Hello everyone,

I am a third year student, at one of the NLU. Nowadays, I am really concerned for myself, i.e. anxiety about what will happen after 2 years, and basically 'Career anxiety'. The main cause as per me is peer pressure.

I see people around me getting internships via contacts and all, whereas me, coming from a very small village where farming is everything. It's a middle class family, not so rich not so poor. There are no professionals in any field in my family, who can come and guide me for these things. Therefore, I can't manage to get good internships too.

The delimma: Sometime, I myself feel that I came at wrong place, law is not for me. Neither I like litigation, nor the life of an associate at a law firm. I felt law firms attractive in beginning, but doing the same thing for my whole life doesn't make sense to me, and I don't like so much materialism around me, to be very honest. I just want a life which is very simple, not so much hi-fi.

My Interests: I really like life of a judicial officer, I am very average in academics and CGPA also goes around 7.9/10. But then, the uncertainty of exams and peer pressure haunts me so much. That's why I have considered academia as backup, if I COULDN'T crack judiciary.

AGE FACTOR: I'm turning 19 next month, and will be graduating at the age of 21-22. Does it really matter?

Loosing Interest in Internships: I have interned at District courts and 2 Boutique law firms till now, and as we have 4 breaks per year, I will try to intern in at least 2. But I'm loosing interest in interning, I sometime feels that why to even go to the path which I never want to choose in my life.

I just don't know what's happening to me, whenever internship break comes, peer pressure increases and so the toxicity. And now it's becoming unbearable. I'm not that 'weak' that I'll harm myself. But then, it's becoming worse than that.

Also my questions are, should I stop interning? because it costs too, at least 15-20k a month.
What will I do if I couldn't manage to crack judiciary? How to handle all of it.... together.

PS: Sorry for such a long post, I'm not able to express myself more than this. I don't know how to manage it, because lack of guidance is destroying my half confidence.

Bro if you aren't from a Tier 1 nlu, then grades was the way to go about, sorry if you don't have contacts, it's actually very hard, I'm currently facing the same problem, because I have average grades, try to shoot up your batch rank maybe top 10% of your batch, then you might land up a job, or else litigation is the only place for people like us, in that too you'll realise, good seniors won't pick you up unless you have contacts or you are from a top 5 NLU, so it is what it is, it's also our fault at the end of the day.

Here's a SWOT analysis for you:

Re, government jobs, there is age and marks relaxation in the reserved category, but not so in the general category. If you fall in the latter category, it will really be tough so think about it carefully.

Re postgrad options like IIM or LLM at an NLU, the above advice applies mutatis mutandis. There are also a lot of other niche non-law degrees you could still consider, such as hospitality or HR. Why don't you think about them? They could lead to jobs and also a stepping stone towards academia.

Re internships, if they aren't taking you anywhere don't do them. You can instead prepare for postgrad exams

Re litigation, would strongly advise any non-nepo kid against it.

The good thing about facing such dilemmas is that people smarter than you have faced the same and tried to solve it.

Go online and search for legal mentorship networks. You will find a bunch of them actively helping people. Apply to them. Go through their posts, see if it gives you some insight.