Interviews and bad timing
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 10:13 pm
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Law School Discussion Forums
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https://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=241598
If you get the internship, you call other set interviewers and tell them you have another internship lined up and are no longer applying. Don't mention your other internship details unless they ask. Then, use your discretion, divulging only appropriately modest details. You don't owe anyone anything, plus no one gives a fuck because there are 30 other intern applicants and none distinguish themselves on paper, so just be a polite normal person.Anonymous User wrote:I already searched through forums to see if any thread answered my question. Unfortunately, none did.
I am a 1L.
I have a few interviews lined up with federal judges, and these interviews are coming up soon. If I get an offer, it sounds like (from what I read on TLS) that I would be notified on the spot or right after the interview has ended.
However, I have another interview happening much later---after my judicial internship interviews of course. This is an interview with a firm/gov. agency (I don't want to say which for the sake of anonymity) that is my DREAM place to work at. It is the place I want to work at after graduation.
My plan is to take the federal judicial internship if offered on the spot, because I don't want to get a bad reputation by rejecting the offer. I hear it's really bad to reject federal judicial internships and that judges usually aren't willing to wait awhile for you to get back to them about whether you want to work for them or not. I also hear that splitting summers is generally a no-no with big firms/agencies or federal judicial internships.
Will it look bad if I tell the other employer that I decided to take the fed judicial internship and will not be able to interview with them anymore (especially if that employer is the one I want to work for after graduation)?
What should I do? Obviously, there is always the possibility that all my interviews go badly and no one wants me...but I should be prepared for an offer on the spot.
OP here. How would I know if the firm/agency hires freshly minted grads that interned with them? How do I go about finding this info? Thanks.BigZuck wrote:If you really want to work for that agency and think you have a good shot at getting it and they hire freshly minted grads I would probably just do that interview and skip the judge interviews. This is the problem with 1L judicial internships. You have to take it if offered, but it's not like there is usually any benefit to doing a COA internship over, say, an internship with a PD in BFE.
Anyway, just IMO, YMMV, etc.
I really have no clue. Ask TLS? Search TLS? Do research? Google? Talk to your CSO? Ask the agency?Anonymous User wrote:OP here. How would I know if the firm/agency hires freshly minted grads that interned with them? How do I go about finding this info? Thanks.BigZuck wrote:If you really want to work for that agency and think you have a good shot at getting it and they hire freshly minted grads I would probably just do that interview and skip the judge interviews. This is the problem with 1L judicial internships. You have to take it if offered, but it's not like there is usually any benefit to doing a COA internship over, say, an internship with a PD in BFE.
Anyway, just IMO, YMMV, etc.
This is literally why your Office of Career Services exists. Ask them - they should know about the fed agency's hiring practice. My impression is that it's generally pretty tough to land biggov immediately out of law school although I knew of a few entry level attorneys who were presidential management fellows at my federal agency 1L year.Anonymous User wrote: OP here. How would I know if the firm/agency hires freshly minted grads that interned with them? How do I go about finding this info? Thanks.
If my OCS were helpful, I would not have posted on here.cookiejar1 wrote:This is literally why your Office of Career Services exists. Ask them - they should know about the fed agency's hiring practice. My impression is that it's generally pretty tough to land biggov immediately out of law school although I knew of a few entry level attorneys who were presidential management fellows at my federal agency 1L year.Anonymous User wrote: OP here. How would I know if the firm/agency hires freshly minted grads that interned with them? How do I go about finding this info? Thanks.
OP here. Thank you so much. Do you think it's ok if I ask the judge (If and after I get an on-the-spot offer) if I could split my summer?A. Nony Mouse wrote:Not all judges will make you an offer on the spot, and not all judges will expect you to take the offer on the spot (though yes, it can happen). You can turn down an internship with a judge (although it might be a little awkward to get an offer on the spot and turn it down on the spot) and it won't screw you for anything else, unless you do it in an assholish way or something. Withdrawing after you've accepted is more of a faux pas (though if the other offer is good enough you have to do what's best for you in the long run).
There is absolutely nothing wrong with withdrawing from an interview because you received another job offer. No one will hold that against you. Should that happen, you could always inquire about interning with them at another time (during the school year, next summer).
I'm not aware of any categorical rule against splitting either judicial internships or federal agency ones.
As for which agencies hire straight out of law school, one thing to do is google "honors program" and the name of the agency to see if they have a program for entry-level hiring. Also look at the Arizona government honors/internship handbook. (Your CSO can give you the password for this.)