Creating a Vision of your Ideal Job

Lawyers Assistance Program Facilitated by Robert Bircher 1

Quantifying What you Want

• Making transitions in jobs is a normal part of career development-not an aberration • In fact, the chances of being in the ideal job for you -after articling is remote • Fortunately, law is a wide field offering many variations-legal, quasi legal and non legal • Law offers many cultures including large firms, solo practice, corporate, government etc.

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What do you Want?

• Lawyers often do their career planning after they have practiced a while-the first clue being a sense of discomfort ranging from mild dissatisfaction to overt misery, anxiety or depression • At this point lawyers are often lost and waste time hoping for “something to come along” - it rarely will • The most effective first step is to get a more accurate sense of what you want or like 3

What do you Want?

• Many lawyers are unclear about what they want-they have been conditioned to want what others tell them they “should want” parents, society, teachers etc.

• “You will be happy if you get a high paying job in a big firm” you may now have that -yet are miserable due to the long hours and pressure and feel the trade off for big money was a mistake • Going to another big firm simply means you will have the same job in a different building-no real change has occurred 4

Creating a Job Map or Grid

• You need to know your interests, skills, values, people and environment preferences • It is like having a shopping list before you go shopping-you won’t forget things and you will go to the right stores if you have one-if you have no idea what you want you will wander aimlessly • Interests-Subject matters to which you are drawn-topics that you read about 5

Creating a Job Grid

• Skills-abilities you have developed over your lifetime • Values-intangible guiding principles, motivators or drivers-everything you do is driven by your values-unfortunately they are often unconscious • People preferences-type of people, how many, what kind of interaction with co workers etc.

• Environment-office atmosphere, physical structure, work schedule, degree of freedom and flexibility 6

Completing the Grid

• Creativity is a right brain activity, do not be “practical, sensible or realistic” i.e. asking yourself “how am I ever going to get paid for this” or “there is no such thing as a good paying job doing that” • Focusing on how am I going to get it before you are clear on what you want is a grievous error!!

• When you are clear on what you want the how follows even if what you want seems ridiculous 7

What do I have Passion for?

• EG.-”I want to be paid massive amounts of money to have coffee with interesting people and be on TV” sounds impossible until you talk with Oprah Winfrey • Assume you will be paid what you are now or what you want • Pick your top 5 in each area-use a highlighter or rate the qualities on a 10 point scale • Have a meeting with 2 others and defend your top choices 8

What do I have Passion for?

• Do these qualities show up in my life, if so where? Are they “should” values values I am “supposed to have” but they don’t appear in my life now or in the past • If I say I am interested in psychology where does that show up in my life?-i.e... my library is full of psychology books-if I say I value health where does that show up?-weight-fitness level etc.-or do you say you value it but don’t live it-i.e.. overweight, out of shape, poor nutrition etc 9

Complete the Grid

• Put your top 5 in each category • Complete what you don’t want • Stand up and read out what you want to the class • Develop a visualization that you already have it-feel it!!!

• Surround yourself with people that will support you in getting it • Take massive action but don’t worry about how the exact way it will come about or that it is “impractical” you won’t get positive results with negative thoughts 10