Yes, another post about jobs.
I forgot to point out that another phase of OCI has passed us by without a single employer available to bid on. That makes a total of one employer that has been available over the past three supplemental phases of OCI. Actually, and this is kind of incredible, but in the current phase – the sixth and final phase – we’re at minus-1 employer. I got an e-mail saying one of the firms I bid on, which had scheduled its interviews for March 28 but failed to notify a single student whether they were selected, is dropping out of the OCI process. So I guess that puts us at a net of zero employers over the past four weeks of OCI. Awesome. I’m so glad I made the choice to go to law school…
**
Well, I heard from two of the people involved in the clerkship situation and they defended themselves and this school’s efforts. I have a meeting lined up with the dean himself – after his gatekeeper initially refused to let me see him – early next week so I’ll let you know how that goes. I just plan to ask him what he is doing to advocate for his students.
posted by some guy @ 1:46 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
This post marks you as an altruistic guy. Talking to others, meeting with Deans - it might not help you or me get a clerkship, but it might help classes that come after us. I don't know how much they could do short-term that would make an difference.
If I were you? (Yeah, I know you didn't ask). I'd put it out of my head until June. Your time right now is very precious, spend more of it studying. That said, my exams are coming up too - and what am I doing? Reading blogs and giving unsolicited advice. (But I mean it, grades are really really important; signup for easier classes, and study harder - remember that law school is temporary).
Well, maybe you shouldn't go to talk to the dean now because your time is better spent studying, but I do NOT agree that you should take easier classes. Taking easier classes is a cop out and will hurt you later in life. Getting an A in a class you don't care about is empty, will probably not land a better job and will leave you wishing you took that advanced tax course or difficult seminar on [choose your interest]. Always challenge yourself. That is what life is about. If you are the kind of person that always challenges yourself, you will excell in the grand scheme of things, not just in one semester of law school. And everyone will take notice. We should be concerend with the grand scheme of things. So, too this is a good reason to go speak to the dean - to help out our law school in the grand scheme of things.
Go you!
It doesn't matter now, but I never ever ever in a million years would have taken Civ Pro II with that lady. It's your grades and class rank that will get you an interview.
My undergrad major was in the sciences, and I took classes like calculus III honors - not the regular calc III for speds. My classes were harder, and thus my grades were lower. Miami only accepted me from the waitlist in the middle of the summer! I don't think they knew or cared that my classes were harder than Intro to Jazz.
Firms probably look even less closely. Remember that "cum laude" goes on your degree - CivPro II doesn't. Yes it will help you once you get a job (it helped me in 1L) - but don't put the cart before the horse - you actually have to get your foot in the door first! My two cents ...
No offense, but that's bullshit. My grades and class rank are really, really good and I've got nothing to show for it. Absolutely nothing.
Fine - comments 1, 3 withdrawn. (Just trying to help, sheesh). Best of luck in the meeting!
I think someguy's case is more common than it should be for a law school, i.e. where top students are of little interest to any but the BigLaw plantations. I can offer only anecdotal evidence based on people I know.
But that aside, someguy should perhaps give us more info on the type of position he's looking for: salary requirements, hourly requirements, location, area of law, etc.. And what steps he's actually made to secure employment, aside from OCI.
And what exactly really, really good grades and ranking is.
Top 10%? That is okay. Top 10 student? That is really, really good. IMO.
I'm not telling you my grades or ranking because it's none of your business. The only reason I mentioned that it's 'really good' is to respond to that comment. Although I'm sure as heck not a top-10 student.
And Bricklayer, rest assured that I've done a lot and also that although I have participated in OCI, I have never counted on it to actually land me a job. So no, I'm not sitting around waiting for OCI to work its magic.
Fair enough, but when the dean asks you may want to provide more details, otherwise he'll blame you for the problem.
Yesterday I actually talked about this issue with someone in the top 10. He/she said a non-BigLaw employer he/she was interested in told them outright that the firm had serious concerns about whether a top ranked student could really put their nose to the grindstone and do the work (the bulk of which is unintersting) day in and day out. The firm felt that hiring a good student rather than an excellent student increased the chances that the new hire would actually stay and not get instantly bored.
This collegue also felt some frustration over getting beat out for clerkships by people from higher ranked law schools, although he/she admits to not having access to the writing samples submitted by competitors.
I had a second conversation with a UM law alum in the top 10 who doesn't/didn't plan to practice and didn't put their resume out there. He/she was midly surprised that nobody from UM ever inquired as to what he/she planned to do after graduation, and that somehow his/her status hadn't leaked out to potential employers who might try to contact him/her. Apparently this person has a sibling that went to a very highly ranked law school, and somehow employers and headhunters(some unrelated to legal practice) were already interested in opening a dialogue.
Of course, we all knew where UM stood when we signed on. But I think stories like these strengthen your case that someone from UM administration needs to spend more face time with potential employers and take a more hands-on, proactive approach to greasing the employment wheels for us. Like I said in an earlier comment, the deans may indeed be too busy for this. Maybe we need to fire a few janitors to make budget for a full time assistant dean (PR person) who makes the effort to showcase top talent like yourself to employers.
Lastly, in fairness to the law school generally, I know of more than a few cases where individual professors have gone to bat for particular students and basically got jobs for them. Those students were usually assistants and/or serious brown-nosers, but nonetheless a few of the professors are willing to go to bat for students they like. Not much help to the mass majority of us who spend no more time getting to know our professors than they do getting to know us.
Bricklayer is/was lame. And he/she writes/wrote in a really/truly lame-ass way. I wanted to kill myslef/kill him when I read the crap/garbage that he wrote.
yes, there probably was a less annoying way to obscure the identity of my sources ;-)
LOL
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