See you contradicted yourself there. Indeed Seniors don't pay well and that is a sorry state of affairs but it is not what you are going for. In my experience, if your seniors have you work on their cases, let you argue (Remember, asking for a Passover or adjournment is not argumentation) and draft pleadings, then you will get to learn and side by side you can develop your practice. Otherwise, you will be moving around a headless chicken.
As I indicated, no matter how good you were in competitions, dry runs and mock trials can only prepare you to a level. Once you have the burden of the life of your client in your hand, be it in a civil, criminal or commercial matter, the stakes are higher and hence it takes time to get into the skin of a lawyer. Besides, judges have their way of doing things which is not taught in law school and it takes time for a junior to understand the tricks that work before a kind of judge. That's why you need cases of a senior where even if you lose or did not perform well, you will still have a chance of getting more opportunities without jeopardising your practice or future.

In my honest opinion, find a senior who lets you work and argue. Difficult to find it but do give it a try. You can leave the chamber whenever you want and go independent. It is a test match, not a T20. You will not miss anything by joining a chamber.

There's a lot you can learn by working under a good lawyer. The easiest way towards getting better is to emulate. If you don't even know what a good lawyer is, how will you even raise your competence to that level?

Having said that, I know some lawyers who have carved out practices where they are making around 1-2l pm despite having never worked with another lawyer. However, they mostly do trial court work and are not "good" lawyers in any respect. I wonder if 10 years down the line this will impact them.

seniors don’t pay well, plus i believe i’m in a good position, better off than many arguing competition and ip cases in delhi; would i not learn those intricate stuff with time if i have my own practice?

my seniors from this college who are now working under some well established seniors don’t really find a good learning curve and suggest me to start independent if I can

You learn many things only after joining practice regardless of your number of internships or how seriously you attended them. For this, you would need matters which will not come easily from day one. Also, it will not be given to you without experience. Therefore it is advisable to join a chamber and a senior who allows you to take matters independently and appear in his matters for hearings. That will give you experience, exposure and credits to sell yourself in the market.

Criminal law isn’t doesn’t drive me, I’ve done a few internships under some senior advocates who specialise in this field but all I learnt was that I’d have to spend a good amount of time in the magistrate’s, trial, and sessions court to understand some fine intricacies that are very much required and asked for at a later stage. I’ve mentioned my areas of interest in the above post and would like to work under those domains to start with, in my opinion.

hi i wish to go independent and so do my parents- right after law school. i’ve done corporate internships but idt i’ll be able to do something big there sitting on a desk and working 24x7 with minimal learning curves (whatsoever dept it is)

i’m from a top nlu and have been attending court proceedings from the first year itself because of my inherent interest in the proceedings that follow, also to add- i’ve completed the cs course apart from that mandatory articleship, i pursued cs only from the knowledge pov and the fact that i’d be better equipped with certain laws as a litigator and that has helped me stay ahead of the crowd here in certain semesters owing to just that

my areas of interest include constitution,ip,tax(direct and indirect),commercial,competition law

please drop in your valuable suggestions, much needed

ps: area of practice shall be delhi, office renting charges and all isn’t an issue.