Asking for information on the reality of the journey to entering the legal profession in Ireland
Hope this is the correct sub-reddit for this. I see many posts that don't ask questions specifically about the exams, so I hopefully this is welcome here.
My situation is as follows. I fell into a law degree with no great thinking. Now as I enter my final year, I am trying to prepare for what I want to do in the future.
I am a Maynooth student. I have done the bare minimum throughout my university life. I am on track to achieve a 1st class honours degree, but that's it. No society's joined, no legal experience etc. I am not exaggerating when I say I have absolutely nothing to help me on a quest to become a solicitor in Ireland other than a law degree.
I am under the impression that I would need to pass all 8 Fe-1 exams, convince somebody to take me on a training contract for two years, and then complete a year of a PPC course. So four years would be the best case scenario, assuming the exams take me a year and I land a training contract immediately. I am also under the impression that a training contract is extremely hard to come by. I believe that this will be compounded by my absolute lack of interest or experience in the field up until this point, and maybe my university not being as competitive as others. I am also under the impression that a training contract in a firm in Dublin would not be in the realm of possibility for somebody like me, so I would need to try and find a local solicitor to take me on.
Could somebody who has taken this journey before tell me how it was? Also, if anybody is willing to provide any information whatsoever, or wants to predict how my journey may be, please tell me. If anybody knows about the barrister route also, please let me know. I didn't explicitly ask that as this sub reddit is for solicitors.
Final note: I am trying to be diligent and research accordingly what my life may be like for the next path I take. I am finding it hard to do so for being a solicitor. I am planning to volunteer in a local firm, not to improve my CV, but to try get some experience to see if I enjoy it. Is there any other information e.g articles, books, interviews etc. that somebody could recommend for me to research this?
I am eager not to waste another couple of years of my life by coasting into a pathway that I haven't fully considered, as I naively did with my choice of degree. Becoming a solicitor is by no means a vocation for me, and if I feel it isn't the right path, so be it. However, I want to do my due diligence for the law journey which I definitely have not done. Since I have the degree, I want to see if it is possible for me, and something I may enjoy. That is to say, don't be afraid to tell me the truth about the likelihood of this working out for me. Thanks.