Term is OUT... YES or SHIT, what am I going to do?
After having spent the year teaching undergraduates and not really doing anything on my masters( well I do have half of it written, just another 10,000 words to go) I wonder if I will miss my students? I doubt it.
I'm left in a state of
perplexion as I wonder what career options I should choose.
My recent decision is to post-pone the
BVC or whatever it will be known by then, to teach for another year, save up some money to go towards the
BVC, hoping that the criminal Bar might have just sorted its self out by then, and also spend time on gaining much more needed brilliant work experience (or should I say mind numbing admin work for various legal bodies?)
Perhaps some international pro-
bono wouldn't go a miss, however I often feel that I am up shit creek without any paddle. Competition for all these voluntary (and completely unpaid a point for further
discussion ) internships is tough, really tough, tough as nails, tough as, some other example..
What really quite annoys me is that most if not all, internships require you to work for a certain period of time unpaid. Fair enough they may cover travel expenses and lunch, however some of us do have bills to pay, and courses to save up for! I think a month would be a reasonable amount of time to go unpaid for, providing the internship is
prestigious enough. My main problem however with the system is that this obviously puts those who are supported by others/wealthy families, in PRIME position to pay for these internships, whilst others who have loans and bills to pay, will not be able to accept them because they need to earn money!!!
I have seen some internships
often Overseas, that are a solid three full months, where you have to upfront all the money yourself! Some may say
that's the reality of things, if you want to go and do it, then cough up. But with the majority of barristers telling us we must have MORE on our
CV's, if we can't get pupillage the first time round, then go off and work for FREE for a LONG PERIOD OF TIME, to show your dedication to law etc etc hardly acceptable in my humble opinion.
It was much like Anna, from the Barristers, who was told to go get a lesser paid legal job because it looked better. Humph. Disgraceful. Whilst I don't mind working for free, and don't mind contributing, I find it difficult that there are a lot of these internships, which run for a long period of time, without getting paid, so it puts well off people in a better position. Scandalous I hear you cry!!
In other good news my CV may have actually got me somewhere! So all is not amiss, hopefully I will hear at the begining of the week of whether my optisim worked out, or whether it is business as usual, and I shall be once again broken hearted.
So what do you think? Am I making a good choice by taking a year out to do more probono (assuming that is that people will take me on) or should I do the BVC anyway? or do the PhD without a scholarship?
Hmph...
