More on jobs
This is a fascinating article from the National Law Journal.
posted by some guy @ 5:14 PM
14 comments
Equal Process? Due Protection?
A blog by a recent law school graduate about life in law school, studying for the bar exam and how to forget about the misery of the bar exam...Previously this was a blog about being a law student after almost a decade away from school. Being a 3L was much better than being a 1L or a 2L...Life as a law student...Should I go to law school? I don't know. Should you? ... What is law school really like? ...
Sunday, December 03, 2006
About Me
- Name: some guy
- Location: a southern city, a warm state, United States
14 Comments:
Could it be a mix? Some students do go out into the world and make their mark. These students can (a) come back to Miami to find new associates; or (b) if they aren't working in that capacity, they can impress the hiring crew at their firms, who will then return to Miami for more.
Let me ask you, would you hire most of your classmates?
You make good points.
But I guess my point is that there are dozens, if not more, law schools at the same level of Miami -- not top tier but far better than the third- and fourth-tier schools.
I think this is where the administration has failed. Deans here should be doing everything in their power to get these firms to consider UM grads. Instead, they do nothing and the CPC posts jobs as admissions directors, jobs with deadlines two weeks past (like the state elector job posted on 12/1) and headhunter postings from Robert Half Legal.
I think we share some of the blame also - too many of us just stay in Florida after graduation. The school will never be more than a regional law school until people start going to firms elsewhere (even smaller firms).
Graduates make a name for a school too. If our best people went out of state, and performed well, it would help our school alot. I think our problem isn't that people don't come back to Miami - it's that they never leave.
And with the CPC, my expectations were never that high. No offense, but it's not a great job (not at any law school) - if they were good at finding legal jobs, they'd still be lawyers. It's like asking me for advice on how to get into Harvard Law School - what would I know about it?
I disagree. At a Top Ten school, being in the CPC is great! Kids are motivated, the jobs come to them, and in the end, you look like a champ.
Sure, we share some blame. It works both ways. How would a UM grad get noticed by the top firms in, say, Pittsburgh, without the law school putting its resources into getting the school noticed? There is only so much the school can do and for students they can't do anything about making other students get noticed. The only thing they can do is hope the administration will take up their cause
Actually, if it is a major concern of yours, instead of "hoping" something will happen, you could schedule a meeting with the Dean or other members of the Administration and formally voice your concern.
I did that last year. Nothing happened. I blogged about it a little. Anyway despite my post I've long since given up on getting even the slightest help from the administration or CPC. I ranted a lot about this last year on my blog.
you can't just "schedule a meeting" and expect everything to be solved. if you want to change any aspect of the school, you must persist in your efforts and become part of the team. i have made changes on this campus (or am at least in the midst of doing so) and it takes time - a lot of time. miami will not become harvard - ormore reaslisically, forham - over night. one meeting with a dean means nothing. meet with deans for over the course of a couple of years and you can complain that something didn't happen. this is the mindset you have to have.
also, when you become an alumni, you have an opportunity to improve miami's standing in the world. your support (financial and otherwise) will be one of the factors that determines how well miami ranks. go out, get great jobs, be a fantastic lawyer, and donate back to the school. you will be contributing your wealth and your prestige. who cares that the cpc can't help you get a job in california or new york right now - do it yourself and help the future law students of miami get better jobs. remeber, the better miami ranks in the future, the more respect people will give your degree.
your success & donation & commitment = improved standing for miami overall = more value to your own degree = better quality students at miami in the future = better job placement right out of school, etc.
the best thing you can do now is begin a dialouge with the deans about what you want changed. continue that dialogue, and at the same time go out a be a fantastic lawyer or business person and donate back to the school. the more of us in positions of power and presitge out there, the better the school. that is how it works folks. learn how the system works and start making strides or sit on the sidelines and bitch.
How does donating help? You seem to imply that somehow if Miami only had more money, then the world would look more favorable on the students? What are you basing this on?
It is nonsense. Miami is a regional school. It will continue to be one for quite some time. It is basic market issues in action. How many "national" schools do we need? You have your Harvards, Stanfords, Yales, and then lesser, but still nationals like NYU Chicago, Penn, etc . . . Beyond those schools, regional firms will continue to look to regional schools. How will giving more money to Miami change this? I'm curious if "Anonymous" isn't Lynch or Foolkin (or is that Froomkin?).
Wow, I kind of expected to hear the UM fight song going in the background of the 4:11 post. I really don't think giving money is going to be the answer - throwing money at things doesn't help. I don't think it's that the Career Center is lacking services - there are a ton of people there - they just need to do something. And at 1,200 students times $33,000/year, how much more do they need? Oh yeah, I guess we're paying for the self-proclaimed "top" faculty who won't return emails or acknowledge you exist (with a few exceptions).
The reality is, at UM, unless you're in the top 5-10% you are going to have to find a job on your own, especially if you want o move out of Miami.
A friend of mine told me when I was looking at law schools - go somewhere with a good football team - people will always know the school. Yeah, that kind of backfired this year....
"The reality is, at UM, unless you're in the top 5-10% you are going to have to find a job on your own, especially if you want o move out of Miami."
Nobody beats down your door in the top 5-10% either. Plenty of UM Law Review alums can testify to that.--Bricklayer
True, it is tough to get change, especially when you are only there for a short time. We're already so busy with studies, and no student wants to become a lightning rod for angry faculty / administrators (who, as human beings, naturally don't like criticism.)
I guess it's up to alumni to somehow find a way to stay involved - or say "I won't donate until you change x, y, and z". Alumni are the ones who can best look back and say "that part of UM was helpful", or "he should not be teaching", or "why is so much money being wasted on that!" Maybe we should be meeting with them?
I hated my high school administration - tried to change things while I was there, made so many teachers angry with me, felt the backlash in unfair grading; but after I graduated, I never looked back. Maybe that's the problem? People say law school is like high school, but with less drama; or this could just be the mad rant of a tired student just days before his first exam.
But people in alumni associations are often already huge fans of the status quo.
Is it the school's image that is the problem. I ask, again, how many of you, once you graduate, and are on the hiring committee (or are hiring for your own small firm) would pick a Miami grad over a higher school? Look around. Look at your classmates. How many of them would you hire?
And, if you answer "some" how is a employer supposed to weed out the bad ones?
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