A data point about government jobs

[Paul Campos]

A lawyer who practiced with a mid-sized firm for ten years before getting laid off 18 months ago has been corresponding with me about his job search. Last week he was thrilled to get an interview for an entry-level position with the county DA's office in the metropolitan area of a large Midwestern city. (This person graduated in the top 25% of his class from a top ten school, and clerked for a federal district judge).

When he asked about the timing of the decision process, he discovered that the office is interviewing 195 candidates for the two positions. At first he was sure he had misunderstood, and that the interviewer meant the office had received 195 applications. When he asked for clarification, the interviewer laughed and said no, they were in fact interviewing 195 people, and that the interviewers had been joking about how sick they were of seeing each other (Each interview slot is 25 minutes).

These two jobs pay $48,000 per year.

[whereskyle]

Impression: Don't go to law school or don't look to work for the gov't?