Sunday, May 01, 2005

Personal Injury

Last week I told you about my ill-fated interview with a personal injury firm. (Interviewing Fun). Although my faux pas didn't help, my ultimate undoing came earlier in the interview, when I insinuated that I didn't want to be a personal injury lawyer.

The hiring partner asked me, outright, if I wanted to be a personal injury attorney. This is a much tougher question to answer than you think. Does anyone want to be a personal injury attorney? Why would you want to be the sleaziest member of the profession? Do some kids want to grow up wanting to be chiropractors or internal affairs policemen? Did anyone grow up dreaming of having their picture on the back of the phonebook?

Maybe I just should have lied and said it was my dream to be a personal injury attorney. But then there's a catch-22: If I was that good of a liar, I probably would want to be a personal injury attorney.



Russ's Addendum: My advanced torts teacher brought in an old student of hers. The guy is 27 and just got a 38 million dollar settlement for a series of personal injury cases that arose out of one incident. After hearing that, look for me on your next phonebook.