What was your dream job as a child? My best guess would be astronaut, musician, actor, fireman, veterinarian or soccer player. But what about Patent Attorney? Not on your list?
Definitely, the dream job changes if you ask a child compared to a university student or a newly-graduated student. Lists are regularly published regarding the most popular professions and employers for this group, which is not surprising – the information about the favourite professions is used by politicians, universities, etc., to monitor the educational trends, and companies are more than keen to see how popular they are as an employer.
If you study a recent list of the most popular professions in Sweden, you will find engineer, economist and teacher at the top positions. Furthermore, for engineers, traditional and relatively large Swedish companies constitute the major part of the list of the most popular employers, although foreign companies like Google, Microsoft and McKinsey also do well.
Looking from my own perspective, the profession as a Patent Attorney is hard to come across in surveys of this kind. Even though the mentioned list of the most popular employers does not reveal what kind of profession these companies are looking for, my guess is that an employment as a Patent Attorney at the company is not what comes up first in mind for a student. Furthermore, one could note that no patent agency is to be found in the Swedish top 50 list.
My explanation for this is that the profession – for many people – is rather anonymous. When asked my profession at meetings, parties, etc., I actually get the feeling that my answer puzzles my interlocutor. However, when I continue to describe the details in what I do, i.e. having meetings with companies, universities and inventors regarding their technical development and inventions, drafting patent applications and constructing patent strategies, debating with patent offices and having world-wide contacts with fellow patent agencies, the facial expression of the person in front of me often changes as if he or she was thinking “hey, that sounds interesting!”
So, looking for a career where you can combine a technical knowledge with a linguistic aptitude, see the leading edge of technology, get international contacts, develop your legal knowledge and defend the rights of your company/client? Look no further. The job as a Patent Attorney is interesting, dynamic, challenging, fun and rewarding, and should most definitely qualify amongst the most popular professions around.
Love Koci, Patent attorney
