4 ms·

Why did your father become a postal delivery worker if he had a law degree? Its a rather personal question so please don't feel like you have to answer, but it

by pm90 8y ago

Why did your father become a postal delivery worker if he had a law degree? Its a rather personal question so please don't feel like you have to answer, but it seems like a non-traditional career path.

michaelchisari 8y ago
I can't speak for his father, but knowing both lawyers and postal workers, I can say that the postal workers are infinitely more satisfied with their careers, hands down.
- drdeadringer 8y ago
  A cousin of mine went to school to become a patent lawyer. He couldn't land a job to save his life. He's now a stay-at-home father whilst his medical-doctor spouse pads the bank account [all of which is fine, I'm talking only to the law-degree-job points here]. Your favorite person can get the best most awesome degree possible and still work in the mail room. By hook or by crook, that may just be what they enjoy [and in "current year", what that job requires].
seibelj 8y ago
I know a woman who graduated from Stanford law about 5 years ago who accomplished her dream by getting a job in environmental law. She despised the work, made too little money relative to her debt, and now works as an advisor at a law school specializing in helping graduates reduce and manage their debt through all means possible. She regularly posts links to things like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-UEqJ85KE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-UEqJ85KE
- acjohnson55 8y ago
  A friend of mine practiced law as a public defender before leaving the profession and becoming an inner-city pizza delivery man.
  - wyclif 8y ago
    It's fairly common for people with law degrees to either never use the degree, or quit law after a short time because they hate the work, just like it's common for people with humanities education to go into technology and engineering. One of my fave guitarists, Robert Quine (Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, Tom Waits, Matthew Sweet) was arguably the first punk rock lead guitar player. But before that he had passed the bar in Missouri and got a job writing tax law articles for Prentice Hall in NJ while commuting to Manhattan to play with the Voidoids on nights and weekends. After a few years, he hated working in law and eventually quit. He looked like a college professor, but he was a total animal on guitar (listen to the two solos he plays on the Voidoids' "Blank Generation" single). He talks about all that in this interview: http://www.furious.com/perfect//quine.html http://www.furious.com/perfect//quine.html
ghaff 8y ago
I have no idea about this specific case, but at least historically it was a degree a lot of people fell into. Father and grandfather were lawyers at white shoe firm. Seems like a decent middle-class job. That undergrad classics degree only got them a low-level job at a publishing house. Maybe law's the way to monetize that degree. Or it just seems really interesting. Then a lot of people discover they don't like actually being lawyers because associates at big firms work long hours and a lot of the work is very tedious. At least that's what I've seen with people I know. I'm sure the majority with law degrees don't actually practice law.
adanto6840 8y ago
It's a good question, and one that I probably asked him on many multiple occasions. His answer was always multi-pronged, but the main points were approximately (in order of importance, as I perceived it): 1) Law = Higher stress career. 2) Office vs Outdoors; he loved being outdoors every day, especially loved talking to people -- most everyone on his route knew him by name and he strongly believed in [perhaps incorrectly, as things have changed dramatically] in mail carriers being very 'customer/service oriented'. He loved talking to people, he'd bring mail up to elder-aged peoples homes every day and talk to them for a few minutes, etc. Perhaps a bit Mayberry-esque, even. ;) 3) Moral reasons; a general dislike of bureaucracy (though plenty of that at USPS, and more towards end of his career, which we heard about over dinner ~nightly!); generally a preference for meritocracy (his 'sorting speed' was N times faster than the 'baseline', he would tell us); an extreme disdain for "schmoozing" for lack of a better term. He never even took the bar exam, which actually surprises me a bit even today. As a young teenager I found it borderline insane, selfishly of course -- I can remember thinking "we'd be in the nicer neighborhood if Dad would just go be a lawyer!", and I remember wondering if my grandfather was upset by it but I was a bit surprised to not really get the impression that it was an issue. He also had owned & sold a bar in his 30s, had the only home we lived in my entire life paid off in his ~50s, the USPS insurance & pension plans were great, and we lived quite frugally -- so he was comfortable, he carried our own route so he was home 2x each day, the rotating schedule was nice to get Saturdays off occasionally, and he was off work by ~3-4PM every day (except near holiday times when they'd have 20ft of mail and tons of parcels). I actually believe he initially began carrying mail just as a summer job while in college, and then probably kept at it simply because it was fulfilling for him. He retired a bit early, with >2 years of PTO & Sick Leave time saved up; proceeded to get hip replacement surgery almost immediately -- likely somewhat attributable to walking up/down ~100 flights of stairs each for a nearby apartment complex on his route. Unfortunately he passed away just 6 weeks after retiring. The funeral procession had ~50 (ish) LLVs in it, and I think he'd have liked it. It made me smile, on what was an otherwise cold day both literally & figuratively speaking. :) I miss his advice tremendously, he was a very smart person and I often reflect on his decision to become a mailman, despite having a law degree. I have but a [honors!] GED, though more philosophically sometimes I wonder if more succinct & 'adventurous' job -- and a more frugal lifestyle -- might be more fulfilling. I respected his decision though, and as I've aged I definitely feel that I better understand it, as well.
DavidSJ 8y ago
Perhaps the stress of law made him go postal.
chrisseaton 8y ago
I think a lot of people do law degrees as a not-quite-sure-what-else-to-do professional degree, so they then go into very diverse things afterwards.
yellowapple 8y ago
My uncle was a lawyer up until he decided he'd rather do cattle ranching. Seems like he wasn't the only one to reconsider a career in law. I don't know why he quit being a lawyer, though. Maybe the stress?
- sys_64738 8y ago
  I once hired a lawyer who turned out to be a right cowboy!

by pm90 8y ago

michaelchisari 8y ago

I can't speak for his father, but knowing both lawyers and postal workers, I can say that the postal workers are infinitely more satisfied with their careers, hands down.

drdeadringer 8y ago
A cousin of mine went to school to become a patent lawyer. He couldn't land a job to save his life. He's now a stay-at-home father whilst his medical-doctor spouse pads the bank account [all of which is fine, I'm talking only to the law-degree-job points here]. Your favorite person can get the best most awesome degree possible and still work in the mail room. By hook or by crook, that may just be what they enjoy [and in "current year", what that job requires].

seibelj 8y ago

I know a woman who graduated from Stanford law about 5 years ago who accomplished her dream by getting a job in environmental law. She despised the work, made too little money relative to her debt, and now works as an advisor at a law school specializing in helping graduates reduce and manage their debt through all means possible. She regularly posts links to things like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-UEqJ85KE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-UEqJ85KE

acjohnson55 8y ago
A friend of mine practiced law as a public defender before leaving the profession and becoming an inner-city pizza delivery man.
- wyclif 8y ago
  It's fairly common for people with law degrees to either never use the degree, or quit law after a short time because they hate the work, just like it's common for people with humanities education to go into technology and engineering. One of my fave guitarists, Robert Quine (Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, Tom Waits, Matthew Sweet) was arguably the first punk rock lead guitar player. But before that he had passed the bar in Missouri and got a job writing tax law articles for Prentice Hall in NJ while commuting to Manhattan to play with the Voidoids on nights and weekends. After a few years, he hated working in law and eventually quit. He looked like a college professor, but he was a total animal on guitar (listen to the two solos he plays on the Voidoids' "Blank Generation" single). He talks about all that in this interview: http://www.furious.com/perfect//quine.html http://www.furious.com/perfect//quine.html

ghaff 8y ago

I have no idea about this specific case, but at least historically it was a degree a lot of people fell into. Father and grandfather were lawyers at white shoe firm. Seems like a decent middle-class job. That undergrad classics degree only got them a low-level job at a publishing house. Maybe law's the way to monetize that degree. Or it just seems really interesting. Then a lot of people discover they don't like actually being lawyers because associates at big firms work long hours and a lot of the work is very tedious. At least that's what I've seen with people I know. I'm sure the majority with law degrees don't actually practice law.

adanto6840 8y ago

It's a good question, and one that I probably asked him on many multiple occasions. His answer was always multi-pronged, but the main points were approximately (in order of importance, as I perceived it): 1) Law = Higher stress career. 2) Office vs Outdoors; he loved being outdoors every day, especially loved talking to people -- most everyone on his route knew him by name and he strongly believed in [perhaps incorrectly, as things have changed dramatically] in mail carriers being very 'customer/service oriented'. He loved talking to people, he'd bring mail up to elder-aged peoples homes every day and talk to them for a few minutes, etc. Perhaps a bit Mayberry-esque, even. ;) 3) Moral reasons; a general dislike of bureaucracy (though plenty of that at USPS, and more towards end of his career, which we heard about over dinner ~nightly!); generally a preference for meritocracy (his 'sorting speed' was N times faster than the 'baseline', he would tell us); an extreme disdain for "schmoozing" for lack of a better term. He never even took the bar exam, which actually surprises me a bit even today. As a young teenager I found it borderline insane, selfishly of course -- I can remember thinking "we'd be in the nicer neighborhood if Dad would just go be a lawyer!", and I remember wondering if my grandfather was upset by it but I was a bit surprised to not really get the impression that it was an issue. He also had owned & sold a bar in his 30s, had the only home we lived in my entire life paid off in his ~50s, the USPS insurance & pension plans were great, and we lived quite frugally -- so he was comfortable, he carried our own route so he was home 2x each day, the rotating schedule was nice to get Saturdays off occasionally, and he was off work by ~3-4PM every day (except near holiday times when they'd have 20ft of mail and tons of parcels). I actually believe he initially began carrying mail just as a summer job while in college, and then probably kept at it simply because it was fulfilling for him. He retired a bit early, with >2 years of PTO & Sick Leave time saved up; proceeded to get hip replacement surgery almost immediately -- likely somewhat attributable to walking up/down ~100 flights of stairs each for a nearby apartment complex on his route. Unfortunately he passed away just 6 weeks after retiring. The funeral procession had ~50 (ish) LLVs in it, and I think he'd have liked it. It made me smile, on what was an otherwise cold day both literally & figuratively speaking. :) I miss his advice tremendously, he was a very smart person and I often reflect on his decision to become a mailman, despite having a law degree. I have but a [honors!] GED, though more philosophically sometimes I wonder if more succinct & 'adventurous' job -- and a more frugal lifestyle -- might be more fulfilling. I respected his decision though, and as I've aged I definitely feel that I better understand it, as well.

DavidSJ 8y ago

Perhaps the stress of law made him go postal.

chrisseaton 8y ago

I think a lot of people do law degrees as a not-quite-sure-what-else-to-do professional degree, so they then go into very diverse things afterwards.

yellowapple 8y ago

My uncle was a lawyer up until he decided he'd rather do cattle ranching. Seems like he wasn't the only one to reconsider a career in law. I don't know why he quit being a lawyer, though. Maybe the stress?

sys_64738 8y ago
I once hired a lawyer who turned out to be a right cowboy!