Surprise! You’re Hired

By Peter Davidson II | January 15, 2014

“And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”  – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Oh hey.  What’s up?

Welcome to the January 15 edition of “Life of a Legal Post Grad.” I’ve been writing this blog for almost five months, and it has served as a capsule of what my mindset was during the tail end of 2013.  I have been anxious, tired, pissed, over it, hopeful, and many other emotions.  When I look back on this post five months from now, I will know what I was feeling: excitement.

I’ve got news.

I’m writing this from sunny south Florida, a state to which I have relocated.

You read that correctly.

I moved!

I spent much of last year talking and writing about either being totally unfulfilled and/or not following my gut.  This year, I figured I had two options: keep complaining or do something new.  I chose the latter. Why did I move?  At first the reasons were purely selfish.  I have a few friends down here, and after last week’s Polar Vortex I knew that I needed a major change.

Don’t worry, I didn’t completely shift life plans.  I have a new and awesome (legal) job, about which I am extremely excited.  We’ll talk about it another time. I have a place to stay, which is a terrible thing to call where I live.  I have a new “home,” and I am excited that it has become my home so quickly.

Living down here is completely not a part of the plan that I had for my life. The last six months of 2013 made me realize that plans frequently sink faster than you can say “you sunk my battleship!”  I embraced change and am really excited to see where this new path takes me!

Things I’ve noticed in my first 36 hours as a south Florida resident: it is much easier to be productive in cold weather.  In my first day and a half here, I have: gone to dinner, gone to breakfast, gone to lunch, dropped off forms at my new job, gone to happy hour, gone to dinner again, cracked my iPhone screen (ughhh), and watched “Vanderpump Rules.” Things I have not done in my first 36 hours here: grocery shopped, looked for a gym or yoga studio, purchased sunscreen. Oh well.  I will get to all of the important stuff in the next few days.

For now, I’m just kind of marveling at the awesomeness that is 2014.  I decided on January 2 that I was going to move down here for an extended period and figure out my life.  On January 3, I started applying to legal and non-legal jobs.  I knew that applying to jobs in this area would be difficult for many reasons, mainly: (1) I had applied to literally hundreds of jobs in D.C. and New York.  If I couldn’t find jobs in the two main legal markets, there is no way I’d find one in Miami; (2) I took the New York bar, not the Florida bar, and there is no reciprocity; and (3) I have absolutely no ties to this city, save for a few friends.  I had resigned myself to living down here and being a socialite.

 

Instead, I heard back from two or three jobs within days.  I had lined up interviews for when I moved down here, and I figured I’d be working somewhere by the end of the month. Here’s where it gets crazy (or cray cray, as the kids say): one of the jobs pushed my interview up a week and conducted it via Skype, then offered me the position at the end of the interview. What’s more cray cray? I accepted!

I start my new job very soon, and I’m so excited.  More importantly, I work for an AWESOME company.  I’ll talk about what I do at a later date, but trust me when I say that you will die. Not literally, but in a very figurative sense you will die. And, the job is legal! I talked so much trash for years about not wanting to be a traditional lawyer, and it turns out that’s exactly what I will be for the next few years. I may even learn to like this profession.

For all who have read this weekly column and seen the evolution of my complaints, thank you for bearing with me.  For all who had a similarly unfortunate 2013 and are looking forward to an awesome 2014, it’s coming.

Lastly, “Life of a Legal Post Grad” is about to get a lot more legal. Sorry in advance!

—

Peter Davidson is a recent graduate of law school who rants about news & politics and raves over the ups & downs of FUNemployment in the current legal economy. Tweet him @PeterDavidsonII.

Featured image courtesy of [Timothy Wildey via Flickr]

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