1L Job Search

Someone requested I write up something on my job search. Sounds like a worthwhile endeavor so here we go. I guess it started way back in September or October applying for all the public interest scholarships. I spent a lot of hours writing essays and resumes and whatnot tailored to the individual grants. I also met with staff at the Public Service Law Center to have them look over my resume and materials. Got rejected from just about everything. Including the HRIP, which sucked because I really wanted to go to human rights or environmental law abroad this summer and the funding rejection essentially killed that possibility. I did get a Public Service Fellowship in the end, which was the grant I was least interested in, but it's better than nothing. I was pretty good about telling my friends about the funding and job opportunities going around and I won't say I wasn't slightly bitter when they would get interviews at places I was rejected from, since we are all competing for the same opportunities and I sort of shoot myself in the foot by increasing the competition for all the stuff I am trying to get. At the same time though, I couldn't live with myself if I was such a competitive bastard that I bogarted all the information and didn't share. That just wouldn't be in keeping with the sense of community I like to see fostered. But back to the job search. I had a legal pseudo-connection in San Jose. A partner at a small firm who gave me contact info for a guy at a big SF firm he said might hire me. Sent out a beautiful personalized letter right away. Didn't hear anything so I eventually called the guy. The phone call lasted about 30 seconds and he wasn't very nice. About a month later I got a rejection letter. So much for nepotism. I waited until after finals to send out mass mailings to law firms. I sent a letter to every firm in the San Francisco Bay Area listed on NALP. Also to all the IP boutiques I could find in DC and NY. Something like 150 letters. The NALP system and mailmerge sucked by the way. I had to essentially retype every letter's "to" information by hand. Took me approximately 3 days to write all the damn letters. I didn't get a single request for grades even. Just "we don't hire 1Ls" or "we have met our recruiting needs already". I assume my resume must have leprosy or something :-P Odd though, since career services reviewed my resume and cover letter multiple times and said it was all fine. My next resort was to start applying to all the opportunities coming out in weekly emails from career services. Some were public interest, some in house counsel, and a few firms. I only applied to things I thought I had a decent shot at or sounded really amazing. I got an interview with Equality Now, a non-profit women's rights group that sounded petty cool. Interview went well and they seemed interested. Thought it would be a great backup job. Then they rejected me a month later. Darn. I was gonna work for free too. Did some interviewing workshops and a mock interview, which my interviewer said went really well. Sent out an ap for the Skadden Fellowship but I don't think my letter of rec ever made it. Probly wouldn't have mattered, I got rejected a month later or so. Next resort was OCI, on campus interviews. I got a bid for a firm and did the whole 20 minute interview thing with them. No callback, though they did take a couple friends of mine. I got lucky one Sunday morning checking the bid site and got squeezed in slots at two other firms. Both firms then later cancelled their entire interview schedules and claimed they weren't hiring. So much for luck. I got past the first round of rejecting at a Chilean law firm I applied to a loooong time ago but they moved their interviews to next week and now I haven't heard back what's happening. I'm optimistic though. It's the only firm I have left. I also just got a call from a NJ branch of a biotech company that wants to interview me and I'm setting that up Monday so I'm not totally dry on resources yet. Next step will be sending a bunch of letters to any random CA based group I can find. If I'm gonna have to work for free, I may as well live at home and cut expenses. In short, my advice on job searching is this. Unless you have some major diversity to offer the firms (like you are an African-American lesbian from Mexico) or you have amazing grades, trying to get firm jobs is pretty hopeless. Also the job searh takes way more time and effort than it is probably worth. I'd recommend skipping the whole mess and just finding a judge who needs clerks. Seems like people had no trouble finding clerkships for the summer and then they got to focus on school rathering than employment. Also I go to almost all the firm receptions and occasionally drop a letter afterwards to a hiring partner but invariably the answer is that they aren't hiring 1Ls. Yeah, the job search sucks, avoid it at all costs. Go work on the beach selling sno cones or something. Probly pays better than 1L legal jobs anyway.  ¶ 9:56 AM