DOJ SLIP Forum

[EijiMiyake]

Is anyone else working on their SLIP application right now?

For the "employment description," are yall just copy/pasting what your resume says, or writing something more extensive? 4000 characters is kind of a lot...

[MC Southstar]

WE ARE ALL GOING TO FAIL.

[kalvano]

I hate government applications.

Anyone have any good federal job cover letter samples? I feel like mine are total crap.

[EijiMiyake]

Also, do we get to attach a resume, or is the employment history all we get?

[tww909]

WE ARE ALL GOING TO FAIL.

TITCR

I have logged on a few times thinking I would do the application, but then I saw how much it sucked and logged off. I'll be doing mine next weekend though.

[EijiMiyake]

WE ARE ALL GOING TO FAIL.

TITCR

I have logged on a few times thinking I would do the application, but then I saw how much it sucked and logged off. I'll be doing mine next weekend though.

Not sure I would wait until the weekend. It's a real pain in the ass.

[Anonymous User]

BUMP.

Any idea what to do with the employment history section? Do they really want 4000 characters on each job?

[GeePee]

The time cost of this application seems totally not worth it given my interests. Good luck, all.

[kalvano]

Is this even worth it? Good grief.

[8ballistic]

It might be worth doing if you have a language background for immigration or business/economics background for anti-trust. The rest are not taking many people.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know how many applicants they have each year?

[8ballistic]

Around 500 in 2006 apparently: http://www.justice.gov/opr/oig-opr-inve ... e-slip.pdf

[EijiMiyake]

Deadline Bump.

Original question remains - do you think we have to approach the character limit on the responses? What's an appropriate amount to write about each job?

[Moxie]

I don't think so, I'm just writing what is necessary to give a detailed and complete description of each employment history, but am nowhere near the 4000 characters. If they want to know more, I'm sure they'll ask.

[EijiMiyake]

I don't think so, I'm just writing what is necessary to give a detailed and complete description of each employment history, but am nowhere near the 4000 characters. If they want to know more, I'm sure they'll ask.

Sweet. I wish we could upload a resume as well...

[EijiMiyake]

Shoot, I also have no idea what to write for that "tell the hiring committee one thing about yourself" question.

[quiver]

I've tried to gather the motivation to finish this app like 7 times this week; the essays and employment section are killers. Oh, and it doesn't help that they apparently take like 18 out of 500 (probably more people applying nowadays too):

Around 500 in 2006 apparently: http://www.justice.gov/opr/oig-opr-inve ... e-slip.pdf

[Anonymous User]

I've tried to gather the motivation to finish this app like 7 times this week; the essays and employment section are killers. Oh, and it doesn't help that they apparently take like 18 out of 500 (probably more people applying nowadays too):

Around 500 in 2006 apparently: http://www.justice.gov/opr/oig-opr-inve ... e-slip.pdf

I'm wondering if it might actually be LESS due to the absurdly small number of spots available. If I didn't have a state-level Antitrust Division internship, I probably wouldn't bother to fill this thing out. And if I did, I would not devote much time to the "Working for DOJ" essays and such.

I find it kind of obnoxious that they can't use the same application program for the volunteer programs. But then again I would certainly not want each division or office to see all my stuff for the other divisions. I would love Civil Division, but since it's only 3 spots, I'm not even really bothering to address them. It's an extremely broad component anyway.

And yeah, on the "one thing about yourself," it's like, how many selling points can I fit into "one thing"?

[kalvano]

I got to the "Why DOJ" essays and stopped. I'm really not sure I want to essentially come up with another freaking personal statement.

What is everyone putting? I don't have a real reason other than "a damn job."

[vanwinkle]

I got to the "Why DOJ" essays and stopped. I'm really not sure I want to essentially come up with another freaking personal statement.

What is everyone putting? I don't have a real reason other than "a damn job."

Have you interned with the DOJ? If so, you can talk about your experiences there and how it made an impression on you in some particular way. If not... I don't mean this offensively, but you've likely already lost.

[kalvano]

I got to the "Why DOJ" essays and stopped. I'm really not sure I want to essentially come up with another freaking personal statement.

What is everyone putting? I don't have a real reason other than "a damn job."

Have you interned with the DOJ? If so, you can talk about your experiences there and how it made an impression on you in some particular way. If not... I don't mean this offensively, but you've likely already lost.

I'm interning with the USAO here in Dallas this fall, but haven't started yet.

[itsirtou]

wow

this application is defeating me right now

[CandyLand]

I got to the "Why DOJ" essays and stopped. I'm really not sure I want to essentially come up with another freaking personal statement.

What is everyone putting? I don't have a real reason other than "a damn job."

Have you interned with the DOJ? If so, you can talk about your experiences there and how it made an impression on you in some particular way. If not... I don't mean this offensively, but you've likely already lost.

Is it really that tilted? I could definitely see it being that way for Civil Division, which does not really require any specialized experience. But for things like antitrust and immigration, I'd expect it to be more merit-based given the relatively small number of spots.

[vanwinkle]

Is it really that tilted? I could definitely see it being that way for Civil Division, which does not really require any specialized experience. But for things like antitrust and immigration, I'd expect it to be more merit-based given the relatively small number of spots.

It's not that I think it's necessarily tilted, it's just that I look at the number of DOJ interns vs. the number of open spots, and I think about how pretty much every legal employer takes past work with them as a sign you're committed to working with them. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I am saying there's a flood of people who've worked at the DOJ already competing for very few slots this year.

It will be merit-based, but the folks who already interned with a division will have that as "merit". Every division had far more interns this summer than open spots this fall, I guarantee you. I don't have anything hard to back this up, but based on everything I've seen, the interns-to-openings ratio is going to be high across all divisions.

[Torvon]

I would just like to say that the DOJ panel at GULC was hilarious. The hiring committee from 3 of the divisions, as well as the head of legal recruiting for the DOJ, basically said: "You won't get a job with us through SLIP or the Honors Program this year, but stay optimistic and volunteer. You will get lots of good experience." And that was without a straight face, I might add.

Pro Tip: One of the things they mentioned was that you must take advantage of all of the essay questions (and they include the final question about "What else do you want us to know?" as an essay question) to be seriously considered.

Useless Tip: If you want the Civil Rights Division, you must rank it first. There are some people on the hiring committee for Civil Rights that want you to rank it first and not rank any other division at all.