Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA Forum
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Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Discussion topic: Is it more stressful/challenging/hazardous-to-one's-health to (a) biglaw; or (b) teach middle school math/english?
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Very interested in this. I taught for several years, including a two-year stint with TFA. I'm currently a 1L, and while law school is definitely tough, my years teaching were more difficult, at least so far.
- Desert Fox
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Is this a joke?
What is harder? Hopscotch or the Bhutan Death March
What is harder? Hopscotch or the Bhutan Death March
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
1L is a vacation compared to teaching. It's not close.
- A. Nony Mouse
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
People, read the hypo. Law school =\= biglaw. Of course law school is easier than teaching.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Did you actually teach?Desert Fox wrote:Is this a joke?
What is harder? Hopscotch or the Bhutan Death March
- Desert Fox
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
No but I know the retards who do.kcdc1 wrote:Did you actually teach?Desert Fox wrote:Is this a joke?
What is harder? Hopscotch or the Bhutan Death March
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
DF: FWIW, my teaching experience was 70 hr/week in a constant wheel-of-crisis. I doubt that this decision is as clear-cut as you think.
Also, the fact lazy teachers exist does not mean that they're doing a halfway decent job or that they'd have any job security in a modern system. We're talking about people that go TFA to BigLaw - not your 7th grade English teacher in 1997.
Also, the fact lazy teachers exist does not mean that they're doing a halfway decent job or that they'd have any job security in a modern system. We're talking about people that go TFA to BigLaw - not your 7th grade English teacher in 1997.
Last edited by kcdc1 on Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.
- Desert Fox
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
If you turned teaching kids 9 months a year with 6.5 hours of class time into a 70 hour/week wheel of crisis, big law will destroy you.kcdc1 wrote:DF: FWIW, my teaching experience was 70 hr/week in a constant wheel-of-crisis. I doubt that this decision is as clear-cut as you think.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
You clearly know nothing about teaching and teachers, especially those who enter the profession as unqualified and untrained as those in TFA.Desert Fox wrote:If you turned teaching kids 9 months a year with 6.5 hours of class time into a 70 hour/week wheel of crisis, big law will destroy you.kcdc1 wrote:DF: FWIW, my teaching experience was 70 hr/week in a constant wheel-of-crisis. I doubt that this decision is as clear-cut as you think.
Last edited by skri65 on Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Imagine you have to deliver a 6.5 hour presentation. How long would it take you to prepare for said presentation? Now imagine that in addition, you have to devise and implement a system to measure what each participant learned from each 1 hour interval. Now imagine that you need to simulatenously deliver three different presentations and metrics because the participants come into the presentation at completely different levels.Desert Fox wrote:If you turned teaching kids 9 months a year with 6.5 hours of class time into a 70 hour/week wheel of crisis, big law will destroy you.kcdc1 wrote:DF: FWIW, my teaching experience was 70 hr/week in a constant wheel-of-crisis. I doubt that this decision is as clear-cut as you think.
This is the baseline. If you're only doing these things, you're doing a crappy job.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Have done both. They're very different. If you're not totally drained by being "on" you're probably better off teaching. If you are, you'll probably find them to be similarly bad. My worst weeks at a firm are WAY worse than my worst weeks teaching, but my best weeks at a firm are significantly better than my best weeks teaching. Overall I would say firm life is more soul-sucking/miserable/unsustainable emotionally.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
"You don't understand how hard this job that someone with literally no qualifications or training can do!"skri65 wrote:You clearly know nothing about teaching and teachers, especially those who enter the profession as unqualified and untrained as those in TFA.Desert Fox wrote:If you turned teaching kids 9 months a year with 6.5 hours of class time into a 70 hour/week wheel of crisis, big law will destroy you.kcdc1 wrote:DF: FWIW, my teaching experience was 70 hr/week in a constant wheel-of-crisis. I doubt that this decision is as clear-cut as you think.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- Desert Fox
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Lets ask SBL. He did both.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
If it's to 8 year-olds? Roughly nine minutes. How much time do you need to prepare to teach basic multiplication? I spent a whopping half-hour preparing for my last contested three-hour hearing in front of a crowded courtroom, two opposing parties, five attorneys, an ornery judge, and a client who is paying me a lot of money to look good. The stakes were much higher, and my "on" time much higher than a typical day in school, which involves shitting out pre-made assignments and having your little snotpiles trudge through busywork and ask stupid questions that you passively answer with a defeated look in your eyes.kcdc1 wrote:Imagine you have to deliver a 6.5 hour presentation. How long would it take you to prepare for said presentation?
I always hear these mythical stories about teachers having to work all the time, but all the teachers I know have a shit ton of time off and are out and about every weekend. Funny how that works. If you're good, you shouldn't need to spend a lot of time preparing. If you're not good, you're not in a position to complain how inherently demanding a job is.
Last edited by smallfirmassociate on Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.
- fl0w
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
I taught at the college level.
There just really is no comparison, for me, between teaching and big law. Big law will crush your soul if you feel that teaching is too taxing on you.
So you don't think I'm ignoring what people posted about teaching, I understand how much prep work goes into developing a course, lectures, labs (I taught a programming course so had to actually design labs for them to implement) and grading.
It just really doesn't compare to what you have to do in biglaw, or to the pace at which you need to do it. And the fact that you will work through all but perhaps 3 of your vacations in your first five years. Those three being honeymoon (maybe) and the bereavement leaves that you will take for the deaths of your parents.
There just really is no comparison, for me, between teaching and big law. Big law will crush your soul if you feel that teaching is too taxing on you.
So you don't think I'm ignoring what people posted about teaching, I understand how much prep work goes into developing a course, lectures, labs (I taught a programming course so had to actually design labs for them to implement) and grading.
It just really doesn't compare to what you have to do in biglaw, or to the pace at which you need to do it. And the fact that you will work through all but perhaps 3 of your vacations in your first five years. Those three being honeymoon (maybe) and the bereavement leaves that you will take for the deaths of your parents.
- Desert Fox
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Unless things massively changed since I was in school, you don't present for anywhere near that 6.5 hours. Students spend a ton of time on in class assignments and stuff like that. You also have access to prewritten lesson plans and curriculum.kcdc1 wrote:Imagine you have to deliver a 6.5 hour presentation. How long would it take you to prepare for said presentation? Now imagine that in addition, you have to devise and implement a system to measure what each participant learned from each 1 hour interval. Now imagine that you need to simulatenously deliver three different presentations and metrics because the participants come into the presentation at completely different levels.Desert Fox wrote:If you turned teaching kids 9 months a year with 6.5 hours of class time into a 70 hour/week wheel of crisis, big law will destroy you.kcdc1 wrote:DF: FWIW, my teaching experience was 70 hr/week in a constant wheel-of-crisis. I doubt that this decision is as clear-cut as you think.
This is the baseline. If you're only doing these things, you're doing a crappy job.
You also have no supervision, no expectations, no consequences.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- Desert Fox
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
I don't think a teacher has ever, in the history of the world, canceled dinner plans for work.smallfirmassociate wrote:If it's to 8 year-olds? Roughly nine minutes. I spent a whopping half-hour preparing for my last contested three-hour hearing in front of a crowded courtroom, two opposing parties, five attorneys, an ornery judge, and a client who is paying me a lot of money to look good. (And yes, I won.)kcdc1 wrote:Imagine you have to deliver a 6.5 hour presentation. How long would it take you to prepare for said presentation?
I always hear these mythical stories about teachers having to work all the time, but all the teachers I know have a shit ton of time off and are out and about every weekend. Funny how that works.
Hell teaches don't even have meetings after hours. If there are meetings, they cancel school that day. Just lol.
If big lawyers billed hours how teachers count theirs, we'd each bill 3500 a year.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
- A. Nony Mouse
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
I'm not saying teaching is/isn't better than biglaw, but don't go getting ridiculous. Lots of teachers work long hours. All of them? Probably not. But going home at the end of the day and grading things sucks. Again, more than biglaw? I have no idea. But you don't have to say "teaching is a cush job" to prove biglaw sucks. False dichotomy, bro. There are lots of different ways that crappy jobs can suck.
- patogordo
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
this is apples and oranges though. you gotta ask whether teaching sucks more than biglaw per dollar earned.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
So far we've had exactly one contribution from a person who has actually done TFA or an equivalent thereof. In order to keep the discussion on topic, let's cut the uninformed speculation and teacher-trashing.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
A lot of people with sweet gigs work a lot of hours. Doesn't mean they have to. Working long hours on your own accord isn't a stressful activity.A. Nony Mouse wrote:I'm not saying teaching is/isn't better than biglaw, but don't go getting ridiculous. Lots of teachers work long hours. All of them? Probably not. But going home at the end of the day and grading things sucks. Again, more than biglaw? I have no idea. But you don't have to say "teaching is a cush job" to prove biglaw sucks. False dichotomy, bro. There are lots of different ways that crappy jobs can suck.
- DELG
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
i would be very surprised if anyone a year into biglaw thought teaching was worse than biglaw in terms of physical and emotional well-being or hours
if they're peers of each other, don't TFAers basically run from TFA to law school to get a break from the hell that was TFA
if they're peers of each other, don't TFAers basically run from TFA to law school to get a break from the hell that was TFA
- Desert Fox
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
I'm willing to believe teaching sucks, but I am not willing to believe it is because its an objectively hard job with long hours. I'm sure dealing with rotten ass kids is a pretty bad. And I can see how people who feel stressed out when presenting would hate it.A. Nony Mouse wrote:I'm not saying teaching is/isn't better than biglaw, but don't go getting ridiculous. Lots of teachers work long hours. All of them? Probably not. But going home at the end of the day and grading things sucks. Again, more than biglaw? I have no idea. But you don't have to say "teaching is a cush job" to prove biglaw sucks. False dichotomy, bro. There are lots of different ways that crappy jobs can suck.
I'm sure there are people who sit around and spend 70 hours on their teaching job. But those people will spend 100 hours in big law. There are people like that who are perfectionists, slow, and overworkers. But I'm sure 30 hours of that is spent netflixing while slowly grading stupid worksheets.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA
Yep. The OP could be better stated w/ something like:skri65 wrote:You clearly know nothing about teaching and teachers, especially those who enter the profession as unqualified and untrained as those in TFA.Desert Fox wrote:If you turned teaching kids 9 months a year with 6.5 hours of class time into a 70 hour/week wheel of crisis, big law will destroy you.kcdc1 wrote:DF: FWIW, my teaching experience was 70 hr/week in a constant wheel-of-crisis. I doubt that this decision is as clear-cut as you think.
Discussion topic: Is it more stressful/challenging/hazardous-to-one's-health to (a) biglaw; or (b) with no pedagogical experience or education, teach middle school math/english to typically disadvantaged students who have typically been taught by people with no pedagogical experience or education?
Last edited by McAvoy on Tue Sep 30, 2014 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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