Career options

Well, it's been another busy week.

I didn't get the job I went for, but considering who I was up against, I'm not all that surprised. And I did get lots of nice comments in my feedback.

One of the problems I'm facing at this stage of my career is that, because I've moved around a lot and practised in many different areas, I'm often up against someone who has better experience in a narrow field, but less experience overall. And because the jobs in government are determined by the narrow confines of selection criteria and not by how well-rounded you are, I'm missing out on jobs that I'm probably better qualified for than the people who get them.

Which wasn't the case for this particular job. I was competing against some highly qualified people, but it's a general question I've been looking at.

As far as I can tell, I have 5 options:-

1. Settle myself into one area of law and specialise.

2. Go into a pure policy position where the breadth of my experience is a bonus.

3. Go into management where (again) the breadth of my experience is a bonus.

4. Go back to private practice where I'll still have to specialise, but my broad experience is taken into account rather than just my experience in one narrow area.

5. Resign myself to the fact that my career is currently at a standpoint in terms of permanent placement and just enjoy the variety of work I'm continuing to get.

Unfortunately, each of these options has its problems:-

1. I like the variety of work I do and don't want to stagnate.

2. Pure policy work is a bit too academic to keep me truly happy. I like being at the pointy end of the law.

3. I've sat in management positions temporarily and didn't really enjoy it. And it means that I'll no longer be working as a lawyer.

4. Although I have enough experience behind me now to go back into private practice on my own terms, I don't want to go back to working 14 hour days and being expected to place my job before all else.

5. I haven't been in my permanent position for over 18 months now. I've outgrown the position which means that I no longer do the work in my position description and I'd be very underpaid for the work I actually do and my position label doesn't reflect the level of my advice (it's a bit like being charged out as a solicitor when you're actually a partner).

So I don't really like any of those options. I suppose I'll end up going for Option 1 as the lesser of the 5 evils, but it may involve moving to a different department, which I'm not sure I want to do. There are too many aspects of this department that I like.

*sigh* Decisions, decisions!

Listening to: Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling towards ecstasy