1254: Lawyers, Doctors, and the Appeal of the Clear Career Path by Kevin of Financial Panther on Self-Reflection

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily, Episode 1254. Lawyers, Doctors, and the Appeal of the Clear

[00:00:06] Career Path by Kevin of FinancialPanther.com. And I'm your narrator, Dan, and I'm

[00:00:12] here with you every single day, reading from these great blogs that cover work and productivity

[00:00:17] and all sorts of related topics. So for now, let's get right to our post and start optimizing

[00:00:22] your life. Lawyers, Doctors, and the Appeal of the Clear Career Path by Kevin of FinancialPanther.com

[00:00:34] I'm sometimes convinced that the reason a lot of people become doctors or lawyers is due

[00:00:40] to the fact that the path to those jobs is laid out pretty well. There's sort of a blueprint

[00:00:44] you can follow. Go to college, get good grades, do well on some standardized tests, and so

[00:00:49] forth and so forth. When you have things laid out for you like that, it's sort of easy

[00:00:53] to find yourself gravitating towards those career paths. Looking back at my own education

[00:00:58] and career, that's probably why I ended up going to law school and becoming a lawyer in

[00:01:02] the first place. Sure, I told myself that I had a desire to be a lawyer, but a lawyer

[00:01:07] was also a recognizable job, one that was clearly defined and that had step-by-step processes

[00:01:12] on how to get there. As a new grad looking for a good job in a bad economy, becoming a

[00:01:18] lawyer made sense to me. It had direction, and its direction that a lot of us are looking

[00:01:23] for when we're trying to figure out how to make a living. When faced between the clear career

[00:01:27] path and charting our own path, the clear career path almost always wins, even if it's

[00:01:32] not necessarily the right path for us. I think it's just important for all of us to

[00:01:37] think about why we end up on the paths we choose. The Appeal of the Clear Career Path.

[00:01:43] When you think about it, law and medicine are unique in just how structured they are.

[00:01:47] Obviously a lot of it comes down to grades and the ability to take standardized tests,

[00:01:52] which themselves can easily be studied for and gained. But a lot of becoming a lawyer

[00:01:57] or doctor is also following a step-by-step process that pretty much anyone with some

[00:02:02] smarts can do. Take the example of what you need to do if you want to become a big shot

[00:02:06] lawyer. I can pretty much boil it down to these steps. Get good grades at a decent undergrad.

[00:02:12] Get a good LSAT score. Go to the best law school you can get into, preferably a T14

[00:02:18] law school. Get good grades in law school and get on law review. Land a summer associate

[00:02:23] position at a big law firm. Do a prestigious clerkship. Be an associate at a prestigious

[00:02:28] firm and make partner or go in-house at a big company. It's a generalization of course,

[00:02:34] but those steps we laid out are pretty close to what you need to do to become a big shot

[00:02:37] attorney. I'm fairly certain that I could take any reasonably intelligent 18-year-old

[00:02:42] and basically guide them into a prestigious big law job seven years into the future.

[00:02:46] And the process is pretty similar for doctors I imagine. Basically get good undergrad grades

[00:02:51] and a good MCAT score. Get good med school grades. Land a prestigious resident C and so

[00:02:56] on. I'm not a doctor though, so this is all based on my experiences with my doctor friends.

[00:03:02] For those of us looking for direction, the step-by-step process of law or medicine can obviously

[00:03:07] be very appealing. I can tell you exactly what you need to do if you want to become a doctor

[00:03:12] or a big shot lawyer, but I can't really tell you how to become an online entrepreneur,

[00:03:17] start a business, or do some other non-obvious job where the path isn't really defined

[00:03:21] at all. It's the appeal of this clear path that I think leads to so many doctors and lawyers

[00:03:26] seemingly finding themselves unhappy and looking to do other things. That's not to say

[00:03:31] that people don't genuinely want to become doctors or lawyers. My wife is a clear example

[00:03:36] of someone who absolutely wants to be a dentist, but there's also no denying that there

[00:03:40] seem to be a lot of doctors and lawyers, myself included, who are interested in doing things

[00:03:45] unrelated to their regular jobs. A Facebook group called Physician Sidegakes has over

[00:03:50] 21,000 members. There doesn't seem to be an equivalent lawyer group, but those of you

[00:03:55] listening to this already know that I'm a lawyer that does a lot of stupid, non-legal related

[00:04:00] side hustles, and I'm definitely not alone. It makes me think that people found their way

[00:04:04] into those careers, not necessarily because it made the most sense for them but because

[00:04:09] it was there. Choose the path that's right for you.

[00:04:13] The purpose of this post isn't to say that people going into law or medicine are doing

[00:04:17] it just because the path is laid out in front of them and they aren't able to figure

[00:04:21] out other things they can do. I know that there are a lot of people that were just born

[00:04:25] to become lawyers and doctors, and I know people who love what they do. Really, this post

[00:04:30] is just a reflection on my own path. I went into the law because it had a clear direction,

[00:04:35] a process that I could follow. Looking back, I wish I had thought about it more and used

[00:04:40] a little bit of creativity to figure out what made sense for me. Going to law school definitely

[00:04:44] worked well for my skillset. I'm really good at following processes and I knew exactly

[00:04:49] what I needed to do if I wanted to become a big shot lawyer, but whether it was the right career

[00:04:54] path for me professionally is another thing. I'm now five years out of law school and nine

[00:04:59] years out of college. I'm starting to see all of the paths that exist out there. The clear

[00:05:04] career path is the one I started out on, but I see so many things out there that people can do

[00:05:09] to make a living, things like starting up a business, getting into real estate, creating something

[00:05:14] or really whatever. The possibilities are endless. The clear career path may be right for you

[00:05:20] and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. I think it's just important to really think about

[00:05:24] why we follow these paths. Question yourself and look deep inside you. Are they really the right

[00:05:30] paths for us or are we just following them because they're there? It's up to you to figure that out.

[00:05:40] You just listen to the post titled lawyers, doctors and the appeal of the clear career path

[00:05:46] by Kevin of financialpanther.com When it comes to hiring, don't go searching for the one.

[00:05:52] Just meet your match with indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over

[00:05:57] 350 million global monthly visitors and a matching engine that helps you find quality

[00:06:03] candidates fast. Ditch the busy work. Use indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging.

[00:06:09] 93% of employers agree indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites.

[00:06:15] One of the things I love about indeed is that it filters out incompatible applicants.

[00:06:19] So when you're hiring, the process is much faster and you only have to consider applicants that are

[00:06:24] already likely to be a great fit. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit

[00:06:30] to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash startup. Just go to indeed.com slash startup

[00:06:37] right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com slash startup.

[00:06:45] Terms and conditions apply need to hire. You need indeed.

[00:06:50] You don't need me to tell you that something always comes up when you're running a small business.

[00:06:55] Take the pain out of payroll benefits and HR and put the joy back in running your business

[00:07:00] with gusto. Gusto's payroll and HR services can make it a little easier. Gusto was designed for you,

[00:07:06] the small business owner. They take the pain out of running a business, automatically calculating

[00:07:11] paychecks, filing payroll taxes, setting up open enrollment. Gusto does it all. Want more?

[00:07:18] Time tracking, health insurance, 401k, onboarding, commuter benefits, offer letters, access to HR

[00:07:25] experts, you get the idea. With gusto, you can focus on the joy of running your business and it's

[00:07:31] super easy to set up and get started. And if you're moving from another provider, gusto can transfer

[00:07:36] all your data for you. So it's no surprise, 94% of customers are likely to recommend gusto.

[00:07:43] 94! And here's the best part because you're a listener, you get three months totally free.

[00:07:49] All you have to do is go to gusto.com slash owd. Again that's gusto.com slash owd and I'm telling

[00:07:57] you you're going to love gusto. Get started today. And thank you to Kevin who is an attorney

[00:08:04] and the blogger behind financial panther, which is a blog about personal finance, travel hacking

[00:08:09] and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just two

[00:08:15] and a half years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer. Kevin is passionate about earning

[00:08:20] money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month

[00:08:25] in his side hustle reports. So check out more of his great content at financialpanther.com.

[00:08:31] And that does it for today here on Optimal Work Daily. I thank you so much for being here

[00:08:36] and I'll see you back here tomorrow where I'll have another post and where your Optimal Life awaits.