Main Question

Well, just as the title said, I am not going to write about the motivational self-help article for LL.B students but the truth from my experience. Mostly, what you will see in this article are some difficulties and struggles as regards to finding-job over these years. So, many of you may come up with questions like Is being qualified for the internship program that difficult? I mean like, aren't we the students of the one-and-only law program that teaches English in this country?

Ongoing competition 

Sure, we may be the one-and-only international law program in Thailand, but this does not mean other law students from other universities have no clue how to write or talk in English. In fact, you should not underestimate them or cross them out, but you need to develop yourself all the time as a good legal practitioner. In one year, there are various students who graduated and received a bachelor of law in this country. After their graduation, some of them may decide to take part in the public sector, like preparing to take the Bar Exam and other relevant exams to become judges or public prosecutors or become legal officers in government sectors. Some of them may temporarily or permanently walk out of the legal career, like deciding to immediately pursue a master of law degree or starting their own business. However, some of them may choose to take their first professional step in the private sector, such as becoming the legal counsel in either an international law firm or local law firm or working as legal compliance officers in a private company. Financially speaking, becoming the legal counsel in an international law firm effectively copes with financial aspects such as salary rate and welfare, including the prospects of getting a scholarship from the firm. However, due to the competitive nature of capitalist society, workplaces that are capable of providing high benefits are usually limited. So, the competition rate for the private sector, as aforementioned, is quite high.

Freshmen year 

I once thought that getting a good job was easy peasy since I am an international faculty in Thailand anyway. Without any doubt, this kind of attitude was the most significant mistake that consequently led me to make subsequent poor choices. At that time, the feeling of the freedom to finally get out of high school was undeniably intense, which led to a lack of discipline toward my academic responsibility. When I realized that, it was probably too late. If you are aiming for the private sector, dropping grades is not such a minor issue in real life. Trust me, freshman year is the easiest, and you can get through it with discipline. If you are still a freshman-year student, what I recommend is that getting at least B+ in every class is actually a must, simply because it is not that difficult if you attend the classes and do your assignment properly.

Sophomore year

As you may have heard from your seniors, the second year is the harshest year of studying in our program, and that is true. This year is a turning point for me and many Studying in the second year is like taking a subject with twice the difficulties of LB100, and you do it six times. For the freshman year, efforts may not need much, but not for the second year because the exams and the assignment are not that easy anymore. This is the reason why you should get as excellent grade as possible during your freshman year since it will work as the grade leverage for your overall GPA. It would be best if you kept in mind that in the subjects that you can not pass during the second year, you will have to re-enroll since most of the subjects in your higher academic years are compulsory. As these courses are compulsory, you may not be able to study other elective subjects that these classes are pre-requisite. Thus, discipline and effort are very vital at this stage since it is necessary to be patient and focus more on studying to prevent the loss of opportunities. Another tip is that you should not drop out of the course if you got a bad score in the midterm unless your scores are truly intolerable. This is because sometimes the lecturer may consider applying norm-referenced grading where the grades of the student are evaluated in relation to one another. In terms of extracurricular activities, if you have decent organization skills and are interested in improving your profiles, you may consider participating in extracurricular activities such as the MOOT court competition, ALSA, Pro Bono, and Civil Society Publishing. Also, this year you will have some opportunities to do internships in the private sector. Thus, don't forget to prepare yourself well.

Junior year

This year is the most eye-awakening year that probably introduces students to adulthood. The reason is that this is the year that various students seek internship opportunities, and the first time some students have gone through the job application process. For the hardworking student, all of your efforts for the past two years will start to pay off. During the intern recruiting process, the institution you apply for will review your CV, transcripts, and other relevant documents. This is why your high overall GPA and extracurricular experiences, which you can include in your CV, will grant you tremendous advantages. Even though GPA is not the sole indicator of whether you will be recruited or not, it may at least tell the recruiters about your responsibility and your understanding of the subjects. However, even if you are not passionate about pursuing a high academic score, you should not be too upset and give it a try by at least applying for the internship first. The tip is to try to apply as soon as possible when the application is opened. This is because if you apply too late, the firm may already finished selecting shortlist candidates and may run out of the quota of the internship position if those shortlisted candidates succeed in the writing test and interview process. Another suggestion is that you should not be too disappointed in yourself if you fail in the interview process because it is quite a normal situation that the majority of people in society face and have to endure. If you fail, put your chin up, move on and make sure that you prepare it better for the next time. In non-legal questions, the interviewers actually do not pay attention to what the answers are, but they rather focus on how you address them and your personality reflected from that answer as well. My recommendation is that you may thoroughly prepare to answer these kinds of questions.

Overall Suggestion

I do not intend to be so pessimistic, but this is the truth that we will all inevitably face someday, and I only wish you to be aware of this ongoing competition that is constantly happening. Some of you may be good at academics and well aware of what I said earlier, but some of you may not, and that is still alright because you now know about it. My conclusion is that be disciplined on academic duties and never forget to pursue your extracurricular activities. Above all, do not forget to do self-love or care for yourself physically and mentally. The reason is that all of your effort and discipline cannot be well-paid off without you yourself.