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"Awkward" is also when you feel the need to post things like the following, using the ANON feature. Again, please review the above rules for posting anonymously. [Poster has been revealed by Mods.]

On TLS, everyone who is not the person posting is an "aspie law student." The fact is, in law school, there are socially awkward people who cannot pick up on social cues, there are social people who are able to relate well to anyone, and there are people everywhere in between. "Awkward" is likely thrown around way too much and in inapplicable scenarios.

Anonymous User wrote:Don't be awkward is thrown around alot here but I don't feel it's apt. So many people I know who are incredibly awkward did well while people who were normal but with reserved personalities well underperformed.

Curious if I'm off base or what. I just don't think that awkward is the right way to describe it.

I know many reserved personalities who performed well and many jocular types types who failed. Among the things I've seen that make a person awkward:

Having no interests outside of law. Going into the interview and only wanting to discuss how much you know about a particular type of law and why you are going to love practicing it. People want more than a legal nerd cramping their style in the office.

Having unusual speech patterns. Think of how Obama and Reagan inspired people. Now think of a professor droning on. Even if you don't have a monotone voice, having an unusual speech pattern (speaking with a staccato rhythm, changing the pitch or intonation in the wrong direction, or even answering the question too quickly without taking time to pause) will hurt. Also, not knowing when to end a conversation, how to frame a story in a short, snappy manner, or social cues about when to shut up, when to talk, and when to leave, all hurt.

Having an unusual appearance. Lawyers pick tiny things. Yes, if you have a 4.0, you can wear whatever you want to an interview and get the job. But, if you're one of the crowd of 3.5s, wearing a fabric hipster tie, wearing rubber-sole shoes, wearing colored shirts, having a juvenile or unprofessional haircut, having facial hair, or holding your hands in a non-usual position all can mentally turn someone off to wanting to work with you.

Having a lack of expected knowledge. Firms don't expect you to know what the most recent SC case in labor law is, they do want you to know what offices they have a labor law practice in, what sort of labor law they practice, if you can summer in labor law or if it's rotational, etc.

Having a lack of commitment. If you're interviewing with a Charlotte office and you talk about practices that are really big in NY or ask about rotational opportunities to NY or talk about how much you like the NC Dept of Labor, are all signals that you don't really want to do labor law for them in NC and want them to be your stepping stone.

Having unrealistic goals. Walking in and talking about how you see yourself being a partner someday is going the other direction. Or talking about how much you want a work-life balance. Or talking about how you see yourself as a generalist moving among areas of law in a large firm that requires specialization.

LawIdiot86 wrote:wearing rubber-sole shoes

lol c'mon

Anonymous User wrote:On TLS, everyone who is not the person posting is an "aspie law student." The fact is, in law school, there are socially awkward people who cannot pick up on social cues, there are social people who are able to relate well to anyone, and there are people everywhere in between. "Awkward" is likely thrown around way too much and in inapplicable scenarios.

Super awesome anon, anon!

LawIdiot86 wrote:
Having no interests outside of law. Going into the interview and only wanting to discuss how much you know about a particular type of law and why you are going to love practicing it. People want more than a legal nerd cramping their style in the office.

The most awkward dude in my class had the opposite problem. He has a few hobbies outside of the law that he is absolutely obsessed with and brought them up in every single interview at OCI. He would come out of every interview and walk into the waiting room bragging about another successful interview where he talked the entire time about one of his favorite hobbies. He was at the top of the class and did not get a single offer.

Awkward is when you have to make a topic on a web forum to discuss the philosophical ramifications of using the term awkward.

Ludovico Technique wrote:

LawIdiot86 wrote:
Having no interests outside of law. Going into the interview and only wanting to discuss how much you know about a particular type of law and why you are going to love practicing it. People want more than a legal nerd cramping their style in the office.

The most awkward dude in my class had the opposite problem. He has a few hobbies outside of the law that he is absolutely obsessed with and brought them up in every single interview at OCI. He would come out of every interview and walk into the waiting room bragging about another successful interview where he talked the entire time about one of his favorite hobbies. He was at the top of the class and did not get a single offer.

I would put that in the social cues and not knowing when to shut up category. Unless the interviewer is equally passionate and engaged on the hobby, forcing it into the conversation makes you look awkward, uninterested in them, and uncommitted to whatever type of law they practice.

IAFG wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:On TLS, everyone who is not the person posting is an "aspie law student." The fact is, in law school, there are socially awkward people who cannot pick up on social cues, there are social people who are able to relate well to anyone, and there are people everywhere in between. "Awkward" is likely thrown around way too much and in inapplicable scenarios.

Super awesome anon, anon!

Just so you know, these posts are 1000x more annoying than "inappropriate" anon postings, nobody cares, you are not a mod, and shut up shut up shut up.

LawIdiot86 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Don't be awkward is thrown around alot here but I don't feel it's apt. So many people I know who are incredibly awkward did well while people who were normal but with reserved personalities well underperformed.

Curious if I'm off base or what. I just don't think that awkward is the right way to describe it.

I know many reserved personalities who performed well and many jocular types types who failed. Among the things I've seen that make a person awkward:

Having no interests outside of law. Going into the interview and only wanting to discuss how much you know about a particular type of law and why you are going to love practicing it. People want more than a legal nerd cramping their style in the office.

Having unusual speech patterns. Think of how Obama and Reagan inspired people. Now think of a professor droning on. Even if you don't have a monotone voice, having an unusual speech pattern (speaking with a staccato rhythm, changing the pitch or intonation in the wrong direction, or even answering the question too quickly without taking time to pause) will hurt. Also, not knowing when to end a conversation, how to frame a story in a short, snappy manner, or social cues about when to shut up, when to talk, and when to leave, all hurt.

Having an unusual appearance. Lawyers pick tiny things. Yes, if you have a 4.0, you can wear whatever you want to an interview and get the job. But, if you're one of the crowd of 3.5s, wearing a fabric hipster tie, wearing rubber-sole shoes, wearing colored shirts, having a juvenile or unprofessional haircut, having facial hair, or holding your hands in a non-usual position all can mentally turn someone off to wanting to work with you.

Having a lack of expected knowledge. Firms don't expect you to know what the most recent SC case in labor law is, they do want you to know what offices they have a labor law practice in, what sort of labor law they practice, if you can summer in labor law or if it's rotational, etc.

Having a lack of commitment. If you're interviewing with a Charlotte office and you talk about practices that are really big in NY or ask about rotational opportunities to NY or talk about how much you like the NC Dept of Labor, are all signals that you don't really want to do labor law for them in NC and want them to be your stepping stone.

Having unrealistic goals. Walking in and talking about how you see yourself being a partner someday is going the other direction. Or talking about how much you want a work-life balance. Or talking about how you see yourself as a generalist moving among areas of law in a large firm that requires specialization.

Very credited post - coming from someone on the recruiting committee that regularly interviews candidates.

SR_B wrote:

IAFG wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:On TLS, everyone who is not the person posting is an "aspie law student." The fact is, in law school, there are socially awkward people who cannot pick up on social cues, there are social people who are able to relate well to anyone, and there are people everywhere in between. "Awkward" is likely thrown around way too much and in inapplicable scenarios.

Super awesome anon, anon!

Just so you know, these posts are 1000x more annoying than "inappropriate" anon postings, nobody cares, you are not a mod, and shut up shut up shut up.

Dat sand in vagina

DallasLawyer2012 wrote:Very credited post - coming from someone on the recruiting committee that regularly interviews candidates.

So you regularly ding dudes who wear rubber soled shoes?

InGoodFaith wrote:

DallasLawyer2012 wrote:Very credited post - coming from someone on the recruiting committee that regularly interviews candidates.

So you regularly ding dudes who wear rubber soled shoes?

I didn't say I do all of these things - but I've seen people get dinged for pettier things (at my firm and others where I have friends on the recruiting committee). Side note - don't wear rubber soled shoes! There's no excuse. Your career is on the line - just don't do it.

SR_B wrote:

IAFG wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:On TLS, everyone who is not the person posting is an "aspie law student." The fact is, in law school, there are socially awkward people who cannot pick up on social cues, there are social people who are able to relate well to anyone, and there are people everywhere in between. "Awkward" is likely thrown around way too much and in inapplicable scenarios.

Super awesome anon, anon!

Just so you know, these posts are 1000x more annoying than "inappropriate" anon postings, nobody cares, you are not a mod, and shut up shut up shut up.

Oh hi 3 posts, telling me how to conform my behavior on TLS to not annoy you!

SR_B wrote:

IAFG wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:On TLS, everyone who is not the person posting is an "aspie law student." The fact is, in law school, there are socially awkward people who cannot pick up on social cues, there are social people who are able to relate well to anyone, and there are people everywhere in between. "Awkward" is likely thrown around way too much and in inapplicable scenarios.

Super awesome anon, anon!

Just so you know, these posts are 1000x more annoying than "inappropriate" anon postings, nobody cares, you are not a mod, and shut up shut up shut up.

I enjoy it when people get shit for abusing the anon feature.

SR_B wrote:

IAFG wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:On TLS, everyone who is not the person posting is an "aspie law student." The fact is, in law school, there are socially awkward people who cannot pick up on social cues, there are social people who are able to relate well to anyone, and there are people everywhere in between. "Awkward" is likely thrown around way too much and in inapplicable scenarios.

Super awesome anon, anon!

Just so you know, these posts are 1000x more annoying than "inappropriate" anon postings

No, they really aren't.

IAFG wrote:

SR_B wrote:

IAFG wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:On TLS, everyone who is not the person posting is an "aspie law student." The fact is, in law school, there are socially awkward people who cannot pick up on social cues, there are social people who are able to relate well to anyone, and there are people everywhere in between. "Awkward" is likely thrown around way too much and in inapplicable scenarios.

Super awesome anon, anon!

Just so you know, these posts are 1000x more annoying than "inappropriate" anon postings, nobody cares, you are not a mod, and shut up shut up shut up.

Oh hi 3 posts, telling me how to conform my behavior on TLS to not annoy you!

His second ever post was about how people on TLS are lemmings because they told someone they probably shouldn't have a Skrillex haircut for an interview. So obviously you should listen to him.

Oh, look at that. I just remembered why I don't post on here and why law students are all so creepy.

SR_B wrote:Oh, look at that. I just remembered why I don't post on here and why law students are all so creepy.

You know what a "mutually beneficial agreement" is, right? There's one that's just perfect for this situation.

On the topic of hairstyles, I'm curious as to whether this is unprofessional for a job interview:

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=asymmetr ... :100,i:193

I'm a girl with short hair and have had difficulty nailing down the line between professional and unprofessional.

Anonymous User wrote:On the topic of hairstyles, I'm curious as to whether this is unprofessional for a job interview:

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=asymmetr ... :100,i:193

I'm a girl with short hair and have had difficulty nailing down the line between professional and unprofessional.

If you looked like her, I wouldn't ding you for it. But that's just me. Frankly my firm needs to recruit in the beauty department a little more heavily. No but seriously, law is a conservative profession in general, that hair style pushes it - but if you've got it, flaunt it I suppose, just be confident.

That style is unquestionably not appropriate, as is this post being in this thread.

For a good idea of what works, look at Morena Baccarin's do in V.

SR_B wrote:Oh, look at that. I just remembered why I don't post on here and why law students are all so creepy.

Since you don't want to be here anyway, this shouldn't bother you:



Don't be the douchebag with 3 posts who starts attacking everyone else. Otherwise, please remember we have an anon policy. Thanks. http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=170603