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I have been offered a job at the USAO that I must accept soon. I am top 10% at CCN. So my questions are....

1. Other than the money does it really matter which one I choose?
2. Is it worth it to hold out for a firm job, that may never come and risk not having a job?
3. Which one looks better on a resume?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

If you're thinking firm after graduation, it makes no difference whatsoever. People weren't expected to work at firms in *good* years their 1L summer.

If your career interests are leaning more towards DoJ Honors or the like, well, now's a good time to start demonstrating that commitment towards public service.

Firm jobs are far too few and far in-between to hold out, even with grades like that, IMHO.

Other than money there would be no difference. They look identical on a resume, they both say "I was not unemployed my 1L summer" and little beyond that.

You would be crazy to hold out for a firm job, and risk having nothing or something much less substantive than USAO. No firm is going to care if you do/don't work at a firm this summer, and you'll probably have better stories for interviewers from the USAO than from a firm.

OP here. Thanks for the replies so far, I am definitely leaning towards taking the USAO job just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

I worked for a USAO in NY my 1L summer back in '07. Probably 60%+ of the interns were HYSCCN. No joke, there were like 13 ppl from Harvard. And this was when the market was booming. There's really no reason to work at a firm over a USAO 1L summer unless you need the money. It's just really interesting, fun work. And you'll have more responsibility on real federal court cases than you will as even an 8th year associate at BIGLAW.

Also, in NYC, probably 70%+ of the AUSAs worked in BIGLAW recently before coming to the office. I got really good advice from my 2 AUSAs on bidding on firms, interviewing, etc. They actually had a panel for us on BIGLAW hiring, and it was pretty helpful.

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