Hi, and welcome to The Former Lawyer Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Cottrell. I practiced law for 10 years and now I help unhappy lawyers ditch their soul-sucking jobs. On this show, I share advice and strategies for aspiring former lawyers, and interviews with former lawyers who have left the law behind to find careers and lives that they love.

Today I want to talk about a question that a lot of people start asking themselves when we are experiencing a time economically, where we are now, where there's instability, there are quite a few layoffs in the legal industry, and for lawyers who are thinking about leaving law to do something else, often circumstances like this, which of course come around cyclically, cause people to question “Is now really the right time? Should I really be thinking about leaving? Can I really get hired in another industry?” All of these questions.

Let's say at the outset, the response to any of this is sort of the classic, “It depends.” But more to the point, I think it's important to think about what for you, if this is something that you are thinking about, if this is a question that you have, what is underlying your question?

By that I mean, often when people are asking this question, there's a concern that essentially, they are going to put effort into figuring out something else and that it's not going to work out.

I think a really important thing to keep in mind, if you're thinking about leaving the law during a period of economic instability or thinking about trying to get hired in another industry is that there are macro trends and there are micro-trends.

There are macro trends that certainly impact all of us. But for you and the questions about you, really, you want to think about them more on the micro level. Here's what I mean by that. Until you know what it is that you want to be targeting and what direction you want to go and have figured out that question, which is a question that takes some time, for many people, quite a bit of time, you really don't know the answer to “Is now a good time?”

Even if on the macro level, the answer is “Now is not the best time to be trying to find a job in X in such industry or leaving a job,” even if that's true on the macro level, there are still things on the micro level that might make it the right time for you.

I mean, a huge part of this is just yeah, on the macro level, people may not be getting jobs at the same rate or there might be less jobs in whatever industry. But on a micro level, if there's something specific that you have targeted that you're interested in and that you're pursuing, whether people in some broader sense are or are not getting jobs in the industry is not particularly relevant to are there positions that you are interested in that you can apply for and that you can ultimately land.

There are people who I work with who are getting jobs, both bridge jobs and legal jobs and legal adjacent and also jobs that are not practicing jobs, basically at any point in any economic cycle.

The question is not really so much “Can you get a different job, or can you figure out what it is that you want to do that isn't practicing law and then target that?” It's more a question of “Are you even in a position where you'd know what you want to be targeting and can be targeting it in a meaningful way?”

For example, if you're wanting to leave law and you're targeting non-legal jobs, but you haven't really identified the specific type of job you want, you haven't necessarily given your resume a real overhaul in terms of making it, gearing it towards the non-legal position that you're looking for in terms of getting another job, the fact that you're using a non-specific resume has more of an impact and is more relevant than, on the macro level, how many jobs are available in a particular industry.

I think often when people are asking this question, part of the reason they're wanting to know “Is now a bad time?” is that they are wanting to decrease the uncertainty that you feel when you're thinking about doing something else, which I completely get because I understand that there are lots of uncertainty as you're moving into often a different field that doesn't have the same clear path that being a lawyer does.

But at the same time, I think often this question, unfortunately, is something that keeps people from even trying to figure out what it is that they want to do. Because this is something that comes up often when I'm talking with lawyers. People sometimes feel like, “I shouldn't start trying to figure out what I want to do until I basically could leave at a moment's notice.”

The reason that I think that is not a super helpful way to think about it is that, as I said earlier, figuring out what you want to do is a complex process that takes time. There are lots of things that you can be doing to facilitate that process, to get more clarity, to position yourself for the things that you ultimately decide you want to do that you can do before you're in a position where you're wanting to walk out the door.

In fact, when you wait until the point where you're like, "I really want to walk out the door," often then there's this kind of time pressure of, "Oh, my goodness, I need to figure out what I want to do right now because I want to walk out the door. Where am I going?"

In many cases, for people who are in that position, they express that they wish they had started sooner in terms of doing the work that would help them figure out what it is that they want to do.

All of this to say, that's why I say, “Is now a bad time to be thinking about making a move or to be starting the process?” The reason the answer is it depends is because there are all of these factors at play, but in particular, starting the process, figuring things out, and actually positioning yourself and getting to the point where you can be making those moves are two different parts of the process if that makes sense.

If you're someone—and many of you are—who tells me, “I know that I don't want to practice law, I'm pretty sure I don't want to practice law, but I have literally no idea what else I would want to do,” the fact that now might not be a great time to leave your job or that it might be hard to get hired in whatever industry you ultimately identify is kind of irrelevant because you don't yet know what that industry is, how you're going to position yourself, or whether you want to do it. Does that make sense?

I feel that sounds sort of obvious and I don't mean it in a snarky way, but the reality is that there is a big difference between the day I walk out the door for my job and when I start figuring out what it is that I want to do.

Honestly, my view is that the more time you can give yourself to figure out what it is that you want, the better because then you don't end up in a situation where you feel a lot of time pressure to figure things out really quickly to have some sort of rapid epiphany and you give yourself space to be able to figure out what is really going to be the best fit which is the ultimate goal of the process.

The other reality is that if you are in a position where you are interviewing and targeting other jobs and you get an offer, then the question of “Is now a bad time?” becomes irrelevant because it doesn't matter if it's a bad time generically, the reality is that if you've targeted the particular role that you're interested in and you get hired in that role, then it might not be a great time generically, but it's a great time for you specifically because you just got the role that you're interested in.

This is just some food for thought for those of you who are asking this question because I know it comes up a lot in terms of like, “Is now a bad time? Is it a bad time to be thinking about making a move? Is that a bad time to start the process?” These are the factors to consider when you're asking yourself those questions.

Of course, as always, if you are interested in getting started this process, one of the best places that you can do that is inside The Former Lawyer Collab with the other lawyers who are also figuring it out along with you and the curriculum that I've created called The Former Lawyer Framework, which basically takes you from, “I have no idea what it is that I want to do” to identifying what it is that you want to do and then ultimately targeting and landing that role, whatever it is.

If you're interested in joining us, you can go to formerlawyer.com/collab. That is all from me for this week. I will talk to you next week.

Are you sick of just thinking about it and ready to take action towards leaving the law? Join us in the Former Lawyer Collab. The Collab is my entry-level program for lawyers who are wanting to make a change and leave the law for another career. You can join us at formerlawyer.com/collab. Until next time, have a great week.