Questions about landing a non-profit or Government job Forum

[Anonymous User]

Can somebody give me some advice about getting a job in the public sector? Primarily environmental law, unless you think there are any other public sector jobs I could get.
I graduated 2015, ~50% from a T-14. Lots of environmental law coursework, enviro journal, internship, etc. Currently I have a fellowship but it is unlikely to lead to a long-term position and as it stands now I'll be unemployed in the Fall.
What are my options for best getting into public sector work? I have no interest in biglaw (mostly due to the long hours) and I'm not sure if I could get a job there anyway. From talking with other attorneys it sounds like I could probably get a mid-law job where I could have a semi-reasonable work/life balance. But is mid-law prestigious enough to allow me to transfer into public sector work in a few years?

My only other option would be clerkships. But most of the hiring is over. I do have a good connection for a state trial court clerkship to start in the fall 2016, how helpful would that be? I was able to get a couple of Federal Honors interviews this past cycle and as a 3L, so I'm tempted to take the state trial clerkship to just buy me another year to apply for honors programs and fellowships. The state laws there mostly mirror federal (FRE, FRCP, APA, etc), so would it give me even a small boost for honors hiring or for non-profit fellowships? If I don't do the clerkship and just take whatever private sector work I can find, it looks like that would disqualify me from most of the fellow and honors programs so I would have to wait 3-5 years and transfer, and I don't know what my odds are for that.

One more question, regardless of which of those two options I take, could I then shoot for a federal clerkship the following year? Would either mid-law or a state trial clerkship help with that? If I did that I would have 3 years of experience so I could qualify for lateral hires... but I don't know if I would be competitive for those at either a non-profit or the Feds if 2 of those 3 years are just clerkships. It does look like a couple of the honors/fellowship programs for government and non-profits will still allow me to apply with 3 years experience, so that's something to consider.

I don't have any interest in staying private sector long-term, I would probably quit law altogether instead if I can't break into public sector work. So does anybody have any suggestions? Thank you