The Off Topic Topic

[Ideologue]

Helpful.

[The Brain]

Well a good alibi for law school is gonna cost you.

[garbon]

What I've just said. But also for him it matters. I remember reading a study of the last major recession in the UK in the early 90s and people who graduated during that earned less across their lifetime than would have been expected because they'd missed those first years of gaining experience and earning. It has an effect throughout their career.

This is my mother's biggest concern about my one sister who keeps goofing off / leaving good positions when she gets them. My sister is under this notion that she doesn't really want to/need to really work until she's in her late 20s.

[garbon]

Second thing is how to fill that gap from 2008-2011.  I'm thinking my dad owned a landscaping (or similar small) business, I worked for him, he died, I sold it, put the money into a retirement fund (explaining why I live like shit now).  This may be too ambitious.  Other suggestions are welcome, and I'm not trying to be funny.

Sounds way too elaborate. After all, how would a potential employer even know about you living like shit?

I'd ask Dorsey. He's good on coming up with plausible life stories.

[Ideologue]

Wait: I was dad's paralegal.  Kind of obvious now that I think about it.  Dad's paralegal quit (or maybe she died).  A little after college, 2008-2011, I quit my job as a low-level restaurant manager (95% real, I did have a managerial title and training) and started working with him to help him keep his firm running, and dad paid more anyway.  Then he retired or died, and since I am not an attorney myself--I saw dad struggle in the face of the industry's collapse--I did not take over the family farm.  I went into contract litigation support work (this is the real part).  Two years later I decide that big firms suck, the work is not remunerative or stable enough, and I want to transition into a related or entirely new field, with five years of legal/office experience.

Scarlet letters begone.

(As for why I'm in Columbia and background checks would return Columbia addresses post 2008 and the upstate prior to that... well, obviously, it's because my parents divorced at a young age, my dad stayed in Columbia and I stayed with my mom in the Piedmont.)

Thoughts?  It doesn't have to be my dad--it could be a family friend, if that seems less nepotistic.  And obviously for places with resources to determine that this is made up--namely state and federal governments--this is a bad idea.  It's also worse than useless for applying to paralegal positions, I expect.  But for compliance gigs, banking gigs, insurance co. gigs, what's the harm?

[Ideologue]

Second thing is how to fill that gap from 2008-2011.  I'm thinking my dad owned a landscaping (or similar small) business, I worked for him, he died, I sold it, put the money into a retirement fund (explaining why I live like shit now).  This may be too ambitious.  Other suggestions are welcome, and I'm not trying to be funny.

Sounds way too elaborate. After all, how would a potential employer even know about you living like shit?

I drive a 2000 Camry with a busted up rear end.

I'd ask Dorsey. He's good on coming up with plausible life stories.

Well, for the longer term, there's also accounting.

[Iormlund]

Why would you employ someone for an entry-level position who's say 27 or older, without work experience, as opposed to someone who's just graduated?

Why not?

Same reasons the young are more able to bear a recession. They're cheaper, more flexible, less likely to have external commitments (so no work-life balance issues) and far more likely to stay that way. As harsh as it sounds someone in the late 20s is more likely to get married or have kids than a recent graduate. Also if they've studied something practical that knowledge is more likely to be fresh and up to date than someone who graduated five years ago and has since spent that time working in a bar in another country.

Nothing there fits my work experience. My best colleagues started late their careers in their field. One was a pro-athlete, another spent a few years working odd jobs and finally jumped from the warehouse to the Eng. Dpt, and finally another one tried to reinvent himself as a solder, then went back to IT years later. I would hire any one of those in a heartbeat.
I started working automation in my late 20s as well (a complete reset on my career path).

Also, I've gone through enough project start-ups to know having no life doesn't improve your performance on the job and only contributes to burn people out.

[Capetan Mihali]

Thoughts? 

You're gonna end up mentioning your law school student loan debt to someone at work eventually.  Probably within the first 48 hours.

[Ideologue]

 

[garbon]

Why would you employ someone for an entry-level position who's say 27 or older, without work experience, as opposed to someone who's just graduated?

Why not?

Same reasons the young are more able to bear a recession. They're cheaper, more flexible, less likely to have external commitments (so no work-life balance issues) and far more likely to stay that way. As harsh as it sounds someone in the late 20s is more likely to get married or have kids than a recent graduate. Also if they've studied something practical that knowledge is more likely to be fresh and up to date than someone who graduated five years ago and has since spent that time working in a bar in another country.

Nothing there fits my work experience. My best colleagues started late their careers in their field. One was a pro-athlete, another spent a few years working odd jobs and finally jumped from the warehouse to the Eng. Dpt, and finally another one tried to reinvent himself as a solder, then went back to IT years later. I would hire any one of those in a heartbeat.
I started working automation in my late 20s as well (a complete reset on my career path).

Also, I've gone through enough project start-ups to know having no life doesn't improve your performance on the job and only contributes to burn people out.

All of your examples seem to be of people who had some form of employment.

[Iormlund]

All of your examples seem to be of people who had some form of employment.

Yes, but they (we) were also starting careers in their late 20s, with no meaningful experience.

[Eddie Teach]

Thoughts? 

You're gonna end up mentioning your law school student loan debt to someone at work eventually.  Probably within the first 48 hours.

I agree, better to suck it up and find somebody who will take you with a JD.

[alfred russel]

Something easy would be to start from scratch.

I dropped out of school for a while and worked mostly in restaurants. Then I went back to school. Nothing shameful about that, but not something I want to discuss all the time. So I just say I graduated in 20xx (which I did), got a masters one year later, and then started working.

You could, theoretically, get a second bachelors and do the same thing. You probably look a bit older though.

[Ed Anger]

I'd rather have a 30 year old instead of some snotty 22 year old with a shitty attitude.

Hi.

Yuo= No

[sbr]

For Seedy