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would people spend more time researching firms, realistic bidding, and practice interviews?

I feel like 1L's spend more time obsessing about a job search that doesn't matter than 2L's do about one that affects determines their entire career. Is it burnout from two consecutive job searches, with the second one starting before the first summer job even beings? Is it overconfidence? Why is this? Thoughts? Am I wrong about the perception of 1L vs 2L level of preparation for the job search?

i think for the most part you may be wrong about 1L v 2L preparation. there are just prepared people and unprepared people, and they do the same things for both 1L and 2L. If you started mailing firms 12/1 as a 1L, you probably started mass mailing firms in june/july for 2L. if you waited til march to get the ball going as a 1L, you probably just went through whatever OCI your school has and if you didn't find a job through that only then did you start mass mailing.

I am going for a very specific practice area which is mostly populated by public service/interest and solo-practitioners, so most of my job search is just now starting up as the PI and smaller firms start their hiring.

traehekat wrote:i think for the most part you may be wrong about 1L v 2L preparation. there are just prepared people and unprepared people, and they do the same things for both 1L and 2L. If you started mailing firms 12/1 as a 1L, you probably started mass mailing firms in june/july for 2L. if you waited til march to get the ball going as a 1L, you probably just went through whatever OCI your school has and if you didn't find a job through that only then did you start mass mailing.

+1.

mrloblaw wrote:

traehekat wrote:i think for the most part you may be wrong about 1L v 2L preparation. there are just prepared people and unprepared people, and they do the same things for both 1L and 2L. If you started mailing firms 12/1 as a 1L, you probably started mass mailing firms in june/july for 2L. if you waited til march to get the ball going as a 1L, you probably just went through whatever OCI your school has and if you didn't find a job through that only then did you start mass mailing.

+1.

Yeah this. If anything, more people fall into the "hustler" category as 2Ls, but I think traehekat is mostly spot on. Most people who were lax about 1L hiring are lax about 2L hiring.

I really don't see how OP came to his conclusion.

i didn't articulate my OP well I don't think. I just think it's weird that 1L's focus so much on the job search on 12/1, even though that is right before finals which matter so much, but 2L's don't focus enough on the job search when it matters most and I was trying to link the two observations together.

headandshoulderos wrote:i didn't articulate my OP well I don't think. I just think it's weird that 1L's focus so much on the job search on 12/1, even though that is right before finals which matter so much, but 2L's don't focus enough on the job search when it matters most and I was trying to link the two observations together.

Overgeneralization. I'm sure there are a good chunk of 2L's who do focus on the search and spend their summers mass mailing and networking with alums in whatever city they're in.

OP, I think you are getting this impression simply because there is an actual date for 1Ls to begin mass mailing and so you see this sort of "panic" as the deadline approaches because it applies to all 1Ls. There appears to be less panic among 2Ls because there is no official date for everyone to start panicking. I bet if you could combined all the "is it too late to mass mail" posts that pop up you would see there is just as much concern among 2Ls about getting stuff out there as there is among 1Ls, it just isn't as condensed in time.

The panic for 2Ls is waaaay worse than 1L and it is spread over a longer time. Are you kidding me?