AUSA/USAO hiring Forum

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Mar 23, 2018 12:21 pm

Anonymous User wrote:SDNY takes about 4-8 months (2 rounds to 3 rounds depending)
EDNY takes about a year (3 rounds)
DNJ takes about a year (3 rounds)
EDVA takes about 6 months (2 rounds)
D.DC takes 4-6 months (2 rounds)

Each of these offices accepts applications separate from USAjobs.
Necro to ask about CDCA. It seems like they only have one round in which you interview with everyone up to USA. If so, any idea on odds (i.e. 50/50 after interview)

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Apr 01, 2018 1:37 pm

I’ve been interviewing with several offices with a few more upcoming. I feel like I’m not doing that great. For one, I’m somewhat nervous, because it’s like this one shot deal, even though I’ve never been nervous in court or firm interviews in my life. Second, I have trouble striking a balance in the hypos between humble and thoughtful on the one hand and confident and standing your ground on the other.

Anyone have any advice on those or in general for AUSA interviews.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Apr 03, 2018 11:39 am

Along that same line of questioning, I won't finish my clerkship until summer 2019. When is a good time to apply to an AUSA position in flyover country?

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Apr 03, 2018 5:48 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Along that same line of questioning, I won't finish my clerkship until summer 2019. When is a good time to apply to an AUSA position in flyover country?
Whenever during your clerkship there’s an opening. The flyover offices don’t generally do rolling applications; they will often only consider people when there’s a specific opening. (This is different from some of the big offices like SDNY and DMass.) If there isn’t an opening when you apply they can keep your application on hold but it won’t do much for you.

I say any time during your clerkship because in some offices applications take months, and then the background check can take months. I’d rather apply early and have to figure out if they’ll wait for you rather than pass on an opening.

Keep in mind that if you get an AUSA gig in the same district where you’re clerking (or presumably circuit if COA, but you will have to check that, I’m not sure) you will have to be screened from any cases involving the USAO, which may not be a big deal depending on what cases are going before your judge, but can be kind of a hassle. So keep that in mind as you start the process.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by andythefir » Tue Apr 24, 2018 8:18 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I’ve been interviewing with several offices with a few more upcoming. I feel like I’m not doing that great. For one, I’m somewhat nervous, because it’s like this one shot deal, even though I’ve never been nervous in court or firm interviews in my life. Second, I have trouble striking a balance in the hypos between humble and thoughtful on the one hand and confident and standing your ground on the other.

Anyone have any advice on those or in general for AUSA interviews.
Would you (or anyone else getting interviews) mind keeping us posted as to which offices have given out interviews?

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Apr 25, 2018 9:58 am

Anonymous User wrote:I’ve been interviewing with several offices with a few more upcoming. I feel like I’m not doing that great. For one, I’m somewhat nervous, because it’s like this one shot deal, even though I’ve never been nervous in court or firm interviews in my life. Second, I have trouble striking a balance in the hypos between humble and thoughtful on the one hand and confident and standing your ground on the other.

Anyone have any advice on those or in general for AUSA interviews.
I could also use some advice if anyone has anything to offer. I have had several interviews over the last few months, but I seem to be unable to make anything stick. The whole process is stressful (and expensive).

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Apr 25, 2018 10:13 am

Anonymous User wrote:I’ve been interviewing with several offices with a few more upcoming. I feel like I’m not doing that great. For one, I’m somewhat nervous, because it’s like this one shot deal, even though I’ve never been nervous in court or firm interviews in my life. Second, I have trouble striking a balance in the hypos between humble and thoughtful on the one hand and confident and standing your ground on the other.

Anyone have any advice on those or in general for AUSA interviews.
I could also use any advice that people may be able to offer. Like the above poster, I have had several interviews but feel like I'm not doing great. Is there something that I can do to distinguish myself during interviews? It's hard to not feel like giving up after spending so much time and money on interviews with no positive results.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Apr 25, 2018 11:09 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:I’ve been interviewing with several offices with a few more upcoming. I feel like I’m not doing that great. For one, I’m somewhat nervous, because it’s like this one shot deal, even though I’ve never been nervous in court or firm interviews in my life. Second, I have trouble striking a balance in the hypos between humble and thoughtful on the one hand and confident and standing your ground on the other.

Anyone have any advice on those or in general for AUSA interviews.
I could also use any advice that people may be able to offer. Like the above poster, I have had several interviews but feel like I'm not doing great. Is there something that I can do to distinguish myself during interviews? It's hard to not feel like giving up after spending so much time and money on interviews with no positive results.
I’m the original poster and just checking in to say I got an offer in one of the most “prestigious” offices afterwll and a second interview at another top office. Just to say that might be just a perceived feeling not an actual one.

Also, I know of interviews taking place or have interviewed at EDNY, SDNY, NDIL, CDCA, SDFL, EDWI, and other regionals. The spigot seems on.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by andythefir » Wed Apr 25, 2018 12:15 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:I’ve been interviewing with several offices with a few more upcoming. I feel like I’m not doing that great. For one, I’m somewhat nervous, because it’s like this one shot deal, even though I’ve never been nervous in court or firm interviews in my life. Second, I have trouble striking a balance in the hypos between humble and thoughtful on the one hand and confident and standing your ground on the other.

Anyone have any advice on those or in general for AUSA interviews.
I could also use any advice that people may be able to offer. Like the above poster, I have had several interviews but feel like I'm not doing great. Is there something that I can do to distinguish myself during interviews? It's hard to not feel like giving up after spending so much time and money on interviews with no positive results.
I’m the original poster and just checking in to say I got an offer in one of the most “prestigious” offices afterwll and a second interview at another top office. Just to say that might be just a perceived feeling not an actual one.

Also, I know of interviews taking place or have interviewed at EDNY, SDNY, NDIL, CDCA, SDFL, EDWI, and other regionals. The spigot seems on.
I think that means, in turn, that those prestige districts will pick every other jurisdiction to the bone, which will mean a second wave of hiring to replace them this fall.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Apr 25, 2018 2:05 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:I’ve been interviewing with several offices with a few more upcoming. I feel like I’m not doing that great. For one, I’m somewhat nervous, because it’s like this one shot deal, even though I’ve never been nervous in court or firm interviews in my life. Second, I have trouble striking a balance in the hypos between humble and thoughtful on the one hand and confident and standing your ground on the other.

Anyone have any advice on those or in general for AUSA interviews.
I could also use any advice that people may be able to offer. Like the above poster, I have had several interviews but feel like I'm not doing great. Is there something that I can do to distinguish myself during interviews? It's hard to not feel like giving up after spending so much time and money on interviews with no positive results.
I think it’s very hard to answer this without more context. It may well be that you’re doing very well but there’s just someone with a little more pertinent experience, or who knows more people in the office, or just hits it off a little better with people during the interviews. You want to have a good reason for going to a USAO, interest in (if not connections to) the district, and to be able to talk about your courtroom experience (and at least back up your interest in being in court). You just can’t know things like, last person they hired from your alma mater turned out to be a dud, or the person who got the job clerked for someone who used to work in the office, or they’re flooded with opioid cases and decided to go with a local ADA who has tons of state drug experience. All of those are reasons why they might hire someone else that doesn’t have anything to do with you not performing well at the interview.

I know that’s not super encouraging, but if you’re getting interviews, you’ve got a shot - I know a lot of people who had to apply multiple times. This is just how competitive hiring works (and really for a lot of people on this site, OCI doesn’t really count as competitive hiring. Or, conversely, think of it as being like getting OCI screened or even callbacks, just spread out over time - most people don’t get offers from every firm they interview with, and sure, sometimes someone blows an interview, but a lot of time it just doesn’t happen for whatever reason).

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:42 pm

I've had only a handful of interviews since December and can't make heads or tails of this process. Does anyone know if there are any generalizations about how long smaller/fly-over offices take to extend/decline a subsequent round? I'm about a week plus out from a small office interview in the Midwest that I absolutely loved and haven't heard anything. The other coastal offices where I interviewed were pretty swift about sending their letters or contacting for a subsequent round so I don't know what to make of this. Doesn't also help that this office seems to interview backwards with upper management going first so I'm not even sure there's another round out there. Just looking for some input to keep my nerves at bay.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by andythefir » Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:22 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I've had only a handful of interviews since December and can't make heads or tails of this process. Does anyone know if there are any generalizations about how long smaller/fly-over offices take to extend/decline a subsequent round? I'm about a week plus out from a small office interview in the Midwest that I absolutely loved and haven't heard anything. The other coastal offices where I interviewed were pretty swift about sending their letters or contacting for a subsequent round so I don't know what to make of this. Doesn't also help that this office seems to interview backwards with upper management going first so I'm not even sure there's another round out there. Just looking for some input to keep my nerves at bay.
Flyover offices tend to be much more oriented to the local bar and hire much less frequently. They expect hires to stay for a career, so they're much pickier about fit and community ties. There's also a hub-and-spoke dynamic in satellite offices, where the main office has to coordinate with the satellite, which can either slow down the process (because there's a back and forth) or speed it up (because there are fewer signatures to get in a smaller office, and the smaller office has more autonomy and less politics than divisions within a bigger office).

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:18 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I've had only a handful of interviews since December and can't make heads or tails of this process. Does anyone know if there are any generalizations about how long smaller/fly-over offices take to extend/decline a subsequent round? I'm about a week plus out from a small office interview in the Midwest that I absolutely loved and haven't heard anything. The other coastal offices where I interviewed were pretty swift about sending their letters or contacting for a subsequent round so I don't know what to make of this. Doesn't also help that this office seems to interview backwards with upper management going first so I'm not even sure there's another round out there. Just looking for some input to keep my nerves at bay.

As one of the interviewees posting here I can only say what you already know: It’s all over. As to the three non-major cities I interviewed with, I never heard back from any. Some were just a few weeks ago and will be getting a withdrawal email from me. At least one other was literally in January. Even the major office I got an offer from didn’t respond when I asked about timelines.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:47 pm

A week plus is really not a long time, and you have no way of knowing what's happening in that office right now that might take precedence over getting to the next stage of interviews (for instance, where I am, it's spring break week and half the office is out with their kids somewhere). But really I don't think you can generalize - my experience has been that offices get back to you quite quickly, but I know others have posted here about much slower processes. I know this doesn't help you, but really, I think it just depends.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Apr 27, 2018 8:43 am

Thanks for the responses. I guess I should try to remain hopeful and realistic at the same time - tough to do when my clerkship ends over the summer. Has anyone had an interview format where the initial interview involved upper management w/o any line AUSAs present? I don't understand what a subsequent round would involve, if any, or if they're just looking at the pool with an eye towards making an offer with no intermediate step.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Apr 27, 2018 1:24 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Thanks for the responses. I guess I should try to remain hopeful and realistic at the same time - tough to do when my clerkship ends over the summer. Has anyone had an interview format where the initial interview involved upper management w/o any line AUSAs present? I don't understand what a subsequent round would involve, if any, or if they're just looking at the pool with an eye towards making an offer with no intermediate step.
Not really. I did have multiple interviews for out-of-town offices where they would have me meet with panels and then the front office/upper management people (sometimes no matter what, other times after doing well in the initial panels but on the same day). In every instance they said, at the very least, a meeting with the USA was still required (and sometimes first assistant, or something, if they had not been involved). If you are saying that you are met with the USA, then it has to be that there is no other step. If not, I'd imagine they would bring back candidates for the USA. At that point, I understand some offices provide 2-3 candidates for each spot and the USA picks, while others only present them on a 1-1 ratio and the USA vetoes anyone for whatever reason. This doesn't help much but still.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Apr 27, 2018 10:10 pm

If upper management = criminal chief, FAUSA, deputy chief etc., then you'll likely have another round (also, how was the interview done? if it was via VTC it's not that surprising it wouldn't be line AUSAs. If it was in person that's a bit odder). If you haven't met the USA yet there will likely be a round where that happens, one on one, in person, and then you could meet line AUSAs and talk to them about the job.

If you did interview with the USA already, well, then, they may just have some other system I'm not familiar with.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:25 am

Anonymous User wrote:If upper management = criminal chief, FAUSA, deputy chief etc., then you'll likely have another round (also, how was the interview done? if it was via VTC it's not that surprising it wouldn't be line AUSAs. If it was in person that's a bit odder). If you haven't met the USA yet there will likely be a round where that happens, one on one, in person, and then you could meet line AUSAs and talk to them about the job.

If you did interview with the USA already, well, then, they may just have some other system I'm not familiar with.
Upper management for my interview involved the chief(s) of division, FAUSA, and the USA so I don't know what another round would entail if there is one. Meet the line AUSA's? That's why I also asked about totally being in the dark regarding their hiring timeline. If this is it, could it take weeks/months to hear either way?

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Apr 28, 2018 11:20 am

It could well be one and done under those circumstances. But again, I don't think anyone can say how long it will take for you to hear back - which sucks, I know, but I'm afraid I don't have any other info.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Fri May 18, 2018 7:07 pm

It's been several weeks since my interview and I've heard nothing. Small office. Smaller offices tend to have a quicker timeline than larger ones. Very bummed since it's my dream job and in a perfect location.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 21, 2018 1:21 pm

Anonymous User wrote:It's been several weeks since my interview and I've heard nothing. Small office. Smaller offices tend to have a quicker timeline than larger ones. Very bummed since it's my dream job and in a perfect location.
Is this office in New England by any chance?

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 21, 2018 2:31 pm

Anyone apply to the recent NDGA (Atlanta) criminal AUSA postings?

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 28, 2018 5:55 pm

Did anyone recently interview with EDNY or NDCA?

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 28, 2018 7:21 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Did anyone recently interview with EDNY or NDCA?
Interviewed with EDNY relatively recently.

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Re: AUSA/USAO hiring

Post by Anonymous User » Mon May 28, 2018 7:31 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Did anyone recently interview with EDNY or NDCA?
Interviewed with EDNY relatively recently.
Thanks. When did your app go complete? Mine went complete about a month ago.

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