![The Five Stages of Every Legal Career Learn the Five States of Every Legal Career](https://www.lawcrossing.com/images/articleimages/learn-the-five-stages-of-every-legal-career.jpg)
1. Orientation: You figure out the rules of the game.
In the first phase, you engage in a variety of tasks for the very first time. As a result, you must act without always knowing what you're doing – an uncomfortable feeling if you're accustomed to competence and control. Simply living through the discomfort of feeling foolishly incompetent – getting to the point of doing something the second or the third time – will sometimes cure your career ills. To reduce your discomfort, identify sympathetic colleagues with more experience to turn to for guidance.
2. Challenge: You prove your competence.
During the challenge years, you operate along a stimulating learning curve, becoming more and more skilled. The challenge phase is particularly engaging and, as a result, little dissatisfaction emerges during this period. The risks, instead, are that you'll be assigned work beyond your expertise, or that you'll take on more work than you can competently handle. The key to continued satisfaction is to admit when you're in over your head and seek assistance.
3. Establishment: You climb the ladder.
In this phase, the goal is to achieve success, however you define it. There are three risks. The first is that you may let your desire for a good income and a stellar reputation control your actions to the point where you neglect personal relationships. The second is that you may drive so hard that, as anthropologist Joseph Campbell put it, you'll reach the top of the ladder only to discover you've placed the ladder against the wrong wall. The third danger is that you'll find yourself stuck on an intermediate rung of the ladder. Then, you'll face three options: move to new work, accept the situation or redefine success.
4. Cruising: You operate on a comfortable plateau.
- See Why Attorneys With 5+ Years of Law Firm Experience Are in Serious Trouble (and Seven Steps they Need to Take to Save Their Legal Careers) for more information
This phase begins when you've mastered your profession and reached a comfortable prominence: a place where you know your job, can easily meet its challenges, and feel both personally and financially secure. Although some can cruise happily until retirement, many others will become restless or bored-especially those who thrive on the excitement and tension fueled by having to learn. You can improve your longevity while reinvigorating your career by adding an element of risk to your workday. You might experiment with new projects, branch into a related discipline, or strike out on your own.
5. Disengagement: You begin to let go.
If you believe you are in the cruising phase but have begun to question your attachment to your career, you may in fact have entered the disengagement phase. Disengagement can lead to retirement or a new career, or it can lead to procrastination, loss of interest, or depression. To avoid the pitfalls of the disengagement period, take action. Do something that exhilarates you and makes you feel a little bit afraid. That something new may just lead you to a new career, where the five-stage cycle will begin anew.
See latest legal jobs available on LawCrossing.
Please see the following articles for more information about life as an associate:
- What's Next after Finishing Law School
- The Real World: Life after Law School
- The Choices of Practice in Law
- Choosing a Law Specialty: Who Are You and What Do You Want
- The 10-Step, ''No-Fail'' Guide to Distinguishing Yourself as a First-Year Associate
- 5 Tips for First Year Law Firm Associates
- The Art of Drafting a Proper Legal Memo
- Top 39 Tips for New Litigation Associates and Trial Lawyers: How to Be a Good Litigation Attorney
- The Real Reason There Are Fewer Law Firm Jobs (What No Attorney Wants You to Know)
- Avoid the Dangers of Getting Jobs Through Friends and Family
- Should You Marry a Lawyer? A Couple's Guide to Balancing Work, Love and Amibition
- The Three Major Legal Fraternities
- 2015 LawCrossing Salary Survey of Lawyer Salaries in Best Law Firms
- 2015 8th Year Salaries and Bonuses of the Top Law Firms
- 2015 1st Year Salaries and Bonuses of the Top Law Firms
- Getting along with colleagues and co-workers in a new firm
- LawCrossing Salary Survey of Lawyer Salaries in Best Law Firms
- The Pros and Cons of Working in a Law Firm
- The Impact Law Firm Economics Can Have on Your Legal Career
- How to Avoid a Bad Reputation at Work
- Must You be a ''Type-A'' Personality to Succeed in a Law Firm?
Please see the following articles for more information about law school, the bar exam and succeeding in your first year of practice:
- Acing Law School Exams: Grade-A Advice
- What's Next after Finishing Law School
- First Year of Law School Survival Tips
- Does Law School Rank Determine Success?
- The Three Major Legal Fraternities and Why You May Want to Join One
- Late Bloomers: Going to Law School Later in Life
- Coping with Law School Dismissal
- Graduated From a Tier 3 Law School: There’s much you can do with your degree
- The Real World: Life after Law School
- Why You Should Think Twice About Remaining in Law (or Going to Law School)
- Should You Marry a Lawyer? A Couple's Guide to Balancing Work, Love and Amibition
- After Law School, B-School: The Rise of M.B.A.'s Among Attorneys
- Law Schools at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
- Non-ABA-Accredited Schools May Offer Good Alternative
- Top Law Schools Analyzed and Ranked By America’s Top Legal Recruiter Harrison Barnes
- "Guidelines on Reciprocity or "Admission on Motion" among the States as per American Bar Association"
- Pass the Bar in One State, Work in Another
- Taking the Bar in Multiple States
- 10 Ways to Bounce Back After Failing the Bar and Pass on Your Next Attempt
- Don't Panic! Ten Tips for Surviving the Bar Exam
- New York's Exam: The Biggest Baddest Bar
- If You Have Failed the Bar Exam It Is Not the End of the World
- Barriers Fall for Out-of-State Attorneys
- The 10-Step, ''No-Fail'' Guide to Distinguishing Yourself as a First-Year Associate
- The Art of Drafting a Proper Legal Memo
- 5 Tips for First Year Law Firm Associates
- Top 39 Tips for New Litigation Associates and Trial Lawyers: How to Be a Good Litigation Attorney
- 2015 1st Year Salaries and Bonuses of the Top Law Firms