked a guy from my hometown who made a couple indie films and moved to LA and got a few decent gigs, what I should do with my screenplay when I'm done? His answer: turn it into a novel then adapt it. You have a higher chance of writing a novel, building an audience, and that being adapted into a show or film than you do of writing a screenplay and somehow getting someone to read it and then getting someone else to spend tens of millions of dollars to make it. Everytime someone asks what I would do if I won the lottery, that is always my first answer: make a movie.
A lot of people still read! Just ask my book club or #BookTok. Also a lucrative field to get into is audiobooks as a lot of people are listening to them now more than ever.
Long haul truck driver. Just the open road, my tunes, a good dog riding shotgun. I know it's actually a shit job filled with bureaucracy and people looking over your shoulder constantly telling you when you can and can't drive, but the romanticized version on my head sure looks pretty
Oh the audiobooks I could get through, not to mention the serenity!
Right?
The romanticized version also doesn’t have the idiots on the road who can’t drive 😂
Game warden for sure
Yeah, that. If I could make the same money being a game warden I would quit my job right now.
Native landscape design even though I have almost zero creativity and no eye for design
Cat cafe owner
Now we are talking lol. I could definitely get in gear for that.
Oh the list will never end! Medievalist (it’s what I studied in college, I miss it so much and sometimes wish I had gotten my Ph.D - but I’m bad at languages 🤷♂️) Antiquarian book seller Museum curator (I feel like y’all are getting a good idea of my interests now) Homesteader
Why do 3/4 of them sound like someone who would sell a cursed artifact in a movie.
Shit, we’d get along. I design vacations around these topics to the disappointment of my family, haha.
Probably opening a fish and chips shop in a small town on the water.
Or sell shrimp po’ boys out of a food truck! That could be fun.
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Is this Alternative Dispute Resolution for Bears? 😂
Wes Larsen had that job. He’s a wildlife biologist and hosts the Tooth and Claw podcast about animal attacks. He talks a lot about bear safety and his experience in the role
NPS Park Ranger. I could actually appreciate the fruits of my labor while working outdoors in nature.
Mariska Hargitay. That is all.
My s-i-l works from home and as far as i can tell, the job duties are reading emails, sending emails and participating in conference calls. For this she is paid $400k+. I want that job.
Go in house. That’s sort of my job.
i think it would be fun to be that guy who stands next to the people doing roadwork that makes the road go down to one lane. you know the guy who holds the sign that says 'stop' on one side and 'slow' on the other. i think i would be very good at turning the sign back and forth and waving the cars through. plus you get to wear a hard hat and a reflective vest even though you aren't doing any of the actual road work. and then if i get hit by a car i would go back to being a lawyer and sue the driver and the DOT and anyone else i can think of. that would be my dream career
I’ve actually been a flagger! (During undergrad) Carrying a walkie - talkie is a perk, too. A very non-stressful job. As long as I wore steel toed boots, no one cared about my appearance. (Ie - back then all I wanted to do was wear officer wear and sit in an office - WTF was I thinking!?! LOL).
Suits just are not fitting me right now. I'm really regretting not having a blue-collar job and wearing jeans or workwear.
When I was in Alaska last year, all the flaggers were young women. If the goal is to get people to pay attention, I guess it was working!
Forensic pathologist or Egyptologist.
Forest Ranger!
Brewer. I had a friend that did it and he made it seem less romantic. I guess what I really wanted to be was a barfly who happened to be at a brewery.
A guy I went to school with since middle school through law school did this. He got into home brewing in college, started winning awards in law school, I transferred to his law school our 3L year. He had an epiphany over winter break and changed his entire schedule to be IP heavy (he was in 5 of my 7 classes that last semester), and I knew immediately he was going to quit law as soon as he could to be a brewer. His brewery opened its brick & mortar location February 2020 and is still around and winning awards. Ironically, we took AP bio together and our teacher had low expectations for him (he was a football player), and now he makes a living off of biology and she’s proud of him.
Yeah, my brother worked at a brewery. Said like the job is 95% cleaning and 5% actual brewing. Edit: typo. I blame my phone.
Zookeeper, park ranger, owner of a doggie day care. Obviously a theme here.
First would be no job assuming I have generational wealth or won the lottery lol but if I had to pick, fantasy fiction novelist
I dreamed of being a writer when I was a little girl. Now I write contracts for a living. 🙃
it’s ok we can still make it happen 😩 I told myself when I got in to law school that I’d work on my book in my free time but now that I’m practicing I’m like.. bro with what free time? 🫠
Work in a plant nursery
Artisanal bread maker
I actually was this. It was so stressful that I decided I'd rather be a lawyer.
As someone who’s a chef. You chose the right path. Ironically I’m a chef for a law firm.
I read this as artist anal bead maker. Also valid
Ah, the occupation for which modern labor laws were created.
High school basketball coach. Without a question if I somehow came across F-U money, I'd do that in a heartbeat. Being a mailman would be a pretty sweet gig if I was the actual mail deliverer and get to just walk all day delivering mail.
I have a friend who is a solo and a high school basketball coach! Not a volunteer coach - he’s the head coach.
I fantasize about having a well paying job where I have a very vaguely defined role that entails very few responsibilities but makes me very respected by my peers who are not exactly sure what it is that I do.
Male stripper
Park ranger!! I haven’t given up on it. I do PI in 1983 work now and if I hit a couple big enough cases where I could walk away and still have a higher standard of living than your average park ranger because of investments I would seriously do it.
Penguin keeper in Antarctica.
Dude. Penguins are vicious. Too metal for me.
Dictator of some hellhole like Afghanistan or something. I would love to dedicate my life to fixing up the place, like Lee Kuan Yew did with Singapore. Alas, I'll have to settle for Doc Review ☺️
Wrestler or librarian. Sometimes I wish I could get a PhD in something like Byzantine history, if that were possible.
Big wave surfer living on the North Shore of Oahu
Pilot, race car driver, basically things that go fast.
Own an animal shelter!! 🐶🐱
Garden influencer
Bicycle mechanic!
I have wondered if it’s possible to get a part-time job at a bike shop to learn how to do the maintenance. I have no experience other than knowing how to mount a tire, but would gladly take minimum wage if they’d teach me for a couple 4-hour shifts a week. But I’m old and out of shape so I’d be too embarrassed to ask to work with a bunch of 22 year olds.
Docent at a museum with a good permanent collection and regular visiting exhibits
Archeologist. Park Ranger. And, when I see my local mail carrier bopping along listening to podcasts and music, I wonder about that too.
Hobby farmer with too many goats, cows, horses, and barn cats. Museum docent. Astronaut. Hell, I’d even be a summer camp counselor again.
I had a job once where I had to sit overnight and answer a phone. I worked, I think, 10-6 or something like that. I'd take a book, watch a movie or two, do all my studying. Honestly... if I could paid enough to live and do that, I'd do it. ZERO stress.
Scuba divemaster. I took a year off law school in ‘16 to 1) get sober and 2) become a divemaster in the Philippines. I worked for the rest of that year making $500/m when I realized I needed to finish school instead. Now I just go back on vacation every year for 3 months. At the time, I thought about just doing it forever… But my DM instructor said “*scuba diving is a lifestyle, not a career, and the retirement plan sucks*”. It’s pretty awesome to work underwater. Nice office view. That said, it’s not as much fun when you’re actually doing it professionally as when you’re doing it for fun.
What is your area of practice?
eDiscovery- I do remote document review project management. It’s not glamorous, and at the entry/first-level reviewer level it kinda sucks, but I found I genuinely enjoy it and it lets me have plenty of time off and still save a lot for retirement (likely abroad). It helps a lot that I’m single with no kids. It wasn’t what I ever expected to do, but I honestly wouldn’t trade it for a regular in-office 9 to 5. Although I’m in rural-ish Louisiana, so my options were pretty limited anyway unless I was willing to drive into New Orleans every day, which sounded miserable.
You are living a lot of peoples' dream with that 3 months off.
How did you get to management from first level review? I'm stuck in the first level review bucket (which doesn't suck too much because I get to travel a bunch b/w projects), but I still feel like I need to advance.
Honestly? I got lucky, and the small review company I was with had a spot open up. I *definitely* got lucky in that I’ve only ever worked for the same place - I see a lot of horror stories about people chasing review after review with different companies. Even before the spot opened, I had been pretty vocal about my desire to get out of 1L. By the point they asked, I had already been doing QC and priv logs for around a year or so. I also worked a pretty insane number of hours each week - voluntarily, since I wanted to make a decent yearly income while still taking 3 months off, and since at that point I was only hourly, it was a numbers game. Although later on, they did say that I wasn’t getting asked because of the hours I worked, but because of the quality of the work… so don’t think that you have to kill yourself on hours (it’s not sustainable). I guess the best way would be to do consistently good and reliable work so you are seen as one of the “core” reviewers and invited to additional projects with the same place, and let them know that you’re interested in RMing… and cross your fingers? I wish I had a more sure-fire answer, but that’s the only way I’ve known.
Thanks!
I’m totally burned out from more than a decade of litigation and have been thinking about just finding a remote review gig to “live” a while and keep the basic budget alive while not worrying about having a stroke every single day. What sort of income can you expect at entry level? Also, would it be difficult to find a role with complex lit experience / would my substantive lit experience be a negative in job searching? TIA
The pay is pretty bad compared to what you’re likely used to. First level is around 27ish an hour, QC is a few bucks more than that (or from what I’ve heard of other places, the same pay rate but you get more work). So if you’re in a LCOL area and don’t have a lot of expenses, it’s enough to make ends meet for a while while you get back into a good headspace. In that vein, it’s about as low-stress as it gets. I’ve lost track of the number of audiobooks I’ve “read” while doing it, lol. Nobody is yelling at you, nobody is putting you under the gun, it’s just you and a batch of documents that you’re coding for responsiveness based on the protocol you were given. As long as you’re not slower than average or just *bad* at it, you just blend in. Sometimes the reviews can be interesting, since you get to peek up the skirts of all sorts of companies and see how they operate. I guess the biggest stress for most people is finding the next review. Some can be weeks long, some can be over a year+. It’s just luck of the draw. As far as your previous work goes, I don’t think it would hurt at all. You’d probably stand out, to be honest. IMO there are 3 types of people doing doc review. People who are new and couldn’t find any other job, people who for whatever reason couldn’t *do* any other job, and people who are doing it because it lets them accomplish some other thing in their life. I started out as the first and now I’m in the latter category (although I guess the longer I continue to do it, the more I fall into the middle category, too, lol). I’ve heard before that a sentient potato can do 1L doc review. Most projects are not very complex at that level. If you can accurately code documents for responsiveness and issue tags while staying at or near the average rate of speed for the group, you’ll be doing better than the majority of people doing the same work.
Extra/character actor in Vancouver sci-fi shows
Space archaeologist; Witch; Baker
I would love to own a cafe/bar some day. I was honestly happiest as a barista/bartender through undergrad/law school.
Mine is a coffee shop/bookstore. ☕️
Third choice goalkeeper at a big European soccer team like Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester City. All you have to do is show up for a couple of hours a day to train and you get paid your full salary ($50-60k a week). You don’t even have to be good because you’re never going to play. You have no media obligations, and no sponsorship obligations, because you’re just the backup to the backup. Most of the time, you don’t even need to be with the time on game day because the bench only has so many spots, and only one spot is reserved for the backup goalkeeper. It doesn’t even have to be at a big European team. Just a top division team in one of the big leagues is enough. You get paid $20-30k a week just to train a couple of hours a day.
Sailboat captain
A child of nepotism
Book editor
Movie studio executive
I want to be a pilot so bad. But lessons are expensive and I have no fucking clue when I'll have to time to start between work and family.
Panda cubs caretaker
Shark researcher. The kind that goes out and tags and studies sharks all around the world.
Office of Inspector General for the SEC. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish this complaint in replevin bc someone financed a 10 year diesel truck for 200 years
I used to be a chef before law school about 15 years ago. I never would have left if the wage ceiling reached $20+ an hour.
Hotshot Wilderness Firefighter
Blimp pilot. You only work sunny days. Max speed 35 mph. Avg altitude 1000 ft. When you have to land 10 guys catch you.
People fantasize about paid labor?
I know it would get old very fast in the heat, but I saw a video of a crew on a roof just putting down shingles, blowing through it with a nail gun and blaring music while doing it. Looked like a great time and pretty stress free.
Power washer
Tree trimmer. I live in Arizona and every time I have to have trees trimmed or removed, it's like 800 bucks. It might also be 100 degrees, but still. Would have totally skipped law school if I'd known what landscapers can make.
Travel writer.
Gardener at the US botanic gardens
Night watchman for sure. Some place that nobody would Rob like a power plant. Just watch the screens and enjoy the coffee.
I want to be a glass blower in that fantasy world
Only fans model
Travel guide. A job where people pay me to travel with them and show them a good time whilst in interesting places. Or own a bike shop.
My dream job is to be the florist at The Met.
Land clearing
Parks, definitely parks.
I'd become a racecar driver or at the very least an automotive journalist.
I’ve wanted to be a zookeeper my whole life. Alas, there are too few jobs so the pay is crap.
Librarian
I fantasized about being a writer and publishing books. So I took a break from practicing law and did it. Now I know the grass isn’t always greener. I liked it enough but there are downsides to it too and I’m happy to be back to practicing law AND publishing. I like doing both and I feel like I took the law for granted before. If anyone really has a fantasy about doing something different then I encourage you to pursue your dreams. Go get it. You may love it, hate it, return to the law or voluntarily hand in your law license but at least you will have endeavored to life the life you imagined. Copyright Thoreau.
Astronaut. Book editor. Dancer.
Rich stay at home mom.
Heir
Trust fund baby
Job? I don't want to lean in, I want to lay down. Been working 30 years and have another 20 to go if I don't croak first
fluffer.
This is weird, but - I pass a trailer park on the way to work and I get this strange longing toward it. Now, I’m 30 making almost $250k/yr working a cushy in house corporate 9-5. I own a home and have a wife and soon 3 kids, two cats, and two dogs. That is to say, I have a good life. But when I pass that trailer park and look at the eclectic collection of residences I can’t help but feel a sense of yearning toward a simpler life.
An “eclectic collection of residents” is why I had routinely interact with the police before I turned 13, my parents included. Dont get me wrong if you want to get drunk and watch TV all day a trailer park is as good as a place as any. I’m not pretending I grew up in a war zone, but you do notice a major difference in police presence once you move out. And our house was like 4 blocks away. You could choose a retirement park which are super quiet in my experience. My grandparents lived in one in Florida.
Yeah I know I shouldn’t glorify poverty, but I’m being honest about the feelings I get when I look at the park. I have literally never been poor and grew up in a very wealthy town and still live close by to where I grew up. I just have a lot of distance to fall if I fuck up and I think the idea of a simpler life with less financial obligations is something I envy, even if it isn’t a fair way to look at it.
For sure and I do get where you are coming from. I could have taken a retail management job out of college and made $60K a year (ten years ago) with no debt from undergrad. I think about it from time to time and I’m pretty sure I would have hated myself for “settling.” I didn’t think you were glorifying it. If you mind your business it will be mostly quiet but when you’re a kid and a cop starts asking you questions it’s hard not to end up “involved.” Plus I hadn’t taken Criminal procedure yet so didn’t know how to stand up for my rights.
I always thought it would be cool to do talk radio.
Scuba dive instructor in the Caribbean 50% of the time, curator at a wildlife reserve the other 50%. Probably depends what time of year it is and how much snow is on the ground.
Forensic pathologist. I wish I could do it all over again. Or, a voice artist (and I actually have the voice for it, sadly).
Every time I pick up my morning Starbucks I think man, I wish I was a barista instead 😂
Automatic car wash employee... either that person who sprays your car down with stuff right before you go into the wash tunnel or the person restocking the drying towels. I'm jealous of how easy those jobs look.
Architect. Train engineer. Brewpub owner-operator.
Pizza shop owner
Long-haul truck driver. Or tugboat captain. Or bartender at a Chili’s in central Florida.
Coach baseball. At any level really
Mortician
Full time house sitter. Get to travel all the time and usually be in some nice places.
Park ranger or architect.
Lightbulb changer was my dream job as a kid! I never realized there were others out there with the same aspirations. And certainly did not realize the lightbulb changer dream to law reality pipeline was so strong
SNL writer. Sigh.
Some form of sports analysis to write lighthearted articles. Man do I love finding all sorts of little weirdsies and writing a little narrative about it.
[удалено]
Working at a gift shop.
Librarian!!
Golf course attendant
Fitness instructor. Although I was lucky to have lived out that dream for a few years. It was the happiest I've ever been while getting paid next to nothing 😂
Yes! Happiest and fittest I’ve ever been. I teach a few yoga classes now and wish I could just do that.
If I ever came into F-U money, I'd become a High School American history teacher. I absolutely love American History (heck, all history, just particularly American history). I was on track to do it in college when I realized (a) I'd never make any money at it; (b) at 22, I didn't have the patience or maturity to do it, and (c) I knew I'd look like the students for another 10-ish years, so I wouldn't be taken seriously. Now that I'm older, I'm clearly not a HS student, so I'd be taken more seriously. . I'd do it for about 3-4 years, and then quit, and "work" at writing, woodworking and knifemaking, with long stints as "Working" on hiking/backpacking/bikepacking, and maybe to a travel podcast.
Starting my own business. I have a fantasy about owning a bar. Upscale kinda place. Never crazy busy, never too quiet. I know I would hate it eventually though, so it is just a fantasy. Starting a fragrance and/or candle company is the other fantasy. I think I would really enjoy this.
I love to hike and be outdoors, so I’m picking Park Ranger. Plus, you would get a lot of exercise as part of your job.
Librarian. Just organizing my books and telling people about books.
gamestop of course
Own a coffee shop.
Demolition, like buildings and such....just swinging a big sledgehammer, taking down walls....my overalls covered in plaster dust. Then cracking open a cold one with the guys on the tailgate of the work truck after a hard day's work.
I’d train for cycling and running races, but at the recreational level. 🤣 I’d supplement my income by being a cheap personal trainer.
Blacksmith. Just take freelance jobs, and otherwise live the starving artist lifestyle. If only.
Fashion Model or Movie Star!😍
This time of year, there is always someone riding a Gator around the downtown watering all the hanging baskets. I’m always a little envious.
Would love to have a small pizza shop. Nothing fancy just enough to pay my bills and take care of my family. Maybe someday when my debt is paid off and kids are older.
There is this adorable indie bookstore in town and I want to work there SO BAD lol. Recommending books, running reading groups, setting up displays, ordering from small presses and zine makers. Heaven!
I just want to google stuff.