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Teaching is professional work experience. No one is going to look down on that. What I did before law school on the other hand...

[b]BruceWayne[/b] wrote:Teaching is professional work experience. No one is going to look down on that. What I did before law school on the other hand...

What, moonlighting as a hard core vigilante in Gotham?

I know someone with several years teaching English abroad with an offer at Ropes and Gray. I also know plenty of people with TFA with offers. I wouldn't worry. As long as you can articulate a thoughtful reason why you want to go to law school and why you made the transition, it's fine.

I had very non-traditional W/E before law school, and it wasn't anywhere near as impressive as that which you listed. I had tons of interviewers ask me about my experience and react as if it was great that I did something different. But, important caveat: I had strong grades.

So, as with anything else, the answer to how this resume item will be regarded likely turns on your grades: if your grades are above what the firm is looking for, you'll find that "unique" experiences tend to be seen as a boost. If not, you may have to do more work to explain it away and convince the interviewer you're dedicated to a career in law.

Everything in interviews gets easier if you're seen as a sought-after candidate.

You should absolutely take this job, with no second thoughts.

Be ready to talk about the job in terms of a) why you took it, b) what you accomplished and how you grew professionally, c) how it has helped you in law school and how you to expect it to help you in your career. This is something that should come into play in how you present it on your resume as well. Also, some firms I've come across (think Magic Circle) will really like to see evidence of an international outlook, especially if you are interested in working internationally in law.

My advice is based on going through OCI with an interesting work experience on my resume, and finding that at least half of all interviewers were really intrigued, and were very keen to hear about exactly what my experience was like. A side bonus is that since you know everyone will ask about these cool aspects of your resume, you become very polished at using your responses there to deliver the message you want them to hear.

But I would ditto the prior poster who notes that everything is likely to be looked at in a different light when you have strong grades. That's the thing that can help or hurt anyone the most, obviously. Another thing is that this interesting work experience is in an area where you've already shown interest, namely teaching. It'd play a little differently if you're jumping around from cool experience to cool experience with no common thread.

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I'm on the recruiting committee at my firm and I can tell you that we look at any full-time after-undergrad work experience favorably.

In your specific case, I think it would be a tremendous conversation-starter in interviews.