Topic advice

[__]

I think I may have found it:

After about 6 months at my company (my first job outta school) I got moved to another department.  I was working under the Functional Verification Manager with a co-op (small company = small departments).  The Manager, who had been in charge for 3 years and was 20 years older and more experienced than I, was then moved to another department after 3 months and I became a manager with less than a year work experience.  In the beginning I recieved very little respect from the upper managment with the exception of my boss, who took a chance on me.  This only fueled my desire to preform well and over the course of the next year (working my ass off) I started to get more and more respect and responsibility.  Now, 2.5 years later I am still going strong, recieving weekly if not daily accolades, among other things telling me how they have never had someone so capable in this position.

What do y''all think?

[zpops]

It makes me wonder why you're leaving your job, to be honest.  I know what you're trying to get at, but I don't think that topic will work out that well, to be honest. 

[__]

Thanks, hrm... Some stuff to think about.  This just isn't what I want to do, and I thought the challenge->success thing was decent.

It makes me wonder why you're leaving your job, to be honest.  I know what you're trying to get at, but I don't think that topic will work out that well, to be honest. 

[pross1492]

i'm struggling to come up with a topic as well, but here's my two cents.  if i put myself in a adcom's shoes, i think i'd be looking for some mark of good work ethic (which your story has), but more importantly, i'd be looking for the answers to two questions:  why does this person want to study law and what about his previous achievements has led him to the pursuit of law?
i think the last poster is right.  youve been very successful in your current position.  if you can answer the question of why youre leaving it to go to to law school, that would be more effective.

i have a similar story as you.  i'd love to hear how you decide to present it.

[__]

good point.  Maybe I can find a way of making it a tie-in, but I don't want it to become an "I wanna go to law school 'cause..."  PS.  But I don't think keeping that balance is necessarily difficult.  Thanks both of you for your advice.

[nathanielmark]

my thoughts are that the work ethic should be demonstrated more thru resume, GPA, LORs, ECs etc.  i think it is more valuable to tell something about yourself revealing to some aspect other then work ethic. 

[lexylit]

thalky, youre pretty interesting. so far your ps sounds kinda <yawn>

how about some crazy thing that happened on your job that can be augmented with some of the background thalky-is-the-*&^% details?

[GA_Kristi]

I think you definitely need to address why you want to go to law school.  Most schools specifically ask you to address this in your statement.  However, that doesn't mean you have to say "because I'm good at arguing," or "because my father is a lawyer," or "because I've wanted to be a lawyer since I was 5."  There are many different approaches.

I've applied through 2 different application seasons and was most happy with my second PS.  I'll gladly send it to anyone who would like to see it.  Anyhow, I talked about a quote I found that dealt with people leading their lives in the pursuit of "purpose, service and leadership"...I talked about a friend who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, who I looked up to for exuding these characteristics, and talked about how not everyone can achieve "purpose, service and leadership" through the military, but how I thought I could find these things in law.  I talked about my work experience in law offices as well and about leadership positions in college and such.  Anyhow, I was very happy with the end product.  I had a professor (family friend) who sits on the Admissions Committee (at a school I did NOT apply to) read mine and he loved it, so I think I achieved my goal. 

My other big suggestion (which the professor friend agrees with) is to address each school individually in your statement.  I chose to make it my last paragraph, so I used the same PS for each school, just with a different last paragraph.  I talked about why I wanted to go to a particular school, whether it was because of location or programs or whatever.  This shows interest in the school and puts you ahead of someone with a generic statement because the school knows you want to go badly enough that you've done your research. 

Anyhow, hope these tips help!  If you want to see my PS, email me at Kristi_Ann81@yahoo.com...or if you want me to edit your PS, I'm glad to do that as well!  Good luck everyone!