Keeping the love alive: how to develop a career versus a job.

• Author: Salo, Marcy Whited

In 1989, I came to Cairncross & Hempelmann in Seattle as a legal assistant. I worked in law firms in various capacities during college--from process server to word processor (and everything in between), so I guess it really shouldn't come as any surprise that my career would be in the field of law. Truthfully, though, it was a surprise--to me and to those who knew me--because I chose not to attend law school and become a lawyer, and because most who knew me as a younger person thought I was too "creative" to go into legal administration.

Oddly, it may be that creativity that has kept me in the legal business all these years. Certainly, working in law firms --specifically working with lawyers--is an intellectual challenge. One thing about attorneys is that they are invariably intelligent and will keep you on your toes And yet, to me, the most satisfying aspect of working in a law firm is also the most frustrating--the unending need to find a better, more efficient and creative way of doing things.

To many of you, that may seem like putting too fine a point on it. For myself, I've always tried to bring something of the real world into what I do for my firm. That is, although I am a legal marketer, I don't want to do good legal marketing. I don't even want to do great legal marketing. I want to do great marketing--for a law firm. That can frequently be a challenge, as law firms are not the most "out of the box" or creative consumers of marketing In fact, my observation is that most law firms follow each other in a pretty neat line of what works.

So why keep doing it? What keeps a legal marketer at one firm for more than 20 years? There is never any one answer to a question like that. Sometimes it can be as simple as the need for consistency. For me, I was raising a family--two boys--on my own. That certainly contributed to the way I looked at my opportunities. Besides, working in a law firm is a good job. It's secure, stable and defined; the pay is good and there are many worse places to work.

Maybe you're an adrenaline junky. Many of us need the challenge of working in an environment that requires us to be on our toes at all times. We love being under the gun, short on budget and in need of something remarkable. Good ideas have a value all their own.

Maybe you're a problem solver. Sometimes the inherent conflicts in legal marketing (lawyers and business development versus sales) seem overwhelming, and, as a result, when they are resolved...