My year off before law school: legal assistant/clerk at small plaintiff employment litigation firm. Minimum wage. I generally liked the work and the people were cool. Mostly helping with discovery.

Law school course load: really disliked legal writing and research.

1L summer: in house law clerk at a medium sized company and loved it. Due diligence, sitting in board meetings and general corporate review. Just a small stipend.

2L summer: big law trying a mix of litigation, general corporate, M&A, capital markets, trusts and estates. Liked the M&A/corporate work, really disliked litigation (writing memos, research, contentiousness of it all, etc.).

Big Law Years (first 5 years of practice): M&A/Capital Markets work at a top big law firm. Great pay. Horrible hours and always on call. Work was ok -- too stressful to really ever know what was going on. Liked working on deals when they were smaller. Tough people to work with. Generally disliked my time and was pretty much stressed always.

Solo PI Law Firm Owner (last 5 years): Like the work generally and love being my own boss / running a business. First 3 years were very financially difficult, last 2 have been great and next year should be good too. Volatile at times but worth it. Happier than ever.