Prestigious yet boring job for a ~25 year old?

Executive Assistant?

A paralegal at a large law firm - they can be paid very, very well, but you could be assigned any number of mind-numbing tasks - like stamping thousands of pages of discovery in a large case, with consecutive numbers, in a warehouse, every day, for months.

Or making very specific bound copies of pleadings, everyday.

Or even transcribing hours and hours of recorded information.

And if it's a large firm, in a city, the pay might be fantastic - and a lot of people are paralegals at such firms for 2-3 years, and then go off to very good law schools, with the hopes of coming back to be an associate at that firm or a similarly prestigious firm.

~suki

A government job. A good government job pays well, requires very little experience or education, has great benefits and has huge incentive to stick with it. I know a friend who works for GSA (glorified party planner), she got a $10,000 salary bonus when she got new degrees. And after only working for 6 years or so could've easily been looking at a pretty comfortable salary.

Prestigious might not be the word but it'd definitely be comfortable, easy, secure and boring.

My daughter took advance business courses in HS and two years of accounting in college. She interned one summer with an accounting firm. She changed majors the following year. Said she could imagine doing this day in and day out for the rest of her life...

Any job can be mind-numbingly boring to someone; it''s more a matter of attitude than the job itself. If your character will be leaving to get a JD, then consider what that character might need a little background in later on.

I'll second government. A graduate direct entrant can come in at 22 straight into a middle management job, earning more than twice minimum wage, which at 22 and with no real job experience is a lot of money.

When I started in government I started on a salary that was pushing £30k and that was at 26

Your question reminds me strongly of this article I read a while back about new grads going to work for consultancies like McKinsey because it becomes a fast track for more elite jobs like going to work for the Gates Foundation without having to slog through low-paying years at NGOs.

http://blogs.forbes.com/conorfriedersdorf/2010/10/28/why-elites-know-not-what-they-run/#

I would say other options could be Congressional staffer, White House intern, or working on some political campaign.

If you don't want to go the political route, perhaps journalism, the World Bank, the IMF, or the UN?

Clerking for a US Bankruptcy Court judge... difficult position to get - seriously competitive process to include a background investigation of some depth - and if acquired, potentially mind numbing in the extreme.

Ticket taker at a Porn theatre owned by a MNC that's looking to expand

I know a fund accountant for a major financial investment firm who is looking for a new job. He makes good money but the hours are terrible and it's painfully boring.