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How much will a one-year job before law school affect 1L and 2L summer employment opportunities? Certainly, it should make a candidate more attractive to an employer, but how much will a summer legal employer delve into your previous job to be convinced it was worth something? Will they require a reference from someone at that job or would it suffice to list your responsibilities on a resume and be able to describe the experience in an interview? I'd appreciate any advice; thanks in advance!

alltheway wrote:How much will a one-year job before law school affect 1L and 2L summer employment opportunities? Certainly, it should make a candidate more attractive to an employer, but how much will a summer legal employer delve into your previous job to be convinced it was worth something? Will they require a reference from someone at that job or would it suffice to list your responsibilities on a resume and be able to describe the experience in an interview? I'd appreciate any advice; thanks in advance!

I did a job in a totally unrelated field to law, and it served as an excellent talking point during both my 1L and 2L interviews. They just want interesting talking points during interviews, that's all.

Regarding the procedure, most employers will just want to see it on your resume and ask whatever questions they have about it during the interview. If they require references, they'll ask you for them, but just in a general sense ("please provide three references") and it would be to your benefit to have one be from your former employer.

Regarding the substance... A year of work experience is nice in that it shows you know how to work. It'll help a little, but not terribly much, unless it's specific to a goal of yours. For example, if it's community service type work, it could help demonstrate a commitment to public service when looking for public service jobs. Otherwise, it might make a small difference in getting interviews where they'd pick to interview someone with WE over someone without, and it gives you something to discuss in the interview so you can sell your ability to do good work.

From your experiences, do 1L summer employers generally ask for references or not? It's sounds like a lot of work for them to be calling up references just for a quick summer internship.

alltheway wrote:From your experiences, do 1L summer employers generally ask for references or not? It's sounds like a lot of work for them to be calling up references just for a quick summer internship.

It's not just a quick summer internship. If you do it right, it's a long interview for a potentially incredibly lucrative career.

How much will 4 years work experience and a professional certification help? I've worked in REIT acquisitions/dispositions, major bank servicing for real estate CMBS pools, and a certification in commercial mortgaging. How much would this help me get into a BigLaw real estate/REIT practice? I plan on attending UVA next fall.

1L employment, IDK, seems like a bit of a crapshoot.

In interviewing for post-2L summer associate positions, I discussed my 2 years of post-UG WE in every interview. It was non-law-related, but all of them seemed interested in how I developed applicable skills during that time. Bottom line is that firms seem to like people with WE, but what really matters is how you can spin it in interviews.