I am asking this forum for advice because I think the diversity of people here can give a much better perspective on life than if I just asked a bunch of my lawyer friends.
I've been hating my job lately. I don't hate the work. I just hate there's so much of it. If I had a normal amount of work, I think I would actually quite like it. I am a junior attorney at a large law firm. I don't consider myself exceptionally career driven. I commit to be good at the things I do and I work hard when I need to, but I will never choose work over other aspects of my life. Family, friends, significant other, exercise, sleep, and hobbies are all aspects of my life that I would like to maintain. I also want to make enough money to have a comfortable living. The problem is that I'm not even coming close to balancing these work/life aspects. My time-management skills are not outstanding, but I am not horribly inefficient either. I devote most of my time to work and significant other. I see my parents every now and then. I have time to work out maybe once or twice a week. My participation in sports have dwindled to a minimum. I see friends once or twice a month at best. I have almost no time to do things such as cook and clean my apartment.
Last year I billed 2300 hours. This year I am on pace to bill 2400 hours. For those of your non-lawyers, most law firms set 2000 hours as a target. So 2300 is about 2 extra months of work in a year. I don't even ask for the work. It's just coming to me, mostly due to the staffing situation at my firm and the fact that people have figured out that I am a dependable worker.
If you count up the average number of hours I work per week (worked, not billed), it doesn't even seem that high. It's probably around 60-something. But I work every single day of the week. I can count in one hand the number of free weekends I've had in the past year. My understanding is that many investment banking and consulting jobs average 80+ hours per week. Am I being a wuss? Do I need to drastically improve my time management?
I know I can leave my job and go work for a small shop that pays maybe $50K a year. But I also don't want to have to worry about finances all the time. If I want to make at least $100K in this country as a young professional, outside getting lucky with a good investment or something, should I expect to be putting in as many hours as I do? Is this normal?
I've been hating my job lately. I don't hate the work. I just hate there's so much of it. If I had a normal amount of work, I think I would actually quite like it. I am a junior attorney at a large law firm. I don't consider myself exceptionally career driven. I commit to be good at the things I do and I work hard when I need to, but I will never choose work over other aspects of my life. Family, friends, significant other, exercise, sleep, and hobbies are all aspects of my life that I would like to maintain. I also want to make enough money to have a comfortable living. The problem is that I'm not even coming close to balancing these work/life aspects. My time-management skills are not outstanding, but I am not horribly inefficient either. I devote most of my time to work and significant other. I see my parents every now and then. I have time to work out maybe once or twice a week. My participation in sports have dwindled to a minimum. I see friends once or twice a month at best. I have almost no time to do things such as cook and clean my apartment.
Last year I billed 2300 hours. This year I am on pace to bill 2400 hours. For those of your non-lawyers, most law firms set 2000 hours as a target. So 2300 is about 2 extra months of work in a year. I don't even ask for the work. It's just coming to me, mostly due to the staffing situation at my firm and the fact that people have figured out that I am a dependable worker.
If you count up the average number of hours I work per week (worked, not billed), it doesn't even seem that high. It's probably around 60-something. But I work every single day of the week. I can count in one hand the number of free weekends I've had in the past year. My understanding is that many investment banking and consulting jobs average 80+ hours per week. Am I being a wuss? Do I need to drastically improve my time management?
I know I can leave my job and go work for a small shop that pays maybe $50K a year. But I also don't want to have to worry about finances all the time. If I want to make at least $100K in this country as a young professional, outside getting lucky with a good investment or something, should I expect to be putting in as many hours as I do? Is this normal?
