Yeah, I know that non-lobbiest lawyers have relatively little influence on regulations or the legislation that produces laws, and I have little interest in getting involved in that. Part of the problem with current regulations is that they’re often at odds with other laws or legal precidents, which can lead to efforts to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities mired in litigation. Ultimately what is needed is another organization, probably seperate from the FAA, which exists to delineate what commercial operators can do and where they can do it, and provides at least a limited degree of indemnification similar to what government organizations and their contractors ostensibly enjoy (although even that is no real protection, especially since the Love Canal debacle). My primary interest is finding some way to facilitate well-considered and technically vetted development; not the errant, poorly-conceived nonsense of high risk space tourism, but commercial space access and utilization technology that is ultimately beneficial to industry and the public as a whole, and that does not pose the currently onerous burden that prospective commerical entities have to bear without DoD sponsorship.
I think what you are telling me–and that I already kind of understand–is that this is less about the law, both as currently enacted and prospective–than about policy and politics. As a nation, we could draft intelligently written laws that would facilitate technical develop and serve the public interest (both protecting the public at large from mitigatable hazards and provide socioeconomic benefit) but the existing and well-fortified industrial interests would oppose it for their own fiscal interests, which is the current situiation which has us paying billions of dollars for defense and Earth observation systems which are constantly overbudget and underperforming while genuine needs and threats like interplanetary communications and planetary hazard warning and abatment are almost completely unfunded and undeveloped.
Lessee, did media related for about 6 years; got an MBA and did investment banking in Tokyo and HK for 7 years, then a 15 year stint in software in Shanghai and Redmond, and now doing hardware manufacturing. At some point in the next decade, I will found a small business that will employee employees on the autism spectrum (including my daughter), but don’t know what that is yet.
It looks like Stranger On A Train has got your details covered, but I did indeed switch professions later in life. I was a respiratory therapist for about 20 years, from the late 70s to the late 90s. It was a good profession in many ways – the pay was great for the amount of education I put into it (HS diploma and one year of hospital-based RT program), the work was flexible and jobs easy to come by. I was very good at respiratory therapy, and didn’t dislike the work, but intellectually it was not very challenging or satisfying. I could see I was not going to be happy with a lifetime of work in the field, so after about 3 years of work I went to college with the idea of doing something else. Part-time RT work put me through school, and when I graduated with a degree in biology… the best job I could find – by far – was respiratory therapy. I got married, bought a house, had a kid, and helped put my wife through graduate school. With her doctorate in economics in hand, she wanted to stay in academia, which meant leaving Seattle. I would have been happy to stay in Seattle, but I was not averse to the idea of striking out for new territory. So I told her I would go wherever we needed to go for her work as long as I never had to suck sputum out of a breathing tube again. So we moved to Omaha, and I cast about for a job, and one day I saw a “help wanted” sign in the window of the library. I like books, I thought, and I’m detail oriented and like people and working indoors, so I applied. I so impressed them at my first interview that they refused to hire me – for the position I’d applied for. They actually interviewed me three times, bumping me up the chain until they hired me for the highest para-professional position they offered. I loved library work, and ended up in the children’s department of Eugene Public Library. Best job I’ve ever had, no question. I looked into getting a Master’s in Library Science so I could become a proper librarian, but at my age (and by then schooling had gotten very expensive) the cost/benefit analysis did not see it paying off. Besides that, I wouldn’t enjoy some of the librarian things I would have to do as much as I enjoy the more hands-on work of the library assistant. So that’s where I am, and I’ll stay here until I die or physically can’t work. So the career change worked out for me.
I agree with some of your sentiment, but just FYI teaching English abroad remains an exception to this. Here in Shanghai, only a minority of schools even ask for a teaching certificate, and most of those would still readily snap up a native english speaker with no teaching experience.
Which is of course not always a good thing…you don’t necessarily need a certificate to be a good teacher but being a native english speaker does not guarantee you will be a good english teacher.
It used to be like that in Thailand, but the authorities have cracked down in recent years. Decades years ago, most native-speaking English teachers in Thailand could count on making 30,000 baht a month, the equivalent at the time of US$1200, which was not a bad salary for here back in the day. Nowadays most native-speaking English teachers can count on making … 30,000 baht a month, only now that’s worth about $850 and is really a shit salary considering how much prices for everything have shot through the roof. There are very few good positions with top schools, so a lot of qualified teachers head to Japan or Taiwan or South Korea, where real money can be made. The dregs stay behind, and since they increasingly are required to have some sort of certificate, even they have been forced to take off, leaving much of the work to Thai teachers who often can barely speak much English themselves. The situation is a real mess.
I was a registered nurse for 30years, and have just recently graduated with a bachelor of science with a masters in health information management. So, same field (healthcare) but no longer patient centered.
I both needed and wanted to change - wanted as I had done all sorts of different nursing, and it was just no longer interesting; needed, as I am getting older, and it was getting physically hard, and I could see it getting harder in years to come, so wanted to jump before I needed to.
HUGE support from my husband, without which it would have been very difficult. Quite expensive - student loan, and decreased income while I was at university for 4 years. Have a full time job using my new degree/masters, and it is all looking very hopeful.
Stranger, I don’t know what your financial and personal issues are obviously (and I hope that they permit you), but speaking for myself as a lawyer, I know several late-in-life lawyers and they are without exception successful.
One is a former Army General, who is now been a lawyer for 20 plus years (he is in his mid seventies) another a former senior civil servant, one who was a college professor and even a couple of former housewives who went into the profession after their children became teens.
They (and you) will have several advantages to your ordinary newbies. Firstly, in law, its not what you know, its your contacts which dictate your success, that is whythe sons (and thes days daughters) of judges and senior lawyers do so well. You would already have the contacts by virture of your years in the aerospace business.
Secondly, you already have the maturity and experience which young lawyers lack, it takes years to figure out how and when to present information, meet and greet, create contacts, you already have figured that out.
Thirdly, you know the technical bit (and I would say also understand the management and marketing departments) which would make you exceptionally valuable when married to your law degree. Its a sad fact that the people who are cleared to know most stuff in an organization are often the lawyers; I think I have told the story of when as a twenty something third year associate, I attended a business lunch and realised I had more information that the technical, marketing and HR guys had.
As it is, any idiot can become a lawyer; I am proof of that. Someone like you would have people chasing him for work, not be the one chasing people.
Missed Edit:
I don’t think you would be able to make policy, but and frankly, far more importantly, you would be in a position to “guide” those that do. I have seen how technical regulations get screwed over because whats technically sound is not legally appropriate, and some of my most frustrating times as a lawyer has been when dealing with technical people, we often don’t understand one another and talk past each other. I think someone like you would be a godsend.
My wife is currently in this process.
After years of running biochem and pharma labs, the industry has downsized because of the belief among company owners that (and here I’ll quote) “Viruses won’t be causing diseases anymore in the next ten years.”
So armed with a severance package, more than her fair share of brains, and a husband who is financially savvy enough to make sure we weren’t in danger of losing the house when the family’s income dropped by 60%, she entered med school, and so will add an MD to her PhD.
Cons: It’s six years of minimal income right when you want to be earning cash and you need it for a family.
She’s in school with people 20 years younger than her.
It’s a hell of a lot of work with very long hours.
Vacations, what are vacations?
Pros: everyone assumes she’s the senior person in the room, while assuming she’s younger than she is (cheerleader effect, I assume).
She loves the work.
There are actually even more aspects to forensic computing, but that’s pretty accurate. I did forensic computing for about 6 years, but as a subset of my more general career of technology and management consulting. It’s a big enough field where you can enter it with a wide range of skills and experience.
Going from lawyering to forensic computing is less of a career change as it is shifting one’s career focus. Compared to say, going from being a lawyer to an aircraft pilot.
As a lawyer, your main value would be your connections to other lawyers, your knowledge of the legal industry as well as your extensive understanding of discovery and evidence chain of custody procedures. Plus most computer forensics firms follow the same professional services business model of law firms (i.e. billable hours), unless they are more product based.
Rather than go back to school (unless you want to become really technical and go back for a comp sci degree), I would recommend getting some certifications. They cost a fraction of what a degree costs in terms of time and money and studying for the test will give you some necessary background. For example:
Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) is fairly common, although it’s not particularly technical
Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) is more subject-matter focused
EnCE - This is a certification for Guidance Software’s EnCase suite of computer forensics products.
Learning and understanding SQL and databases in general is also useful.
The best way to learn more about the industry is to Google “LegalTech”, which is the industry’s largest trade show. From there you can get a sense of all the firms that do this kind of work and the sorts of skills they are looking for. If you are near San Fran in July or NYC in February, you can also attend the exhibits for free.
I did a career change in my early 40s, but it wasn’t so drastic and I already had the requisite degree. In my 30s, I was working for collegiate athletics during the school year and arranging international tours for foreign teams or helping to manage summer sports camps. With pre-teen/teen children, I decided the hours were too crazy and the pace was too hectic, so just after my 40th birthday, I went back to the career I’d trained for in college - human resources management.
It was a bit tricky to get a foot in the door, as I hadn’t officially used those skills in 20 years, but the work I was doing in athletics involved a tremendous amount of ‘people’ work, so I was able to successfully convince a prospective employer that I not only still had my college skills but had added new ones.
Perhaps you could leverage your current skills with a company that would allow you to work in their legal department while they funded your additional schooling/training through a tuition reimbursement program? Most companies of any size can use good legal skills and if you choose the right one, they might have a need for forensic computing skills as well when you’ve fully obtained those credentials, and you could walk right into your new career with very little trouble.
