Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA Forum

(On Campus Interviews, Summer Associate positions, Firm Reviews, Tips, ...)
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting

Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.

Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
User avatar
A. Nony Mouse

Diamond
Posts: 29293
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:51 am

Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Wed Oct 01, 2014 11:46 pm

chem! wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
chem! wrote:smallfirmassociate - have you ever taught? I'm only asking b/c you are describing the habits of a shitty teacher. Maybe in a state with tenure, that shit would fly. Maybe in a non-secondary science classroom, that shit would fly. But it would never fly in my state, my subject, or my old school.
I think it really really varies. It would absolutely fly in the district were I went to school. It would not in the district where I taught.
Oh, I know. My first years as a teacher were spent in a district where shitty teaching was overly represented. I was just being slightly contentious because he just described poor teaching methods and not all teachers roll that way.
I have been saying this for pages, but it doesn't seem to register.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428111
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 22, 2018 1:38 am

Transactional associate here in a major market. Biglaw is easier than TFA. And this is coming from someone who was very involved in TFA.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428111
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Associates: Compare Your Job to Your Time with TFA

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 22, 2018 12:40 pm

I did both, and I did both very well. Teaching took more time for me during the school year, but far less during summers and breaks. So my yearly hours spent teaching were prob lower but my mode weekly hours were probably higher. FWIW I averaged around 2300-2500 billables annually at my firm.

Re which is harder, it’s difficult to compare. I had a firm job that involved predominantly interesting and substantive work, so I’d say the firm was definitely intellectually more challenging. Physically and emotionally, it wasn’t even close: TFA is far more difficult.

Incidentally, I worked through prob 5x more meals and canceled prob 5x more weekend plans when I was a teacher than when at my firm. Also, I think I prob worked marginally less hard than the avg TFA teacher while working marginally harder than the avg lawyer at my firm. I also think I ended up with far “better” work than the avg Biglaw lawyer so the intellectual comparison may likewise be a bit skewed.

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


Post Reply Post Anonymous Reply  

Return to “Legal Employment”