bad reference from 1l summer gig Forum

[Anonymous User]

How bad does this hurt one's chances at getting a 2L gig?

[Anonymous User]

bump.

i'm in the 2nd to last week of my summer job & didn't think getting a reference from my 1L job for 2L SA positions would be a problem up until now. however, literally just this week it seems like my supervisor has taken a serious dislike to me & i have no idea why (made some odd accusations against me, & i'm not sure of the basis for them). from most of the posts on this site re. references, i'm gleaning that with a couple of exceptions, firms (at least, NY firms) don't really care/check about references- can anyone confirm this?

also, how does it look to have another attorney give me a reference instead of my direct supervisor? i didn't do much work with my supervisor directly, but did work directly with other attorneys who would probably be better able to review my work product than my supervisor would.

[24secure]

For what it's worth, I don't think my 1L supervisor thought I did an outstanding job and by the time I graduate (about to start 3L year) I will have had two other legal jobs besides that one. I interview pretty well and I got three offers from different governmental employers. Granted, I'm not getting offers from medium or large law firms, but it is legal work.

Just to cheer you up, I go to a fourth tier school in the Midwest and I'm around the top 40th percentile in my class without a huge number of attorney contacts to rely on. In my opinion its pretty easy to get a second year summer job, you just have to come off as being likeable in your interview.

[worldtraveler]

For my 1L summer job it was almost impossible to use my supervisor as a reference because I worked abroad and the time change plus the lack of technology where I was working made it really hard to contact my former employer. I just made sure I had other good references listed and it was never a problem.

I also know plenty of people who listed references other than their direct supervisor for a variety of reasons and it doesn't appear to be a big deal.

[CanadianWolf]

If there are no allegations of wrong-doing, then it is a personality clash. If you portray the relationship with your supervisor as a personality clash, then you need to be able to address that issue in a concise fashion.

[Anonymous User]

second poster here (the one with an issue re. supervisor's accusations).

what happened is that my supervisor implied i was falsifying my hours worked. i have a physical time sheet where i need to sign in & out every day, & it is kept in a different part of the office than my desk and isn't in my line of sight when i enter/exit. sometimes i'd forget to sign in for a day or two and then go back when i remembered & do it. the hours were accurate, and many of the other interns at my office have been doing the same thing with no problem, but for some reason it turned into a major issue with my supervisor. i completely admit it was lazy of me to not always be on top of signing in/out, & i should have done a better job with that, but i don't see why it turned into such a big issue that it appears to be overshadowing the quality of the actual work i did (especially since i explained all of this to him).

given this exchange (and the fact that he's been curt to me ever since), i really don't feel comfortable asking him for a reference even though i think my actual work product was good. i'm just hoping it won't have too huge of a negative impact on my chances at OCI i if am unable to get a reference from this job.

[CanadianWolf]

Don't ask for a reference from this person. Small minded people can be dangerous if given the opportunity--so don't give your supervisor the opportunity to disparage your integrity.

If the issue arises, handle it with grace & dignity. Seems as if there was a slight misunderstanding of the daily procedure to be followed & that was/is a sensitive area to your supervisor of which you were unaware. When brought to your attention, you corrected the procedure for signing in & out.

[Anonymous User]

Don't ask for a reference from this person. Small minded people can be dangerous if given the opportunity--so don't give your supervisor the opportunity to disparage your integrity.

yeah i would definitely rather avoid using him as a reference at all possible. i'm just wondering whether it would be worse to list him as a reference (if he agrees to be one) on the chance that most firms won't call him, or to just not list a reference from this job. i think he handles intern recommendations (he made some comment about having to write all the clerkship recommendations for the office & enter them into OSCAR), so barring the off-chance that one of the other attorneys i work with agrees to give me a reference, i'd either be stuck asking him or have no reference at all from this job.

[CanadianWolf]

Then you need to apologize to your supervisor for your misunderstanding or unwillingness to follow the procedure. A little respect & some humble pie can be quite effective in the real world. A genuine compliment doesn't hurt either. "Thank you for allowing me to work with you this summer. I learned a lot & appreciate your guidance."

[09042014]

Use someone else in your office who likes you. That way if they don't bother calling, they won't even figure out it wasn't your direct supervisor. And if they do call, they'll get a glowing recommendation, and they still might not figure out it wasn't your direct supervisor.

[Anonymous User]

@Desert Fox: I'm hoping to be able to use another person in my office as a reference--the only issue I'm worried about is that the attorney I'm planning on asking will refer me back to my direct supervisor, saying he handles intern recommendations or something along those lines. I'm not sure what I would do in that situation.

@CanadianWolf: I definitely don't mind apologizing to him--I already did apologize for not following procedure, & let him know that I didn't falsify my hours or intentionally mean to do anything wrong. I just feel like it wasn't enough for him, considering he has still been treating me brusquely even though I now make it a point to sign in and out every single morning/evening (he even checks in every morning with the person who keeps the time sheet in her office to see if she has seen me sign in that morning). The time sheet issue just seems like such a minor and arbitrary thing to jeopardize a whole summer's worth of work.

[vanwinkle]

bump.

Banned for alting. The no-alt rule extends to anon posts.

[A'nold]

People like that make me so mad....unless you were a jerk about it or really were stealing hours. I've had bosses spy on me multiple times even though I received awards for my work ethic multiple times. I quit those jobs b/c I just can't handle stuff like that.