Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Commitment Issues

I realized this morning that I have been at my current job for 2 years and a little over four months, and that this is the longest I have continually worked at any job in my entire life. My work history goes something like this:

High School:
Summer job in a hotel gift shop (3 mos)
Part time job for a chain of golf stores (1 year)

College:
Resident Assistant (1 year)
Cashier at Disney World (3 months)
Assistant to Lobbyist (2 months)
Clerical Temp (~6 months)
Part time Legal Secretary (1 year)

Law School:
Summer Law Clerk (3 months)
Part-Time Law Clerk for Small Firm (8 months)
Summer Associate (3 months)
Law Clerk for Solo Practitioner (9 months)

Post-Law School:
Associate with Big Law Firm (little under 2 years)
Associate with Solo Practitioner (~6 months)
Associate with Litigation Boutique (2 years, 1 month)
Current Job with Big Law Firm(2 years, 4 months and counting)

It had never dawned on me before that I have never really made the big long-term commitment to a particular company or job. Now, in college and law school that was a function of the temporary nature of my position--I was always headed on to somewhere else, and everyone understood the gig was temporary. But since I graduated from law school, it certainly looks like I tend to get antsy and want to make a change before 2 years pass by. I doubt it was an accident that my sudden urge to research greener pastures seemed to hit in about February of this year.

But for long-term success and happiness, I need to find a place that I want to stay and build something of my own, to carve out my own niche. I just have to figure out how to do that. I certainly don't want my resume to look like one of a serial firm-jumper, and yet that is exactly how it looks right now. So if I make another jump, and who knows if I will (not exactly many cushy landing spots appearing on the horizon these days), I need to know it's to a place where I want to fully commit. I've dated BigLaw, but if I leave here for somewhere else like In-House or Government, I should be ready to marry.

Of course, in order to do that I should probably have at least a tiny clue of what I really want.

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