Are adjunct professors who live in poverty stuck in cycle of learned helplessness?

[vladlensky]

Originally Posted by kokonutty

Or...if you are serious about being a lawyer, you pass the bar and get to work, or get to work and then pass the bar. The government is always hiring but you won't make the big bucks there. Of course, there's no reason to think a twenty-five year old would work for the same employer for forty years either.

I have a relative who did just that for a few years then got a job with a private firm for a few before going to work in the US Attorney's office in one of the largest offices in the country. A few years there, a few in private practice, then back to the US Attorney's office as deputy, or whatever term is used. He eventually was the US Attorney for that large district for about three years. And his alma mater would only be called mid-ranked on a very good day.

He has been a partner in a prestigious national firm since then.

Yeah, that's a bit misleading. The government is not 'always hiring' and it was definitely NOT hiring in 2008 when there was a Federal and State hiring freeze. That meant no new hires, no clerkships, no internships at the state level. You can ask anyone who graduated around this time and struggled to get an interview for even the lowest contract review positions. Keep in mind that the top tier law firms were also feeling the pressure and began laying off people en-masse at this point, so you were competing not only with new graduates in your peer group, but also with people 20-30 years your senior for entry-level positions.

I don't blame you for these statements, however, because like most people, you appear to believe that a law degree and a state bar license is a ticket to gainful employment provided you aren't lazy or deficient in some area. It's a nice illusion that the law schools have perpetuated over the years, but unfortunately the glut of lawyers mean that many very well qualified people will never obtain gainful employment in the field no matter how hard they try.

To further complicate matters, law schools have been caught red-handed inflating graduation statistics, or padding their numbers by including temp 'contract' positions in the total employment averages. This further muddies the water for prospective students, but at the end of the day, law school is a money-making industry and the school aren't past lying to make sure the applications keep rolling me in.

Call me a cynic, but I've seen it first hand, and it played a large part in why I wanted nothing to do with the industry after practicing a couple years.

[vladlensky]

Originally Posted by tolovefromANFIELD

When I go shopping for a car, real estate, appliances, insurance, I don't think the salesman on the other side has my best interest at heart. I do my own research. I'm not sure why the institutions that profit from ignorance should care to change, irregardless of whether or not they're car dealerships or universities?

Unlike the industries you mentioned, law is a self-regulated profession and law schools are beholden to no one, thus free to pad the employment statistics as they see fit. All the research in the world won't help you here. Thankfully around 2010, more lawyers, students and law school grads have started making more noise to try and pressure the ABA to expose these unethical practices.

This article gives an idea of what happens when law schools are allowed to self-govern their employment statistics. And here, where a student sued the school for misreporting the numbers.

[MilksFavoriteCookie]

adjunct professors are not professors its a side hustle........well should be

well depends how it is used, at my university all adjunct professors had to be active in their profession aka it was a 2nd job for them part-time.