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Hey all,

Writing this from work...at a pretty prestigious NGO this summer (I'm a 1L at T6). Everyone is chill and all, but no one has given me any work to do. So far, I'm doing a lot of administrative work (picking up mail, copying pasting things from one website into another, putting together binders for the big boss, etc.), and have been given literally no research or writing assignments. I do maybe an hour of work a day and spend the rest of the time surfing/facebooking.

It's unpaid so I don't really care, but will this affect me at OCI in the fall at all? How proactively should I be seeking work? I talk to my bosses everyday, but they usually say that whatever matter they're working on is too complex for me, or they're on vacation since it's the summer, and in the summer work is slow in general.

If there's really no downside to working a chill summer, I'm fine cruising for 5 more weeks. But if it can hurt me at OCI, please let me know and I'll be more aggressive in looking for work.

Thanks

Anonymous User wrote:Hey all,

Writing this from work...at a pretty prestigious NGO this summer (I'm a 1L at T6). Everyone is chill and all, but no one has given me any work to do. So far, I'm doing a lot of administrative work (picking up mail, copying pasting things from one website into another, putting together binders for the big boss, etc.), and have been given literally no research or writing assignments. I do maybe an hour of work a day and spend the rest of the time surfing/facebooking.

It's unpaid so I don't really care, but will this affect me at OCI in the fall at all? How proactively should I be seeking work? I talk to my bosses everyday, but they usually say that whatever matter they're working on is too complex for me, or they're on vacation since it's the summer, and in the summer work is slow in general.

If there's really no downside to working a chill summer, I'm fine cruising for 5 more weeks. But if it can hurt me at OCI, please let me know and I'll be more aggressive in looking for work.

Thanks

I also am writing this from work at a pretty prestigious IGO, (rising 2L at T6 also) and same here. I spent four days copy pasting one website into a word doc. Now I get more substantive work but few and far between, yesterday my boss actually told me that I work too fast on the assignments they give me (really how long does it take to write an email? Not three days surely).

I think as long as you have one or two substantive assignments you can TALK about at OCI, thats fine. Keep in mind its a 20 minute interview. They are probably going to spend time talking about other aspects of your resume as well, but even if they spend the whole 20 minute interview talking about your summer job, as long as you have one or two things that you can talk interestingly about, I don't think it matters that those were the only two real things you did all summer :p

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Hey all,

Writing this from work...at a pretty prestigious NGO this summer (I'm a 1L at T6). Everyone is chill and all, but no one has given me any work to do. So far, I'm doing a lot of administrative work (picking up mail, copying pasting things from one website into another, putting together binders for the big boss, etc.), and have been given literally no research or writing assignments. I do maybe an hour of work a day and spend the rest of the time surfing/facebooking.

It's unpaid so I don't really care, but will this affect me at OCI in the fall at all? How proactively should I be seeking work? I talk to my bosses everyday, but they usually say that whatever matter they're working on is too complex for me, or they're on vacation since it's the summer, and in the summer work is slow in general.

If there's really no downside to working a chill summer, I'm fine cruising for 5 more weeks. But if it can hurt me at OCI, please let me know and I'll be more aggressive in looking for work.

Thanks

I also am writing this from work at a pretty prestigious IGO, (rising 2L at T6 also) and same here. I spent four days copy pasting one website into a word doc. Now I get more substantive work but few and far between, yesterday my boss actually told me that I work too fast on the assignments they give me (really how long does it take to write an email? Not three days surely).

I think as long as you have one or two substantive assignments you can TALK about at OCI, thats fine. Keep in mind its a 20 minute interview. They are probably going to spend time talking about other aspects of your resume as well, but even if they spend the whole 20 minute interview talking about your summer job, as long as you have one or two things that you can talk interestingly about, I don't think it matters that those were the only two real things you did all summer :p

Niceeeee! Yeah I've been talking with friends and everyone is pretty chillaxing. I was assigned a few very interesting but very short (like 1 page) research assignments my first few days, and those are interesting enough that I can talk about them pretty well for a 20 minute interview, so that's good.

The only thing I was worried about was getting a writing sample out of this, but I guess the LRW brief or memo works just as well.

The trick must be to work someowhere not prestigious. I am interning for a local govt atty office (think county, city) and I've been given more assignments and topics in four weeks then I think I covered in first year all together. Places with less funding will rely on you way more if you're actually looking for practical skills and knowledge as opposed to a resume filler.

Doesn't matter. Plenty of people have internships where they do nothing. You just need to be able to talk about it as though you did do something. I'm sure you can come up with something positive to say.

cinephile wrote:Doesn't matter. Plenty of people have internships where they do nothing. You just need to be able to talk about it as though you did do something. I'm sure you can come up with something positive to say.

Yeah, like I said, already did a couple of small research assignments that can be made to sound impressive.

Also, already wrote up this job on the resume and had it checked out by the career peeps. So...guess I'll twiddle my thumbs until next month.

cinephile wrote:Doesn't matter. Plenty of people have internships where they do nothing. You just need to be able to talk about it as though you did do something. I'm sure you can come up with something positive to say.

This

You need to have something to talk about. I worked for a judge, and every single interviewer wanted to know what I had worked on and then most had a substantive discussion with me about it. Some interviews consisted of talking about the cases I worked on for 25 of the 30 minutes. Obviously, that won't be every interview, but you NEED something with a research/writing angle. Then again, considering I didn't have to "spin" a non-substantive experience, maybe I am not the best person to ask.

Just ask for substantive work. Tell them you appreciate the opportunity and want to learn as much as possible, and are looking for as much real world exposure as you can get. Maybe their prior interns just coasted and that is all everyone expects.

Take initiative, they might not know what to do with you, so offer to do some research, review and summarize pleadings, or whatever. If an intern came to me and said they wanted some hard work, I'd be impressed and would try and find SOMETHING interesting for them to do.

worksmart wrote:You need to have something to talk about. I worked for a judge, and every single interviewer wanted to know what I had worked on and then most had a substantive discussion with me about it. Some interviews consisted of talking about the cases I worked on for 25 of the 30 minutes. Obviously, that won't be every interview, but you NEED something with a research/writing angle. Then again, considering I didn't have to "spin" a non-substantive experience, maybe I am not the best person to ask.

I think interviews can vary widely. Hardly anyone cared what I did - they seemed to care more about why I wanted their firm. Not even biglaw in general or transactional work, but more why our firm in particular? But whatever.

Anonymous User wrote:The trick must be to work someowhere not prestigious. I am interning for a local govt atty office (think county, city) and I've been given more assignments and topics in four weeks then I think I covered in first year all together. Places with less funding will rely on you way more if you're actually looking for practical skills and knowledge as opposed to a resume filler.

This is true. I worked 1L summer at a DOJ field-office in the middle of nowhere and in a not prestigious DOJ component. They immediately had me start writing motions and such because they were utterly understaffed and because the matters had very low stakes.

I am working on writing my own appeal, very little guidance or oversight though. No idea what im doing

Whatever tasks you do, think about how to spin them. I had a similar experience 1L and I was supposed to "assist" during a trial. Assisting meant watching/ surfing my phone for three weeks. But the trial was scandalous/hilarious so I would just launch into the story of what the trial was about and the various characters, learning about juries, etc. The OCI interviewers ate it up. Point being, think of what you could claim to be learning, in theory, from this experience.

cinephile wrote:

worksmart wrote:You need to have something to talk about. I worked for a judge, and every single interviewer wanted to know what I had worked on and then most had a substantive discussion with me about it. Some interviews consisted of talking about the cases I worked on for 25 of the 30 minutes. Obviously, that won't be every interview, but you NEED something with a research/writing angle. Then again, considering I didn't have to "spin" a non-substantive experience, maybe I am not the best person to ask.

I think interviews can vary widely. Hardly anyone cared what I did - they seemed to care more about why I wanted their firm. Not even biglaw in general or transactional work, but more why our firm in particular? But whatever.

I agree. It is very possible that my interviews tended to focus on my work over the summer (in addition to obvious firm fit/general are you normal discussion) because interviewers expect that when you are working for a judge, you are doing substantive research and writing, be it smaller bench memos or entire opinions.

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This will probably be your last summer where you do nothing. Enjoy it.

Also not doing much here. Wish I could do some researching on Westlaw...

Ask if you can write a memo or two and baby the heck out of it so you can get a good writing sample.

start getting ready for recruiting season.

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dudes. its totally chill to just KICK it

at a very prestigious IGO too, done about 3-4 cool things to talk about, otherwise crooze control. I wouldn't worry about it, as others have said so long as you get at least 1 or 2 things to go itno detail on in case they ask you.