The Key To A Job Is Even More School?

Potentially good news in a bit. I'll update this after lunch if some things fall into place. Has anyone seen my dress slacks?

Afternoon EDIT:

Luckily a fair number of my classmates already have a job. When they graduated they didn't need to do the job hunt rat race. Some of my classmates managed to secure a job during bar review. However, the rest of the graduating class of 2005 don't have legal employment at this time. I don't have a hard number, but I'm willing to guess at least 60% of those who graduated in May don't have legal employment at this time. I'm one of them. My problem, which I'm willing to bet most of my fellow graduates also share, is I have NO EMPLOYMENT at all! If I had a working spouse or excellent investments this wouldn't be much of a problem, but I'm not that fortunate.

As I've discussed earlier it appears having a degree but not a license to practice (or even the knowledge that at least you've passed the damn Bar Exam) is a no-man's land. Very few jobs are available at this time and the ones that are posted say "Please call back when you've passed the bar." When looking for a temp job or a part time job many managers look at you wondering why someone with my qualifications would want to work retail. They're concerned that you'll bolt out the door as soon as you get "a real job." I can't blame them as they're right!

People get overwhelmed with their problems. What we usually fail to realize is that we rarely need to solve THE BIG PROBLEM all at once. Every problem can be broken down into smaller easier to resolve problems. Instead of thinking, "How am I going to find a legal job when no one wants an unlicensed graduate?" became "I just need some money to pay the electric bill and buy gas at $2.60 a gallon." I didn't need a high paying job for that. The solution proved fairly simple: become a substitute teacher.

Every school district sets up their own standards, but most of them only require a bachelors degree. Anyone with a college education can get a substitute teacher license. Since schools are just starting up this time of year the demand is high. I filled out my substitute teacher packet on Friday and had my orientation session today! I'll likely work tomorrow. The license paperwork usually takes 6 weeks to process, but the school districts are allowed to use people who are "in process." It isn't a lot of money, most fast food workers get paid more than this. Yet the job is very flexible timewise so if I get a job interview one day I simply let the coordinator know I'm not available to work on that particular day. If I get a better job and quit teaching there is no hard feelings as they know this is very temporary work. The $60 a day sure isn't going to keep anyone around. People do this work because they like kids, want to give back to the community, and are looking for a flexible job. I've always been a teacher wherever I've been. This time I can actually use the word as part of my job title.

One small problem solved. Time to move onto the next problem.