Two Careers at the same time?

Herro TSR users,

I am in an internal conflict with myself on what career should I pursue. I'm 17 years old, currently doing my AS year and in heavy complacency about my future. I am an academic, done quite well in my mocks. I like the idea in going to the legal profession because it's quite prestigious and its a long ongoing career with a lot of money to be made. But I really enjoyed my work experience in Year 10, when I taught a class for an hour, I really enjoyed the planning and execution of the lessons. I feel I am changing children's lives and it gave me a warm feeling.

I am pondering on perhaps being a teacher and perhaps a solicitor/barrister at the same time. Yes, I am aware of the huge amount of debt I would be getting myself into especially the vocational training of both careers (Legal Practice Course and PGCE). I'm not very educated about how employment works in these professions, like am I allowed to work 3 days a week as a solicitor? Am I allowed to work 3 days a week a week as a teacher? In addition to this, on my 'off' day, I would be expanding my own business in which I will be beginning at university.

The reasons why I am enticed into going to the legal profession is my family, none of them has gone to university and I would like to set the bar for my younger sibling. I want to make them all very proud. The legal profession also pays well which could be used to fund my own business. The reasons why I am enticed into going to education is I genuinely enjoyed my 2 weeks of work experience teaching classes of 11-12 year old, I got a warm feeling, like I was doing something right.

Am I crazy to do two professions and an own business at the same time? Any response or advice is appreciated.

Reply 1

Clip

19

The combination of the three is completely unrealistic.

However:

Teacher / own business might be do-able, depending on what your outside business is. If it's selling stuff on eBay - no problem. I know a fair few teachers who have outside businesses from private tuition to running holiday camps to property.

The idea of PGCE/LPC isn't a realistic one, and I think there is a certain level of hubris here. If you haven't quite gotten to university yet, there may be a steep learning curve in front of you.

Further - how would this work academically? Would you read Law at university? If so - what kind of teacher would you become? If you don't read Law - let's say you read Maths - then you'd have a triple Postgrad to do. The GDL, the LPC and a PGCE. You're putting yourself in the hole for an additional £25,000 for nothing I can see other than daydreaming.

Legal practise has become more and more difficult to get into as of late. Only good candidates get training at law firms. One thing that I guarantee you they won't want to hear is that you only intend on doing 3 days a week work. As a trainee - that's impossible. You might as well just turn up to an interview naked.

If you want to be a lawyer - be a lawyer. If you want to be a teacher - be a teacher. If you want to be a business owner - do that. Don't try and do all three at once

The Ted Hughes story "How the Donkey Became" springs to mind. He tries to be all creatures all at once - a Lionocertangatangadinf. And he ends up becoming a donkey.

Reply 2

basham97

OP

2

Original post by Clip

The combination of the three is completely unrealistic.

However:

Teacher / own business might be do-able, depending on what your outside business is. If it's selling stuff on eBay - no problem. I know a fair few teachers who have outside businesses from private tuition to running holiday camps to property.

The idea of PGCE/LPC isn't a realistic one, and I think there is a certain level of hubris here. If you haven't quite gotten to university yet, there may be a steep learning curve in front of you.

Further - how would this work academically? Would you read Law at university? If so - what kind of teacher would you become? If you don't read Law - let's say you read Maths - then you'd have a triple Postgrad to do. The GDL, the LPC and a PGCE. You're putting yourself in the hole for an additional £25,000 for nothing I can see other than daydreaming.

Legal practise has become more and more difficult to get into as of late. Only good candidates get training at law firms. One thing that I guarantee you they won't want to hear is that you only intend on doing 3 days a week work. As a trainee - that's impossible. You might as well just turn up to an interview naked.

If you want to be a lawyer - be a lawyer. If you want to be a teacher - be a teacher. If you want to be a business owner - do that. Don't try and do all three at once

The Ted Hughes story "How the Donkey Became" springs to mind. He tries to be all creatures all at once - a Lionocertangatangadinf. And he ends up becoming a donkey.

Thanks for the response.

I forgot to mention on the order I would be doing the professions and specific details, my apologies. I would most likely become a lawyer first as it would take the longest to train for, afterwards work in private practice (private firms and perhaps solo practice) like the rest of the 87,000 solicitors. While working in private practice, I would most likely pursue the PGCE. A degree in Law means that I am viable to teach at post-16 academic level at a higher education institute. Now that I've filled in the details, is it possible to be employed in two professions at the same time?

Reply 3

TimmonaPortella

21

Original post by basham97

Now that I've filled in the details, is it possible to be employed in two professions at the same time?

No, it still isn't.

Just take a law degree. As you say, that will enable you to teach or go into law. So you don't need to decide anything now.

Or take a degree in something else, if you want to be surer of a teaching job (I always thought you normally had to have your degree in one of the subjects you'd be teaching, and law won't always be available). Loads of people go into law from other degrees.

But put this idea out of your mind for now. By the time you actually come to consider making career related applications you'll have realised it's not feasible.

edit: Considering this would be getting a bit ahead of yourself, as all of this is really, but lots of practitioners teach in universities. That's an eventual possibility, if you're very good academically.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4

Clip

19

Original post by basham97

Thanks for the response.

I forgot to mention on the order I would be doing the professions and specific details, my apologies. I would most likely become a lawyer first as it would take the longest to train for, afterwards work in private practice (private firms and perhaps solo practice) like the rest of the 87,000 solicitors. While working in private practice, I would most likely pursue the PGCE. A degree in Law means that I am viable to teach at post-16 academic level at a higher education institute. Now that I've filled in the details, is it possible to be employed in two professions at the same time?

I'm not an expert on PGCE by any means, but what exactly are you trying to achieve? There are solicitors and barristers that also teach at universities and law schools - but is that what you want? Where do you want to teach, and to whom?

It's not impossible to do postgrad when working - but as a solicitor, I don't think it's particularly realistic unless it was entirely flexible, or supported by your employer (the chances of which are exceptionally remote). On top of that - how would you do your school experience? Tell your law firm that you want 12 weeks off to become a teacher?

The only way I see of doing this would be to have one career first, and then the other. Both at the same time isn't going to happen, and would cost a great deal for no apparent benefit.

Reply 5

moutonfou

14

Original post by basham97

Thanks for the response.

I forgot to mention on the order I would be doing the professions and specific details, my apologies. I would most likely become a lawyer first as it would take the longest to train for, afterwards work in private practice (private firms and perhaps solo practice) like the rest of the 87,000 solicitors. While working in private practice, I would most likely pursue the PGCE. A degree in Law means that I am viable to teach at post-16 academic level at a higher education institute. Now that I've filled in the details, is it possible to be employed in two professions at the same time?

After long professional careers many do then go into teaching their specialist area. So after a career as a solicitor you could then move into teaching law - this could be at universities and colleges, acting as a trainer on behalf of one of the big law professional bodies, or very large companies will likely employ dedicated trainers to deliver training and courses around the business. So there would be plenty of 'teaching' based routes to go down after a successful law career.

If you want to teach secondary, however, law isn't really complimentary. For one thing, secondary students don't study law, and unless you go down a route like Teach First, your degree subject needs to be in what you want to teach. It's also a very challenging job - presumably you had the 'real' teacher in the room when you delivered the lessons that you said you enjoyed teaching above. Now imagine you were alone, half the class didn't want to be there, they were determined to take that out on you by not listening at best or by deliberately winding you up at worst, and not only did you have to get them to listen and teach them to (very high) standard the government expects, you then had to do the same thing with another 19 classes that week. And then you had to go home and spend your whole evening preparing more for the next day - which none of your pupils will appreciate until 10 years later. That's the worst case scenario - but that's not to say it isn't the reality for many teachers. So I would think twice about secondary teaching - primary may be preferable in terms of behaviour but there is still incredible pressure from the government to achieve miracles just to be considered 'good' at your job.

Two Careers at the same time?

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