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Hi guys,

I'm a 3L at Vanderbilt who's still looking for employment after graduation. Almost all of the people I've talked to recently have either secured a job or are waiting to hear back from their 2L summer associate positions. I feel like I'm one of the only people without a lead on anything.

I have a 3.275 GPA and am a member of the Law Review, but somehow I completely struck out last year in finding a summer job. I came into my 2L year optimistic, having just finished a summer clerkship at the US Attorney's Office in Tampa. However, I didn't get a single callback from OCIs or land an interview from any of the firms in my mass mailings. I ended up having to split my summer between Vanderbilt's Legal Clinic and a local single-person firm. I'm struggling to figure out what I'm doing wrong and why it is so difficult for me especially to find a job. I know that my grades aren't terrific, but I'm pretty sure they are slightly above average (Vanderbilt does not rank outside the top 20%) and I know people with worse grades than me that landed a decent firm job over the summer. As I am from California and preferred to go back when I graduated, I focused my job search last year on the West Coast, but in hindsight that may not have been the best idea. This time, should I focus more on states in the South? At this point, I don't even care where I work, as long as I can land a decent job.

I applied to a lot of federal clerkships over the summer but have either been rejected or still waiting to hear back. Right now, the only thing I can think of is to continue mass mailing like I did throughout last year, but I am not at all sure if it will get me anywhere. Does anyone have any suggestions for me moving forward? I'm mainly interested in a firm job, federal clerkship, in-house counsel, or an SEC position. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Err... You might have better luck if the mods move this to a different forum instead of "Law School Admissions"

it sounds like you know what to do....massmail and continue networking/hustle. Also, why did you go to Vanderbilt if you wanted CA?

xuster22 wrote:As I am from California and preferred to go back when I graduated, I focused my job search last year on the West Coast, but in hindsight that may not have been the best idea.

You don't say.

filibuster wrote:it sounds like you know what to do....massmail and continue networking/hustle. Also, why did you go to Vanderbilt if you wanted CA?

Well, Vanderbilt offered me a substantial scholarship while the CA schools I got into (UCLA, USC) didn't offer me anything. Also, I pretty much lived in CA my whole life (grew up in LA, went to Berkeley for undergrad) and thought it would be a good chance to experience another part of the country. I never expected it to be this difficult to land a west coast job from Vanderbilt. In retrospect, I probably would have been better off going to UCLA...

Have you consider the government honors programs? I know the applications are due soon. Also, consider consulting. A number of my classmates are going that route. Lastly, apply to state clerkships.

tonidee wrote:Have you consider the government honors programs? I know the applications are due soon. Also, consider consulting. A number of my classmates are going that route. Lastly, apply to state clerkships.

CA does not do state clerkships like most other states, it's more like becoming a clerk of the court outright rather than serving a 1-2yr term.

BTW xuster22, I completely understand where you're coming from, being a SD native currently attending Fordham who swung out during 2L OCI. The advice I have been getting from people who moved from the East Coast back to CA is: move back without a job, pass the bar there, and then search for work; because of the difficulty of the CA bar, a lot of employers are leery of hiring non-CA residents until after they are employable as attorneys.

Hope this helps.