Working while in 1L

[5abi]

Hey all,

 

So I got into law, which I really didn’t plan for. 
 

my problem now is giving my job which pays 200k+. Which honestly I’m willing to do. 
 

has anyone worked 20-30 hours a week, say one full day and 3 half days through school?

 

how manageable is this? To compare, I did a year of 4 courses per semester (Athabasca) without taking any time off. But some of those courses were a joke. 
 

Thanks,

5abi

[Turtles]

I worked a full-time corporate job during 1L and did fine. The key is the level of flexibility of school (e.g., scheduling, mandatory attendance vs availability of recordings) and flexibility of work (e.g., scheduling of meetings and so on).

[5abi]

1 minute ago, Turtles said:

I worked a full-time corporate job during 1L and did fine. The key is the level of flexibility of school (e.g., scheduling, mandatory attendance vs availability of recordings) and flexibility of work (e.g., scheduling of meetings and so on).

Can you build on this, how did you do it?

 

 

[Turtles]

25 minutes ago, 5abi said:

Can you build on this, how did you do it?

 

 

My 1L classes were mostly in the mornings EST, while my team had flexibility on start times, so I could largely just do law school lectures in the morning and then hop on to work normal PST work hours. I also had good flexibility to start work earlier/later and take a long lunch if I needed to do something in the afternoon for school. My company didn't want to lose me and saw value in the additional education, so they were very flexible. My performance at work didn't suffer and I received some promotions and raises along the way, while my performance at school was good enough for the 1L big law recruit. 

Depending on your personality, the added time pressures of balancing work and school can actually make you more motivated and on the ball than if you had only one. I also appreciated work keeping me away from some of the 1L gossipy/cliquey drama and providing 8+ hours per day of contact with non-law people, which made it a bit more restful and fun. The most felt benefit IMO was the financial freedom and lack of guilt. When you're a student using borrowed PSLOC funds, a $25 uber eats meal stings so you feel compelled to avoid the temptation of a take-out meal and spend time shopping/prepping/cooking/cleaning, or worse, going for something really unhealthy but cheap. When you're making $$$, and have a packed schedule, that $25 passably-healthy meal doesn't require second-thought and can be delivered by the end of your work call. Similar for Uber rides vs feeling the need to take public transit, shopping on Amazon vs going to hunt flyers, etc. Little luxuries like that can return more of your time, give some peace of mind, and make things a bit easier than for many of your cohort.

Work from home + schedule flexibility were critical for me. If I had to run around all day between home / office / client site/ school or risk missing classes that had mandatory attendance with no lecture recordings, that'd be a deal breaker. Thankfully Osgoode's courses (not seminars or tutorials) are by default all recorded, so even missing a class just meant watching the recording a bit later.      

[5abi]

5 minutes ago, Turtles said:

My 1L classes were mostly in the mornings EST, while my team had flexibility on start times, so I could largely just do law school lectures in the morning and then hop on to work normal PST work hours. I also had good flexibility to start work earlier/later and take a long lunch if I needed to do something in the afternoon for school. My company didn't want to lose me and saw value in the additional education, so they were very flexible. My performance at work didn't suffer and I received some promotions and raises along the way, while my performance at school was good enough for the 1L big law recruit. 

Depending on your personality, the added time pressures of balancing work and school can actually make you more motivated and on the ball than if you had only one. I also appreciated work keeping me away from some of the 1L gossipy/cliquey drama and providing 8+ hours per day of contact with non-law people, which made it a bit more restful and fun. The most felt benefit IMO was the financial freedom and lack of guilt. When you're a student using borrowed PSLOC funds, a $25 uber eats meal stings so you feel compelled to avoid the temptation of a take-out meal and spend time shopping/prepping/cooking/cleaning, or worse, going for something really unhealthy but cheap. When you're making $$$, and have a packed schedule, that $25 passably-healthy meal doesn't require second-thought and can be delivered by the end of your work call. Similar for Uber rides vs feeling the need to take public transit, shopping on Amazon vs going to hunt flyers, etc. Little luxuries like that can return more of your time, give some peace of mind, and make things a bit easier than for many of your cohort.

Work from home + schedule flexibility were critical for me. If I had to run around all day between home / office / client site/ school or risk missing classes that had mandatory attendance with no lecture recordings, that'd be a deal breaker. Thankfully Osgoode's courses (not seminars or tutorials) are by default all recorded, so even missing a class just meant watching the recording a bit later.      

Amazing answer, thank you!

 

unfortunately my work is in person, but I think I could figure something out for 20 hrs/week

[scooter]

Just now, 5abi said:

unfortunately my work is in person, but I think I could figure something out for 20 hrs/week

I think in terms of total workload it would probably be manageable to work 20 hours/week, especially for someone who has experience working full-time for a number of years. Law school is work, but it isn't that much work. The bigger issue as mentioned above by Turtles is scheduling.

One thing to be aware of is that 1L schedules are generally less flexible than 2L/3L. I don't know about University of Calgary specifically (I assume that is where you are going based on your post history?), but maybe someone can share their 1L schedule with you and chime in on whether U of C profs record their classes, or if attendance is required. If profs record their classes and attendance is optional, then you can catch up on your own time if you miss lectures on certain days of the week.

13 minutes ago, Turtles said:

Work from home + schedule flexibility were critical for me. If I had to run around all day between home / office / client site/ school or risk missing classes that had mandatory attendance with no lecture recordings, that'd be a deal breaker. Thankfully Osgoode's courses (not seminars or tutorials) are by default all recorded, so even missing a class just meant watching the recording a bit later.      

Just to give an example of how this can vary based on your school, at my school (Ottawa) you have class every day of the week in 1L, and almost no professors record their classes. While attendance is mostly optional, it would have been almost impossible to work full-time during regular business hours. To do your plan of 1 full day and 3 half days, I think I would have had to skip at least 25% of my classes.

However, in 2L/3L people can more easily create a schedule where they only have class 2-3 days/week, or where most of their classes are in the evening. In 2L right now I could easily work 3 weekdays full-time without missing any classes.

[Legalboi]

UofC classes are not mandatory attendance but they are also not recorded. Except for the rare exception profs don’t want to do it at all. 

The 1L schedule at UofC would make it pretty tough to get 20 hours in from an in-person 9-5 job. Each semester you either get Monday or Friday off. You’ll have 2-3 classes per day in the fall semester and 2 per day in the winter.

The spacing of classes are what would make it tough, even during the less dense winter semester you have 1 class in the morning and 1 class in the afternoon each of the 4 days.