I have been an executive assistant for an oil and gas company for 5 years before I decided to stay home with my children. It has been two years since I have been in the workforce and as my children are nearing the age to attend school, I would like to go back to work, but I do not want to start over. I understand that I am not as marketable and that the longer I am out, my skills decrease.
So, I have been thinking of things that I like or in demand and came up with Paralegal studies. This is something that would interest me and I can still make a nice income contributing what my husband makes.
My question is: Being a stay home mom and two children, it would be hard for me to get to a class room, would an online degree be thought less of? Do I need a bachelors (should I spend the money on it) or would an associates degree be sufficent or certificate? With that being said, will I have to come to terms with being a receptionist first? I am sorry, I can't stand answering phones full time.
Anyway, please give me feedback on what route would be best to become a paralegal.
Thank you in advance.
Casey
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Before committing to any program, I would try to get a job based on your experience alone. See if anyone will bite. I've known a few paralegals that worked as executive assistants and were able to find on-the-job training. If you are in no hurry to find a job, I suggest doing that first before spending money on school. Two years is not a long time out of the workforce. Try the ten years I was out. LOL.
I went to night classes to get my associate's degree in paralegal studies. I did it as a single mom, newly divorced, no job, no current work experience, borrowing a car from my sister and living back at home with my Dad. Do I think it is possible? Well, it has to be. I graduated top of my class with a 4.0 GPA and won the program's scholarship for both years. :)
An online degree is less thought of and is a waste of money. I review intern applications and I immediately put those to the bottom of the list, or often, they immediately get a letter stating they were not qualified. You cannot learn legal research solely on the computer. While most attorneys do their research online, what happens if you can't log in? You need to know how to use the books. Online tells me you never once stepped in a law library. Nor, can you really learn to write a good legal brief. There are certain aspects of a paralegal education where those of us in the legal field know you cannot do with quality online.
I possess an associate's degree as many of my peers do. Most of my peers get their associate's, start working and take night classes to finish their bachelor's.
Do not get suckered into "online" programs, "paralegal institutes", or 1 year programs. If this is the route you want to go, attend an ABA approved two-year community college program.
Your executive assistant experience would definitely catch my eye. I think you couple an associate's degree with that and you'd be a good candidate. Good luck.
I work in that field for a living, I’m a contracts administration manager and I started here a year ago with no experience in legal. I however did have 6 years experience in clerical/administration work so that helped a lot on my behalf. Yes he/she did read your resume prior to giving you a call back, they may have seen something they liked in your resume and now they want to match that with the person and see if they see potential in you. What they mean by training the right person is if it looks like you have potential and are going to be an asset to their company then they have no problem training you and putting you to work. However, if they see you aren’t fit for the job they aren’t going to waste their money training you. The best most important piece of advice I can give you is to remain calm and confident in your interview, I interviewed with my current Director and VP of the department I work in for the #1 Technology Distribution company in the world so it wasn’t an easy interview to say the least. But I stayed calm and confident, I didn’t lie on my resume that way I was able to back up everything on it. Give short but descriptive answers to the person interviewing you, remember you are selling yourself but you don’t want to over sell yourself at the same time. Have a friend or family member who works in management, or has a lot of experience interviewing give you a test run interview. They will know the right questions to ask, just be calm, confident, and know in your head that you are the right person for the job. The rest should just fall in place, try and over sell yourself or make yourself look smarter and better than you are and they will catch it and wont call you back.