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Hey everyone,

I'll try to keep the melodrama to a minimum but I am currently working at a mid-size firm as a SA and hate it. It's just not a good fit for me. Luckily I did really well my second semester and ended up in the top 5%. However despite having a very upbeat outlook to my 2L summer job search, I'm concerned that my current position will drag me down. I have literally zero interest in continuing to work there so I'm not concerned at all about looking for a job, I'm concerned about the black mark it will leave on my resume.

I worked my ass off this year to get good grades and I really don't want a poor first law job experience to weigh me down. Any advice on what I should do? The way I see it I can either 1) Tell them I am going to take another position as soon as my term ends (i.e. "withdraw from consideration") or 2) Wait and see if they take me so I can say I got offered a position but turned it down. It's all a formality because either way I'm not working there but I've heard getting no offered can be devastating for a 3L job search and wonder how important it is for a 2L one.

Appreciate the advice.

Anonymous User wrote:Hey everyone,

I'll try to keep the melodrama to a minimum but I am currently working at a mid-size firm as a SA and hate it. It's just not a good fit for me. Luckily I did really well my second semester and ended up in the top 5%. However despite having a very upbeat outlook to my 2L summer job search, I'm concerned that my current position will drag me down. I have literally zero interest in continuing to work there so I'm not concerned at all about looking for a job, I'm concerned about the black mark it will leave on my resume.

I worked my ass off this year to get good grades and I really don't want a poor first law job experience to weigh me down. Any advice on what I should do? The way I see it I can either 1) Tell them I am going to take another position as soon as my term ends (i.e. "withdraw from consideration") or 2) Wait and see if they take me so I can say I got offered a position but turned it down. It's all a formality because either way I'm not working there but I've heard getting no offered can be devastating for a 3L job search and wonder how important it is for a 2L one.

Appreciate the advice.

I had a 1L SA and was pretty sure I was getting no-offered. I think it's best to go into OCI with an offer to return to your 1L firm -- All interviewers will ask about it. However, big however here, with the timing of things, I could honestly say at OCI that my firm had not yet made a decision about offers. I'll assume your SA ends July 31 and OCI/EIW/whatever starts Aug 10. Your 1L firm probably won't have made a decision yet. So there's a good chance you can coast through interviews saying that your firm hasn't gotten back yet, the hiring committee hasn't met yet, whatever.

Work had the second half to get an offer, or just good references. Then, you'll either get an offer or be in that weird limbo with no decision yet made during OCI. If you get no-offered, you'll have to tell that to interviewers.

Thanks for the reply.

I have a during the year job locked down at another firm that will hire me as soon as I quit my current position. Does that change things? I mean part of the reason I don't want to work there is they want me to work part-time during the year and I found this really cool boutique firm in town that will give me experience in a niche field I'm interested in.

I feel like "I accepted another offer from a firm before I heard back" sounds pretty good and it would be 100% true. In all honesty I "accepted another offer" after my first month.