Going to law school felt like the right call. For some lawyers it felt like the obvious call, backed up by experience, by personality, by everything they knew about themselves at the time. So when practicing law turns out to be a bad fit, the harder part is that the decision felt so right going in. If they were wrong about something they were that sure about, how can they trust themselves to choose anything else?

That fear is what keeps so many lawyers where they are, even when staying is actively hurting them. For lawyers trained by a profession that treats every mistake like malpractice, it doesn't take much to go from "I might choose wrong" to "I should never choose at all."

In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks with returning guest Kelcey Baker about what it actually looks like to make career moves that don't go as planned, how Kelcey navigated leaving two law firms and eventually launching a consulting business, why the idea that you only get one shot at a career change keeps lawyers stuck, and what changes when you stop trying to make the perfect decision and start making any decision at all.

1:28 - The fear of making a mistake and choosing something that's even worse than where you are now

2:59 - Kelcey's first "did I make a huge mistake" moment and why it wasn't law school

6:25 - How realizing law is a bad fit damages your ability to trust yourself to make career decisions

9:24 - Why lawyers who worked as paralegals before law school often feel an extra layer of self-blame

11:19 - The "I should have known" trap and why you couldn't have known what you didn't experience

14:35 - How the experience of a bad fit impacts the next career decision and the one after that

17:40 - Why most people who go to law school were too young to have done the inner work of knowing themselves

19:17 - Why punishing your younger self for not knowing what you know now keeps you stuck

20:57 - The pressure to find the capital-T Thing and how fear of judgment keeps lawyers in jobs that are hurting them

30:48 - The binary thinking that makes it feel like you're either a lawyer or you're nothing

33:33 - How Kelcey built a consulting business by combining what she was good at with what she actually liked

36:02 - Why perfectionist, eldest-daughter types forget they're resourceful enough to figure it out

41:03 - You will be okay, and if the next thing isn't right either, you can keep going

43:46 - Bridge jobs, lily pad jobs, and why it doesn't have to be forever to be worth doing

Mentioned In Making a Career Change When You're Afraid of Getting It Wrong with Kelcey Baker

Kelcey Baker on LinkedIn

Validation: An Incredible Tool for Unhappy Lawyers with Kelcey Baker

Startling Parallels Between Narcissism In Law Firms And Family Units

How Law Firms Avoid All Responsibility for Toxic Environments with Kelcey Baker

Lawyers - Hoping To Be Hit By A Bus Isn't Normal

First Steps to Leaving the Law

The Former Lawyer Collaborative