JDQ Radar showing the typical personality type demands made in a law career.
Key: darker areas indicate high demand, lighter ones less demand. That is, if your personality type is a darker area, then this career matches your personality.
Below you will find comments by people in this career. They were asked to rate their job (out of 6) and what they liked or did not like about their job. Their comments are sorted by the rating they assigned. The actual job title they gave is in brackets with, if provided, the personality type they declared.
Rating 6/6
Its monotonoeous (Legal Editor - ESTP)
I like helping victims (federal anti human trafficking - ISFP)
Rating 5/6
I would like opportunities for greater responsibility and impact , which is not possible until I complete my academic qualifications. (legal policy research - ENTJ)
like the autonomy and respect dislike targets (town planning inspector - ESFJ)
The uncertainty of being freelance (Freelance law editor - ESTJ)
variety, challenge (Paralegal - INTP)
Poor Supervision (Driver License Examiner - ISTJ)
Like :Working with people, helping younger lawyers, solving problems for clients, annalysing legal issues, organising a business. Dislike: Managment procedures, uniformity, internal meetings. (Partner Law firm)
Dislike having to work with incompetent people. I like making a difference to clients and improving my skills. (Solicitor)
Rating 4/6
I like the freedom, I dislike people who don’t work well in a team environment, I dislike negative colleagues (senior counsel - ESFJ)
Too much analytical work, such as writing terms and conditions and understanding complex pricing structures, and not enough personable work, i.e. team building, relationship management, etc (Commercial Manager - ESTJ)
ever changing (compliance officer - INFP)
interesting topics (paralegal - INFP)
Please note that I have been a conveyancing secretary for 10 years and I have been a conveyancer for 1 year. I am doing a Conveyancer’s course of an evening and work full time as a conveyancer. I do not have a secretary and I carry out all duties, filing, photocopying, typing letters. Dislikes Conveyancing is a very “fast pace” job and it is not always easy to keep on top of the work. This can make me feel as though I am always chasing my tail and never getting anywhere. Constantly receiving calls for updates consumes a lot of my time and I feel like screaming"if you get off the phone, I can actually do the work required of me instead of just talking about what I am going to do!". It can be very difficult to balance the workload and client care. I am not always very organised and this can lead to feeling as though the work is spiralling out of control. Clients are very anxious for transactions to go through quickly and with the least amount of hassle to them. I find that this is a very stressful job. I am very conscious of making mistakes as, if I were to miss an important point contained / not contained within documentation, this could lead to negligence claims when the client comes to sell - this just adds to the pressure. Clients only hear what they want to hear and will interpret what you say with what they want. Likes: Applying the law, knowledge and experience. There is always something new to learn as the law is always changing. When a transaction has completed and your clients have moved into the property, and you have actually managed to make it run smoothly, it is a great feeling. (Conveyancer - property law - INTJ)
Political pressures, hypocrisy, long hours, colleagues’ lack of passion about the work (lawyer - ISFP)
Dislike - emphasis on making money. Like - interesting and varied. (Solicitor - ISFP)
I love being successful. I dislike being unable to make the world a better place. (Lawyer)
I like to continually learn new things and to always keep busy. I dislike boredom in the office. (Legal Secretary)
Rating 3/6
I do not like my job, I find that it is divorced from truth and reality and looks to the past as opposed to creating future solutions. However, I like advocating and giving advice. (Barrister - ENFP)
Unimaginative (Public servant - ENFP)
Boring, routine, too much pressure, unclear instructions, no thinking. (Reviewing documents and contracts at a big law firm - ENFP)
I like the investigation part of my work - talking to people finding out what the problems they face with existing law, finding out what they need to make a new law work, making things work. I do not like the egos. I do not like the amount of time I spend on my own. I prefer a more team, collaborative, fun way of working. (law drafter - INTJ)
too much conflict, too little stability in terms of job content, too few models for handling unique situations (attorney - ISTJ)
isolation (law clerk)
Boring, too focused, too much reading, too much alone time, too much personal responsibility, too complex, too much work (Legal research analyst and writer)
own responsibilites. Making a difference. (police officer)
Can be lonely. No room for imagination. Enjoy the freedom and flexibility. (Self-employed advocate)
Rating 2/6
Too much policy and being treated as a number rather than a person (Customs and Excise detection - ESFJ)
My office has great people to work with, but the work itself is mundane, and the adversarial nature of litigation is tiresome. (Attorney - INFJ)
It is tediously detail oriented and administrative. (Contract Administrator - INTJ)
Detailed pulling apart of contracts & studying of giures; stopping things getting done & achieving strategic aims for the sake of being risk averse (contracts manager - INTJ)
I work face to face with the filth of society. I prviously enjoyed it, and still take pride in protecting the community, but i am burned out and becoming quite synical. (Probation officer - INTJ)
I dislike the lack of interaction with people. I do not feel like I am being challenged. There is not enough variety in my job. (attorney - ISFJ)
time pressures inflexible routine (legal case manager - ISFP)
too stressful, not practical enough. (law student)
Being a lawyer (lawyer)
Isolation. Not enough interaction at a personal or meaningful level. (Lawyer)
Judgmental people, socially inept people, bad managers, unclear expectations, not having private time/being able to set boundaries (Lawyer)
Too many rules, not enough interaction with people. Not at all creative. (Lawyer)
Not being office based (Legal Executive)
Not enough control of my time. Petty co-workers. Being told what to do and when to do it and how to do. Being micro-managed (Para-Legal)
Boring, routine, too much pressure, unclear instructions, no thinking. (Reviewing documents and contracts at a big law firm)
boring, methodical (secretary)
stress (solicitor)
Rating 1/6
I dislike the lack of control. (Solicitor - ENFJ)
administration being desk bound (barrister - ENFP)
Isolation (Drafter - ENTP)
networking training (Assistant Solicitor - ESFP)
I despise the conflict, dislike the emphasis on existing rules and status quo, fear the emphasis on comprehensive, detailed knowledge of arcane, boring, often trivial matters. (Lawyer - INFJ)
It is boring, repetitive and offers no room for creativity or mental stimulation. (Attorney - ISFP)
Isolation. Not enough interaction at a personal or meaningful level. (Lawyer - ISTJ)
Fundamentally dislike the way my job takes over my life. Like drafting documents (Solicitor - ISTJ)
Hours (Lawyer)
I despise the adversarial model, I dislike the worship of existing rules and procedures, I am bored and intimidated by the need for comprehensive knowledge of arcane, often trivial matters. (Lawyer)
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