I’m not going to comment on whether you should move or not. I don’t have an opinion. But, let me share a couple of thoughts/ideas. First, an important poll result. Every couple of years American Lawyer magazine polls a bunch of partners at the top 100 law firms across the nation. And each poll comes back with the same result: Between 70% and 80% of this group of $300K/year (and up to $1 million) partners say they would not go to law school and become a lawyer if they did it all over again. Yup, you read that correctly. Lawyers have notoriously low job satisfaction. My brother is a lawyer and loves his job – but he makes jack shit as a Federal prosecutor… but he does love his job. So, just something to think about.
Now, if you decide for whatever reason that you don’t want to go the legal route (I just know too many miserable lawyers not to recommend running from that field like a banshee on fire) and that finance might interest you, I have a suggestion. Do NOT go to business school for your MBA. Instead, sit for and pass the Chartered Financial Analyst exams. Assuming you pass all three exams (the first exam is offered twice a year, the third and fourth exams are offered once a year, so it takes a minimum of two years to pass all three assuming you don’t fail one), then you’ll have something of value. Practically every asshole in business and finance (including me) has an MBA from a noted program. But a much smaller percentage has obtained their CFA charter as only about 15%-20% of those that sit for the first exam end up receiving their charter. So, you’ll have “scarcity value” when you’re done. Also, you don’t have to take any time off from work (although you’ll have to spend a good portion of the three months prior to each exam studying). And finally, the cost for each exam after paying for the exam fee and the study materials, etc. is maybe $2K-$3K (but that’s a ballpark, I haven’t looked in a while). Personally, if I could go back in time and do it all over again I wouldn’t have bothered with business school – complete waste of time and money. 95% of my class graduated (like most programs) and a third of them still couldn’t read a fricken’ balance sheet by graduation date (again, like most programs). The CFA charter, however, has served me well, particularly relative to the time and investment required.
Now if you have no interest in finance or business disregard what I just wrote… but still think long and hard about law school which I think is the surest path to professional misery.
