Career Path
Question Marks Ahead:
How I’m Navigating Twists and Turns on My Career Path
Life’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon.
Why settle for certainty now when I could take some time to find out what I love?
“Hi, I’m Erin Schott. After shoveling dirt in Greece, I’ve traded ancient artifacts for the thrill of law school. Curious about how this unexpected career switch unfolds? Join me on this journey of discovery!”
While pickaxing rocks the summer before my junior year of college,
I came to a realization:
“I needed a new career path.”
I was working on an excavation in Greece, and for a long time, I had figured that my future would involve archaeology. I loved studying ancient cultures, and some whimsical part of me hoped that I might become the next Indiana Jones.
Unfortunately, however, shoveling dirt for hours in one-hundred-degree heat just to find shards of pottery was not for me. And so, as a sunburn spread across my shoulders,
I wondered:
“What job would I enjoy?”
It scared me to lose the roadmap to my career.
Although I didn’t have the terminology at the time, this discomfort came from being “Undeclared.” - Looking for a path toward certainty,
I asked myself what I disliked about excavation. The heat was unbearable, but most of all, excavation bored me. Pickaxe. Find a pottery fragment. Catalog it. Repeat. I longed for a job with more surprises, a range of tasks to complete.
I also wanted to use my career to help people, and I just wasn’t sure that studying the lives of Greeks and Romans who lived thousands of years ago would fulfill me.
In addition to considering all the negatives of my excavation, I thought about what sparked my interest in the ancient world. Initially, the field attracted me because it combined so many areas of learning: languages, history, and chemistry, to name a few.
My favorite part about studying the ancient world, however, was a project where I researched a Roman bust only to discover that the collector had likely smuggled it out of the Ottoman Empire.
I appreciated the historical investigation but, most of all, I enjoyed researching international law to see whether my school’s museum would have to return the statue to Syria.
Perhaps, as much as I loved antiquity, I was more drawn to law.
For a long time, I had shrugged off law as a career path. Although I liked Mock Trial in high school, most of the attorneys I knew had advised me against attending law school, some even writing me long emails about why it was a bad idea.
Many mentioned how their profession made them cynical, leading them to focus more on money or question others’ good intentions. And indeed, we often picture attorneys with these characteristics.
They’re the ones we conjure up when telling lawyer jokes and the ones we see anytime a Saul Goodman or Harvey Specter graces the TV screen. But stereotypes paint with a broad brush.
Plenty of lawyers enjoy their profession and advocate for good causes. Law school isn’t a one-way street to cynicism. Hopefully, I could adopt an Elle Woods approach to law school and bring some of that positivity
to my relationships as well. And so, brushing off the advice of my mentors,
I began to consider a career as a lawyer.
At that point, I wouldn’t say I was “Declared.” If my excavation had taught me anything, I should test out a potential career path before planning my life around it.
And so, the next summer, I interned as a paralegal to get a feel for the law firm environment. Right away, I appreciated the work ethic and passion that my coworkers brought to their jobs.
Even as I sorted through documents for trials, I enjoyed hearing attorneys strategize for their upcoming trials or give each other suggestions for their latest briefs. That type of critical thinking and writing appealed to me, and, much like what had prompted me to study the ancient world, I could draw upon a variety of skills in my work.
The law would offer me many potential avenues to a satisfying career, whether I was defending people’s civil liberties or fighting for the environment.
Over the next few months, I would travel further into the realm of “declared:”
I studied for the LSAT, filled out applications, and eventually heard back from schools.
After visiting my top choices, I decided to attend the University of Chicago. Now, heading into my first semester, I have a legal career path ahead, but I’m still unsure what precisely lies in store.
For example, my relatives often ask what type of law I will pursue.
The truth is that I have no clue, and that’s ok.
Even for the ultra-prepared, there will always be a few twists and turns on the road ahead, whether in our professional or personal lives. Embracing that uncertainty gives me the confidence to leap into the unknown, taking action to discover a promising way forward.
As I start law school this fall, I hope to use the skills that I learned from my earlier moment of uncertainty to find a legal field that suits me well.
If a field piques my interest, I’ll ask myself which components speak to me.
Perhaps I’ll try out an internship or take a class to experiment in that field. Maybe a professor or mentor could suggest some new area of law to check out or offer me career advice. I might not always follow that advice—as my decision to attend law school attests—but it’s nonetheless helpful to hear someone else’s perspective.
Although it’s daunting,
I'm trying to reach a place where I accept the question marks on my life path as good signs.
The beauty of being undeclared lies in that time to explore and discover what will fulfill me. There’s no need to rush into a career or a relationship that feels wrong.
Life’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon.
Why settle for certainty now when I could take some time to find out what I love?
