I graduated from law school at the University of Tennessee in 2008, and actually visited at Seattle University Law School the third year where I finished.
In hindsight, I shot myself in the foot a little bit because rather than doing law firm internships, I was more interested in business and was helping my friends on some startup company ideas. Towards the end I started looking into internships, and came very close to getting several, but ultimately had no job waiting when I graduated. I also found my real niche towards the end, primarily in corporate, tax, and intellectual property law. These fields, of course, lend themselves to working with startups, venture capital, etc., and so after passing the bar I did this a while as a solo practitioner. Getting work was very tough, though, given the economy and the fact that a lot of that type of work is concentrated in very large law firms (which won't hire me because I wasn't top 10 in my class nor did I go to a top 10 school).
So, after a while I started thinking about an MBA... I applied to a few programs, and got accepted to Hult (with a scholarship), and Tulane. Hult seems to be a greatly emerging school with a cool multi-campus aspect, and is only one year, but may be lacking in name brand. Tulane seems to have a pretty damn good name and alumni network, but it's quite expensive and is two years long. Plus, New Orleans is very fun but I've become a bit more of a San Francisco/New York sort of person rather than a southerner, but maybe this doesn't matter as much.
I'm approaching the MBA as a way to "reboot" my lack of "real" work experience (that is, non-entrepreneurial experience, even though my entrepreneurial works were actually reasonably profitable). I figure with enough legwork I could get an internship via the MBA program, and later, a job. Whereas right now, even with a law degree and a pretty strong background in web/computer science, there seems to be absolutely nothing out there (especially in business law).
I have heard some say, however, that an MBA won't make the person nor the opportunity, ultimately... That employers will still look to your previous work experience, and if there is very little, you could still end up screwed.
Any thoughts on this? I have also considered deferring a year, and possibly applying to other programs (perhaps raising my GMAT and going for some Top 10 schools). I'm a bit stuck... Who would have thought a law degree would be so worthless!
In hindsight, I shot myself in the foot a little bit because rather than doing law firm internships, I was more interested in business and was helping my friends on some startup company ideas. Towards the end I started looking into internships, and came very close to getting several, but ultimately had no job waiting when I graduated. I also found my real niche towards the end, primarily in corporate, tax, and intellectual property law. These fields, of course, lend themselves to working with startups, venture capital, etc., and so after passing the bar I did this a while as a solo practitioner. Getting work was very tough, though, given the economy and the fact that a lot of that type of work is concentrated in very large law firms (which won't hire me because I wasn't top 10 in my class nor did I go to a top 10 school).
So, after a while I started thinking about an MBA... I applied to a few programs, and got accepted to Hult (with a scholarship), and Tulane. Hult seems to be a greatly emerging school with a cool multi-campus aspect, and is only one year, but may be lacking in name brand. Tulane seems to have a pretty damn good name and alumni network, but it's quite expensive and is two years long. Plus, New Orleans is very fun but I've become a bit more of a San Francisco/New York sort of person rather than a southerner, but maybe this doesn't matter as much.
I'm approaching the MBA as a way to "reboot" my lack of "real" work experience (that is, non-entrepreneurial experience, even though my entrepreneurial works were actually reasonably profitable). I figure with enough legwork I could get an internship via the MBA program, and later, a job. Whereas right now, even with a law degree and a pretty strong background in web/computer science, there seems to be absolutely nothing out there (especially in business law).
I have heard some say, however, that an MBA won't make the person nor the opportunity, ultimately... That employers will still look to your previous work experience, and if there is very little, you could still end up screwed.
Any thoughts on this? I have also considered deferring a year, and possibly applying to other programs (perhaps raising my GMAT and going for some Top 10 schools). I'm a bit stuck... Who would have thought a law degree would be so worthless!
