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If you are considering being a lawyer, eventually you wonder what the day-to-day life of the job is like, and if it is a fit for you. Just as everyone is different, every lawyer's experience is different. To be fair, the best I could do is tell you of my experience in the career, why I do it, and what it does for me.

Becoming a lawyer is a terrible ordeal for some. I didn't find the process of becoming a lawyer to be terribly troublesome. I enjoy learning, so the extra schooling was for the most part pleasurable. In Texas you have to go to law school to become licensed. That means first obtaining your undergraduate degree. So, finish high school with the best grades you can, then finish a degree with the best grades you can, and then take the LSAT.

The LSAT is a hard test to study for. It isn't a memorization test. It is a test of your mental processes. It gauges how you process and understand information. There are LSAT courses and training materials. Personally I found that the book I bought to "study" for the test really only helped me to reduce fear of the test by showing me what to expect. The materials did not teach me answers for the test. After the LSAT, it is time to find a law school to accept you based on your grades, undergraduate degree and LSAT score.

The first year of law school is the hardest. It is a change from the way you did courses in the past, and it is a birthing process for your brain. You are torn from the traditional school roles you know and forced into a new way of thinking and learning. If you survive the first semester, the rest is just a process.

After law school is the Bar Exam. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you take a bar exam prep course. It will refresh and focus your past learning towards passing the test. The test itself takes several days and is very stressful. Many do not pass the first attempt. I feel no shame in bragging that I passed on my first try. I know people who didn't, and others who never did.

After getting your license is the point that the reality of being a lawyer begins. You may be fortunate enough to have had good intern positions in school and have a job waiting for you when you graduate. In actuality, these lucky few are rare. Most people graduate and now must find or create a job. At this point dreams evaporate and reality takes hold. No matter what you wanted to do as a lawyer, you will likely do whatever first accepts you. Among my four best friends in law school, we each had a hard time finding work. One close friend sent out over 400 resumes in the first month after getting licensed. He had good grades, had been on law review, and had years of intern and clerking experience. Out of 400 resumes he got 400 rejection letters and not one interview. He ended up working at the place he had interned until he opened a solo practice in Austin. It took me over six months to secure my first job as a lawyer. I got it by desperately applying for everything, including paralegal positions. James "Jim" Stanley of Fort Worth gave me my first job. He was stunned that a new grad would be applying for a paralegal position and made an attorney position for me. I will forever be grateful to Jim for that. Another friend never got a job as a lawyer. He joined the peace corps, got released for medical reasons, and I believe he became a lobbyist (the last I heard). The fourth managed to secure a job with the state attorney general's office, but lost his license to practice law in a few years after that.

My first job lasted exactly one year. I was then again unemployed for months. I took to delivering pizza at night and trying to run a small office of my own. Fortunately, I found an employer. I earned a very low wage despite being a departmental supervising attorney. Three years later, that job ended and I was looking for work again. That period of unemployment lasted months. I ended up working as a technical writer while I kept searching for legal work. The next job was at a high volume firm with tremendous stress for productivity and very high case loads. That job lasted three years. I left to a smaller firm, and hated the next year of practice. I was embarrassed for whom I worked for and got out as soon as possible. The next job lasted five years before I decided to go solo. That job was the best of my career, aside from being solo. Being solo is a mixed bag of high stress, cash flow issues and other functions naturally arising from the business of practicing law.

My experience has not required tracking billable hours very often. I must admit I personally find a billable hours requirement to be very demeaning. In these positions you are not told how many hours to work, you are told how many hours a month you must bill. However long you have to work to make that billable hour requirement is your problem. These attorneys typically get paid very well, but suffer from extremely long hours, stress and burnout. I imagine their personal lives suffer a terrible toll as well. While I have been fortunate to usually only work five day weeks, these lawyers often work six or seven day weeks in an effort to meet their billable hour requirements.

Socially, being a lawyer really has very little effect. Your friends will not be impressed or repulsed by your career choice. Members of the opposite sex will not find your career choice to be an incentive to date you (In fact I have laughed when I hear of ladies who absolutely refuse to EVER date a lawyer again). Your degree does not automatically open doors to other career choices for you, nor does it guarantee a successful life. Face it, being a lawyer is job. It isn't glamorous, it is not adventurous, and if you really try to talk to non-lawyers about what you do, they will be disappointed that it wasn't like the TV shows and lose interest fast.

However, being a lawyer isn't all bad. You will feel a personal sense of accomplishment. If you fix things for a client you genuinely feel like you have helped another person. You will see all of life with new eyes, being able to critically analyze almost everything around you. You may get bored with some tasks, but there is always something interesting just a phone call or a page turn away. You will have a job that you can do well after retirement age has passed (which you'd better do, since most lawyers are not offered retirement plans through their jobs). On average you will earn a better wage than your peers in non-professional fields.

In summation, being a lawyer is not what you might expect. It takes a lot from you to get to the point of being a practicing lawyer. It will take a lot from you to practice law. You will not have job security. You will not have immense possibilities or choices laid at your feet. But, if you enjoy fixing problems, if you enjoy mental battles, if you enjoy analyzing people and situations, you will be relatively happy with what you do. The rest is just like any other job. You will hate the time it takes from your home life, you will hate how work affects your moods, you will always wish for more money and less hours. Being a lawyer is just another job. Albeit, an expensive and difficult job to get. However, if it is the job you think you want, you should go for it. Just like anything else in life, getting what you want takes effort and sacrifice. Only you can decide if the effort and sacrifice is worth what you will get out of it.