In many ways, I viewed my four-year undergraduate degree as a basic education. I was taking a smorgasbord of different Arts courses, with only a cursory clue as to whether they were going to be useful in my eventual career. I focused on picking good professors, selecting a convenient class schedule, and obtaining the best GPA possible—which I succeeded in doing. In the hope of adding some extra-ciriculars to my paltry resume, I joined the UBC Political Science Student’s Association, in addition to the department’s annual journal as an editor. My peers in these groups as well as in class were smart and motivated, but the wide array of post-graduation opportunities pursued by Arts students left it difficult to establish a firm network. Professors chorused encouraging speeches about how we were all now equipped with the necessary skills and tools to begin changing the world…yet the university provided surprisingly little guidance in terms of a finding a career after graduation. I soon realized that my BA, as much as I valued it, was a kind of craft-your-own career tool—since my peers and I never fostered a specialized skill set, we seemed to be on our own…another face in the crowd vying for the increasingly few entry-level white collar jobs.
I consider myself an ambitious person, with certain strengths and skills that I must make use of. Pursuing a junior role in Canada’s financial sector, I moved to Toronto and started multiple painful (and to be honest, disparaging) roles, including a brief two-day stint as a credit card telemarketer. I knew that after having nightmares and waking up in a sweat the first night, telemarketing wasn’t for me. I eventually settled at the brokerage arm of CIBC, doing administrative work and aiding clients over the phone. Six months in, and after completing one securities course after another, I knew that this was an industry that I both enjoyed and captivated my imagination. But as my happiness much depends on my success in the workforce, I knew that in order to progress in my career the way that I wanted, I needed to gain more specialized education.
My initial plan was to progress directly in the securities industry, eventually obtaining a CFA or MBA. However, both the prestige and the malleability of a law degree intrigued me. Since I saw my forte as writing and arguing, rather than mathematical analysis, I saw law as a sideways entry point into the world of business and in particular the securities industry, which I had begun to familiarize myself with. Imagine, being able to provide legal council to clients convicted of securities fraud, or negotiating a big corporate merger such as that of the LSE/TMX (provided the Canadian government doesn’t further envelop this country under a protectionist cloak and block it).
Thus, it’s on to law school. So far, I have offers from three schools, including Canada’s oldest and one of it’s most prestigious, Osgoode Hall. My new LSAT score of 165 *fistpump* will probably secure me additional acceptances. And hence, this blog is born… under this section I will be chronicling my experiences as a 0L and my subsequent journey through law school. It promises to be quite the ride…
