When it comes to How I Met Your Mother, Marshall tends to be among the most universally beloved characters the sitcom has to offer. Particularly among the men, whereas Barney is often predatory toward women, and Ted has his lapses, Marshall is by and large committed to his romantic partner, his friends, his family, and his values.
Marshall’s kind heart and dedication to the people in his life haven’t always served his professional ambitions well, though. Despite a law degree making him the most educated regular character on the show, the arc of the series saw him lose jobs, take the wrong jobs, and generally ride a roller coaster of ups and downs through his career.
10 Best: Taking The Job At GNB
Money is a regular source of drama for Marshall and Lily throughout their relationship and marriage on How I Met Your Mother. Lily racks up credit card debt with reckless abandon. Meanwhile, Marshall has his own student debt racked up in the process of getting his law degree.
Despite Marshall’s ethical reservations about taking a job in corporate law, and more particularly the morally dubious Goliath National Bank, he does follow Barney down this lucrative career path. Morality aside, it was the best decision to both add substance to his resume and bring in a big salary to take control of his family’s financial future.
9 Worst: Taking A Job For No Money
In the wake of his father’s unexpected passing, Marshall quits his corporate job to take a position with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The position is well attuned to his sensibilities and ambitions for a career in environmental law. However, it is also an unpaid position.
There’s certainly a place for working jobs in low-paying, or even non-paying situations when someone is building their career. However, several years out of law school, talking about starting a family, and knowing that managing money isn't one of Lily's strengths, it simply wasn’t responsible for Marshall to even entertain that kind of career move.
8 Best: Pursuing A Judgeship
After enduring a maze of career detours, setbacks, and disillusionment, Marshall arrives at a pivotal decision—he’s going to pursue a career as a judge. The direct lead up to this choice stems from the mishandling of a case he was involved in trying, and he comes to the logical conclusion that his best course of action to achieve his goals of saving the planet is to become a judge who, himself, makes important decisions.
The choice to pursue a judgeship marks a rare point when all of Marshall’s professional considerations come together. The position may not pay as much as he once made in corporate law, but is all but guaranteed to rake in more than he made in environmental law. Moreover, it’s a position that legitimately jives with his ethics and that he can begin to pursue seriously given the experience he has accumulated up to that point.
7 Worst: Assuming He Lost The Election
The final season of How I Met Your Mother anchors itself around Robin and Barney’s wedding, but does quite a bit of time hopping. One of those jumps looks into Marshall’s future, when his hard work culminates in him up running for a seat on the New York State Supreme Court.
After he faces a seemingly insurmountable deficit at the polls, Marshall starts drinking. So, by the time he actually ends up winning, he’s intoxicated and embarrasses himself in front of reporters. While the show plays this moment for comedy, it’s a surprisingly poor show of judgment for someone looking to advance his career in the public eye.
6 Best: Returning To Corporate Law Post-Italy
The final season of How I Met Your Mother finds Marshall and Lily at a crossroads. Marshall gets offered a judgeship just as Lily gets the career opportunity of a lifetime to move their family to Italy for her to advise The Captain on art purchases. After much back and forth and a crisis of conscience, they move to Italy.
In a flash-forward, it’s revealed that after they return to New York, Marshall takes another job in corporate law. While it’s clear he’s unhappy with the job, it looks like he was making a practical choice to provide for his family and advance his career while he waited for another bench appointment to come his way.
5 Worst: Giving Brad His Stamp Of Approval
Marshall has a questionable tendency to give everything and every one his stamp of approval. In 'Tramp Stamp' this approach to life sees him vouch for law school buddy Brad for a job at his law firm. Brad promptly tanks the interview.
As if the bad interview weren’t a poor enough reflection on Marshall, Brad executes one of the show's biggest betrayals, infiltrating Marshall’s firm to steal information for an upcoming case. So it is that Marshall’s tendency to see the best in those around him nearly costs his firm and, consequently, puts Marshall’s job on the line.
4 Best: Keeping Dunk Champion On His Resume
Season 4 episode 'The Possimpible' finds the How I Met Your Mother crew comparing resumes, with a specific eye toward absurdities and outdated information they should have cut out years ago. In Marshall’s case, it’s revealed he still references his past as a slam dunk champion.
Marshall defends the choice, citing a lot of businesses have recreational basketball or other sports teams, and that evidence of his athletic accomplishments could help him land a job. While the gang laughs him off, Marshall is speaking to a real consideration at a number of businesses. Moreover, Marshall does wind up contributing to a winning basketball team in the season 8 episode 'Splitsville'.
3 Worst: Sticking With A Dead Law Firm
Things take an odd turn for Marshall’s career when he seemingly wins a huge case, only for the judge to determine that the pharmaceutical company on the hook only needs to pay a fraction of the amount they were being sued for. So, despite a moral victory, it’s an embarrassment for the firm and in the episode 'Romeward Bound', it’s revealed that they lose virtually all of their business.
Marshall hangs around the firm, goofing off for most of his days without anything to work on. It’s an understandably disappointing situation for Big Fudge, but he seems to let it stall out his career for some time to follow. The slew of attorneys laid off from the firm were probably just as well off for moving on with their lives while Marshall stagnated on a sinking ship.
2 Best: Turning Down The Judge Position
Most of Marshall’s best career decisions came down to him either chasing his dreams or compromising his values in return for big paychecks to do the responsible thing for himself and his family. However, there’s one noteworthy exception in the final season of the show, when Marshall is offered a rare opportunity at a judgeship but winds up turning it down.
In 'Daisy', the show reveals Marshall passed up on that particular opportunity, in favor of moving to Rome for Lily to follow her dreams and work as an art consultant. This was an important demonstration of the character's personality as he showed his respect for Lily and their marriage. This choice was about creating a better life, which in turn pays off down the road as he achieves his professional dreams, too.
1 Worst: Screaming At His Boss
In the season 3 episode 'The Chain of Screaming', Barney explains one of his many half-baked theories—that it’s important to get one’s frustrations out, but to vocalize them “down the chain.” Each person yells at someone in a position of less power such that the frustration gets handed down.
Marshall reaches his breaking point and does scream, but makes a pretty terrible life decision when screams up- rather than down-chain, reprimanding his boss. Worse yet, Marshall winds up quitting his job - rendering him unemployed, with a burned bridge behind him.
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