I am in my fourth year and at this point don't really want to join a law firm. I checked out positions for lawyers at PSUs like ONGC and Powergrid and found the initial pay to be pretty good. The same goes for banks like SBI and PNB (I am talking about specialized legal roles and not the PO exam).
What I want to understand is how is the growth in the long term? Does the salary sort of plateau in a couple of years? What are the options if you want to branch out couple of years down the line or you are stuck once you are in?
How is the work life balance? Do you get time to spend with family or travel or pursue hobbies? I know for a fact that nobody has to pull all-nighters but heard from someone that nowadays even govt employees are stuck at office from 10 to 8 which leaves little time to do anything else.
Anything else that you can think of which might be relevant, please share here. Thank you.
It is on basis of CLAT (PG) rank and an interview with the company. Almost 75% is CLAT PG rank and rest is your interview. Nowadays, some of them also need prior work experience while many still hire freshers.
Joining a PSU for any decent 5 year law graduate is suicidal.
There is no learning, you won't grow much in a govt sector mediocre environment and legal department is never a priority.
To give you an example even the HR Department manager will be your boss for a long time in your career.
Take some risks, even if you end up in litigation without any specific plan, in 5-6 years you will be doing far better than PSU legal officer.
Ongc, Powergrid and IOCL legal departments saw mass exodus of NLU graduates in 2016-2017 and now they prefer hiring slightly older law graduates who they know will not leave easily.
Once you have spent a few years in ONGC, IOCL, SBI etc you won't even have any value in the market to join law firms or other inhouse jobs.
There is also widespread low level corruption, frequent transfers, boot Licking of seniors who can't even type a sentence on a computer, constant internal politics and no real work. Even within the Company other departments would call you a postman, whose job is to send and pass on queries to outside counsel.
Forgive the chaotic structure of my response and beware of govt job sympathisers who in their delusion may misguide you.
One last advice, if you think you will be able to find time for upsc preparation with such a job, you will realize the foolishness of this plan only when its too late. They will not give you anytime for that and study leaves are also not granted in the legal department.
What I want to understand is how is the growth in the long term? Does the salary sort of plateau in a couple of years? What are the options if you want to branch out couple of years down the line or you are stuck once you are in?
How is the work life balance? Do you get time to spend with family or travel or pursue hobbies? I know for a fact that nobody has to pull all-nighters but heard from someone that nowadays even govt employees are stuck at office from 10 to 8 which leaves little time to do anything else.
Anything else that you can think of which might be relevant, please share here. Thank you.
@Kian, How do you plan to resolve this kid's query? This has been pending for a while ~_^
Joining a PSU for any decent 5 year law graduate is suicidal.
There is no learning, you won't grow much in a govt sector mediocre environment and legal department is never a priority.
To give you an example even the HR Department manager will be your boss for a long time in your career.
Take some risks, even if you end up in litigation without any specific plan, in 5-6 years you will be doing far better than PSU legal officer.
Ongc, Powergrid and IOCL legal departments saw mass exodus of NLU graduates in 2016-2017 and now they prefer hiring slightly older law graduates who they know will not leave easily.
Once you have spent a few years in ONGC, IOCL, SBI etc you won't even have any value in the market to join law firms or other inhouse jobs.
There is also widespread low level corruption, frequent transfers, boot Licking of seniors who can't even type a sentence on a computer, constant internal politics and no real work. Even within the Company other departments would call you a postman, whose job is to send and pass on queries to outside counsel.
Forgive the chaotic structure of my response and beware of govt job sympathisers who in their delusion may misguide you.
One last advice, if you think you will be able to find time for upsc preparation with such a job, you will realize the foolishness of this plan only when its too late. They will not give you anytime for that and study leaves are also not granted in the legal department.
NUJS grad ex ONGC cracked AOR Rank 1, one ex ONGC is now a partner in a law firm in SG.
One Coal India Law Officer is now a partner at S&R. Many IOCL and ONGC law officers work in Tier 1 firms, all of them lost years in seniority.
They hustled, thats the game. Suggest you do that too instead of looking for magical answers on LI.