Career Exploration

Research Questions
I: Lawyer

1. What education is needed for this career?

In order to become a lawyer, you need a Bachelor's Degree and a Juris Degree. The Bachelor's degree takes
about 4 years to earn and can be received from any college. Then, you need to take the LSATs and gte into a
law school program in order to get your Juris Degree which takes about 3 years
2. What training is needed for this career?
The only type of training you need is to attend school and get the degrees that I listed above. This would take
about 7 years to complete after highschool
3. Who are the largest employers for this career /field?
Most jobs hired for lawyers come from the legal services field while others come from the government. One of
the biggest individual companies is Morgan Lewis or Reed Smith which both have a great amount of
employees
4. Where can one find work in this field?
In order to find a job, you would have to reach out to individual companies in search of employment but there
are also jobs at the state or federal government
5. What is the average starting salary?
The bottom 10% of beginning lawyers made a yearly salary of $59,670 while others could make as much as
$90,000 starting out
6. What is the average ten-year salary?
The average salary for a worker who has served for 10 years or more is about $116,694
7. In which areas of the country could/would one live?
With this salary, anyone could pretty much live anywhere or buy any house so it doesn’t really matter. Me
personally, I want to live in the city so I would aim for New York but almost every state is looking for lawyers so
the country doesn’t really matter
8. What is the nature of the work?
There are many different types of work you can do but even the most basic lawyers are involved with the
nature of advising and representing clients in courts, before government agencies, and in private legal matters,
communicating with their clients, colleagues, judges, and others involved in the case, as well as conducting
research and analyzing of legal problems. Interpret laws, rulings, and regulations for individuals and businesses
9. Are there any professional associations or unions that are necessary or suggested to be a member of
this profession?
There are many different associations around lawyers and any one can be good to join but some of the
highlights include: Association of Legal Administrators, National Association for Legal Professionals, and
Association of Eminent Domain Professionals
10. Are most of the workers in this field traditionally male or female? Explain.
Most of the workers are traditionally male but it's very close since men take up 60% of the jobs, while women
take up 40%. This is because only during recent times society has encouraged females to do the grunt jobs and
actually make a name for themselves. Lawyers used to be all male since it was an “official” position but it's
slowly changing as the ratios start to even out

II: Employer Questions

1. What is the title of the job being advertised?

Paralegal Casehandler, Law Reform Unit (Manhattan)
2. What is the company name?
Legal Aid Society
3. Where are they located?
New York, NY
4. What are their requirements for hiring?
Paralegal certificate from an ABA-accredited paralegal program and/or Bachelor’s degree in relevant field.
Some of their more personal requirements are excellent written, oral advocacy, and computer skills, ability to
work independently as well as in a team and manage a large workload, ability to coordinate and collaborate
successfully with other groups and organizations, and experience in and/or commitment to advocacy on behalf
of low-income people and immigrants is strongly desired
5. What is the starting salary?
The starting salary for this job is $64,176 per year

Alternate Careers: Financial Examiner

1. What education is needed for this career?
In order to become a financial examiner, you only need a Bachelor's Degree and sometimes a degree in some
sort of specialty related to it
2. What training is needed for this career?
The only type of training you need is to attend school and get the degrees that I listed above. This would take
about 4 years to complete after highschool
3. Who are the largest employers for this career /field?
Financial examiners will most commonly find work in the finance and insurance industry, the federal
government, or state governments.
4. Where can one find work in this field?
In order to find a job, you would have to reach out to individual companies in search of employment but there
are also jobs at the state or federal government
5. What is the average starting salary?
The bottom 10% of beginning financial examiners made a yearly salary of $66,034 while others could make as
much as $69,000 starting out
11. What is the average ten-year salary?
The average salary for a worker who has served for 10 years or more is about $88,886
12. In which areas of the country could/would one live?
With this job, you would want to look for more family influenced towns, but also ones with enough businesses.
Because of the nature of the work, you need clients who would be able to pay for financial examining so in the
middle of nowhere wouldn’t do you any good
13. What is the nature of the work?
There are many different types of work you can do but the most common will be to ensure compliance with
laws that govern institutions handling monetary transaction, while reviewing balance sheets, evaluating the
risk level of loans, and assessing bank management
14. Are there any professional associations or unions that are necessary or suggested to be a member of
this profession?
There aren’t too many unions a financial examiner could be in, but many of them are related to bank unions
and associations since they tend to lump them into that category
15. Are most of the workers in this field traditionally male or female? Explain.
Most of the workers are traditionally male but it's men taking up 62% of the jobs, while women take up 38%.
This is because anything having to do with financial aspects would get pushed to the male species and only
recently have women been stepping out to those jobs. It’s not the most drawing career so I think men who are
good at math take it as a back-up while women choose to do something else

IV: Alternate Careers: Financial Examiner (employer questions)

1. What is the title of the job being advertised?
Assistant Examiner I/II
2. What is the company name?
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
3. Where are they located?
7th St and Arch St, Philadelphia, PA
4. What are their requirements for hiring?
Their requirements for hiring are: possess and apply both specific and broad-based knowledge including
principles, practices, and procedures of the examination specialty in completing assignments, organizes and
manage work in such a way that an assignment or supervisory event is completed well and within the defined
scope and time constraints,demonstrates basic analytical and problem-solving skills, independent and critical
thinking, and decision-making abilities, where appropriate, etc.
5. What education is needed and training?
The educational needs they want you to have include: a bachelor’s degree for a major in business, economics,
finance, accounting, law or a related field is preferred and zero to one year of direct or comparable banking,
financial industry, or banking supervision experience.