Thursday 23 October 2008

Rainmaker

I want to find a job.
I need something to do instead of waiting for DH to get home from work all day. Cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping has lost its appeal. The weekends are fine as we go hiking into the mountains but the weekdays are painful.
It is extremely quiet here on the legal locum scene at the moment. I have even widened my search and am prepared to commute one way to 1.5 hour commute. I know its 3 hours of travelling a day but I rarely drive and transport links here a fairly good. But even doing this the market is still DEAD.
According to The Lawyer on line job site there are in excess of 400 jobs for employment lawyers in London. Its tempting. I don't want to be away from home or DH but what am I supposed to do? I am trying to gauge what it would cost me to work part of the week in London. I would need accommodation at least 4 nights a week, plus train travel - expenses could come in at around £400.00 per week! Ideally perhaps I could find something on part time basis in London.
I don't like London. But the pay is good. Its too far to commute daily - the quickest I could do it would be 2 hours 15 mins one way. This would also cost the extortionate amount of circa £130.00 per day.
The other option is to take any local job just to get out of the house and earn some pocket money. That's fine. But how easy is it for a lawyer to get a mac job? I still need to work as a Lawyer for the next few years at least so I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardise this.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

So....I'm racking my brains for you! Have you thought of legal education? If even remotely interested try jobs.ac.uk. Even if you have to teach something other than employment law for a while. Could you perhaps create your own training programmes to deliver in house or to councils? Maybe on DDA? How about retraining to become a mediator?

Sparkly

Jerry Critter said...

What will you do if you reach your goal of financial independence and DH is not there?

Still work? If not, you are kind of there right now, of course without the real financial independence.

Think about it. What will you do. Do it now.

Anonymous said...

Me again! I'm wondering if you can't leave the rat race now? Maybe revise your financial goals and be less ambitious but leave now. Does it have to be in 5 years time? (being nosy)

Best,
Sparkly

Dreamer said...

Hi Sparkly - good suggestions - I've taught once, not my thing - the money isnt any good either. Training though is a good idea or even training to become a mediator - I've never thought of that i quite fancy it, I'm going to look into it thanks!

We could leave the rat race now - at present expenditure we could live off savings on a bare bones budget for several years or extend that by selling up an living in a van down by the river but then what? what then the money is exhausted DH will be 50 by that time who wants to go back into the workforce at 50? In short we are not ready to jump now - we still have a mortgage

The original plan was to sell up here take the equity and by a place outright for cash in say canada/north america, maybe Nova scotia - well not in this market and there are also some big immigration obsticales. We could buy a house in N america but you have no right to live there.

Hi Jerry - why wouldnt DH be around? I have no plan if he is not around life would not be worth living then - he is my soulmate - the escape, the plan it revolves around a life together. Its not very practical or realistic to think and do as if he was not around as we are in this together.

MoneyBlogga said...

Hi Claire.

I like the "escape Britain" part of your heading - believe me, I know exactly how you feel because I felt that way once myself!

Would it be possible for you to set up some sort of online service that people would have to pay for? As a lawyer, is there anything you could offer online that would bring in some income? I have done this myself in the past with great success and I am thinking about doing it again. The industry that I'm in is also very dead right now which means that I would have to adjust my websites in accordance with the economy as it is right now. It is doable and I know from past experience that building and maintaining websites will keep you busy, especially when you start making money. Just a thought as I am here in the US and the public's attitude toward the internet is positive. If you can find the right niche, the 'net can be very profitable indeed. Of course, it's not an overnight thing and does take some initial time to build but I taught myself website design and everything that goes along with that. The only person I hired on the outside was a software programmer and they are easy to find on the net. If you have any type of an idea that you think would work online, I would say go for it.

Dreamer said...

Hi Moneyblogga

Thanks for posting. Its nice to hear from someone who shares the same feelings about living in Britain. I think I must have been born in the wrong country, the people, the weather, the high cost of living (and dont get me started on taxes) and lack of opportunity etc I could go on...

Yes I've thought about an online fee based advisory/basic assistance site offering employment law advice. Its an idea. Im not very IT literate though and maybe I am getting a bit lazy stewing here all day. But yes I have been thinking about developing some websites so now I just need to put it into action!