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If you're former military why not try for fed gov like Dept of Veterans?

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Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:If you're former military why not try for fed gov like Dept of Veterans?

I'm keeping all options open (not in a position to be picky). I've heard that, however, federal gov't positions are even tougher to get than biglaw.

They are much harder to get than biglaw, but you are at a huge advantage as former military....especially for positions within certain agencies like Vet.

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there seemed to be a few firms that disproportionately hired military. could be self selection / small sample size, and maybe GPA overwhelms whatever it is, but you should at least talk to CSO or others you know to see if they've noticed a lot of military offers from certain firms and shoot for those

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:If you're former military why not try for fed gov like Dept of Veterans?

I'm keeping all options open (not in a position to be picky). I've heard that, however, federal gov't positions are even tougher to get than biglaw.

They are much harder to get than biglaw, but you are at a huge advantage as former military....especially for positions within certain agencies like Vet.

The feds do like former military, generally, but there isn't any veteran's preference for attorney positions.

sprezz wrote:there seemed to be a few firms that disproportionately hired military. could be self selection / small sample size,

which, where? care to share your knowledge?

Anonymous User wrote:Just finished the year with .1 below median at lower T-14. Former military, so some work experience. Any recommendations/strategies for bidding? Not picky about markets/practice area/etc. Would like to get biglaw, but not sure how feasible that is with my GPA. Thanks.

New York firms with big summer classes where you aren't immediately excluded based on grades (career services will have info on firms with hard floors - if there's a "soft floor", i.e. the firm generally has a floor but makes exceptions, apply). If you're from a state/city with a secondary market, throw apps there as well and hustle outside the OCI process to get your applications in front of people who matter.

as i've shared in pm followups, i don't have firsthand knowledge. i heard others with the background discussing firms that viewed the background particularly favorably multiple times so i just thought i'd pass along that there is some smoke there. i don't have the background and wasn't targeting the markets these firms were in so i didn't pay much attention to it at the time, which was a while ago. from what little i do recall, think bigger firms in smaller markets. you should contact CSO or others with the background at your school or do some trolling on linkedin for alums from the law vets society/club at your school to identify potential targets.

it goes without saying that following the advice by jkp and others above is more important than running this question to ground

sprezz wrote:as i've shared in pm followups, i don't have firsthand knowledge. i heard others with the background discussing firms that viewed the background particularly favorably multiple times so i just thought i'd pass along that there is some smoke there. i don't have the background and wasn't targeting the markets these firms were in so i didn't pay much attention to it at the time, which was a while ago. from what little i do recall, think bigger firms in smaller markets. you should contact CSO or others with the background at your school or do some trolling on linkedin for alums from the law vets society/club at your school to identify potential targets.

it goes without saying that following the advice by jkp and others above is more important than running this question to ground

not my stats, not my question, and not really looking for advice, it was just idle curiosity as I've never come across biglaw that seemed to favor military. but ok, nvm

kaysta wrote:

sprezz wrote:as i've shared in pm followups, i don't have firsthand knowledge. i heard others with the background discussing firms that viewed the background particularly favorably multiple times so i just thought i'd pass along that there is some smoke there. i don't have the background and wasn't targeting the markets these firms were in so i didn't pay much attention to it at the time, which was a while ago. from what little i do recall, think bigger firms in smaller markets. you should contact CSO or others with the background at your school or do some trolling on linkedin for alums from the law vets society/club at your school to identify potential targets.

it goes without saying that following the advice by jkp and others above is more important than running this question to ground

not my stats, not my question, and not really looking for advice, it was just idle curiosity as I've never come across biglaw that seemed to favor military. but ok, nvm

More conservative firms, like gdc, definitely favor veterans.

Also curious about this. .06 below median at PVD. The kicker being I want to desperately stay out of NYC. Preferably DC and a secondary market I have ties to. But as far as DC, any advice/strategy? (Why dc you may ask? Fiance works for one of the fed agencies as an attorney in DC doing DC specific work, i.e. not able to transfer to NYC office).

Anonymous User wrote:Also curious about this. .06 below median at PVD. The kicker being I want to desperately stay out of NYC. Preferably DC and a secondary market I have ties to. But as far as DC, any advice/strategy? (Why dc you may ask? Fiance works for one of the fed agencies as an attorney in DC doing DC specific work, i.e. not able to transfer to NYC office).

At that level of school/grades, if you bid all DC (or even large majority DC) you SERIOUSLY risk being shut out. The best strategy is probably to find ~10-15 DC firms you think are good fits and network those firms HARD. Find attorneys you have connections to (personal, professional, academic, you both play in the same tennis league, you both dated the same guy - anything to get the ball moving), try to get them on the phone/out for coffee. Maybe float the idea of seeing the office ahead of OCI. Then bid a large # in your secondary. If you run out of secondary firms, fill out your bids with large NY firms with low grade thresholds. You'll be wasting your bids on more DC firms. I know that's a little disappointing, but it's the reality. DC is hard to get even solidly above median at PVD.

Anonymous User wrote:Also curious about this. .06 below median at PVD. The kicker being I want to desperately stay out of NYC. Preferably DC and a secondary market I have ties to. But as far as DC, any advice/strategy? (Why dc you may ask? Fiance works for one of the fed agencies as an attorney in DC doing DC specific work, i.e. not able to transfer to NYC office).

top third at P, and got shut out of DC. In fact I totally struck out of OCI - the job I ended up with was a Vault satellite office in my home/secondary market. Pretty happy with it though

While my personal situation is probably extreme, I think there is at least a small chance for anyone outside of LR/top 10% that they will strike out. If you're serious about DC / home market, consider making a ton of networking calls/coffee breaks/etc with every partner alum in DC/home market (preferably senior partners, rainmakers, or anyone listed on chambers). And then bid entirely on NYC at OCI. If you network ALOT and hustle hard, you can probably get DC, but if only rely on OCI you will most likely not get DC

Anonymous User wrote:Just finished the year with .1 below median at lower T-14. Former military, so some work experience. Any recommendations/strategies for bidding? Not picky about markets/practice area/etc. Would like to get biglaw, but not sure how feasible that is with my GPA. Thanks.

Just say the specific school, you're not going to out yourself.

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Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Also curious about this. .06 below median at PVD. The kicker being I want to desperately stay out of NYC. Preferably DC and a secondary market I have ties to. But as far as DC, any advice/strategy? (Why dc you may ask? Fiance works for one of the fed agencies as an attorney in DC doing DC specific work, i.e. not able to transfer to NYC office).

top third at P, and got shut out of DC. In fact I totally struck out of OCI - the job I ended up with was a Vault satellite office in my home/secondary market. Pretty happy with it though

While my personal situation is probably extreme, I think there is at least a small chance for anyone outside of LR/top 10% that they will strike out. If you're serious about DC / home market, consider making a ton of networking calls/coffee breaks/etc with every partner alum in DC/home market (preferably senior partners, rainmakers, or anyone listed on chambers). And then bid entirely on NYC at OCI. If you network ALOT and hustle hard, you can probably get DC, but if only rely on OCI you will most likely not get DC

I'm glad you were able to get a job you're happy with! But this does sound a little scary. Can you provide more details about what you think went wrong during OCI?

Specific bidlist questions would be better addressed in a school specific OCI thread than stating some broad "MVBP" category.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Also curious about this. .06 below median at PVD. The kicker being I want to desperately stay out of NYC. Preferably DC and a secondary market I have ties to. But as far as DC, any advice/strategy? (Why dc you may ask? Fiance works for one of the fed agencies as an attorney in DC doing DC specific work, i.e. not able to transfer to NYC office).

top third at P, and got shut out of DC. In fact I totally struck out of OCI - the job I ended up with was a Vault satellite office in my home/secondary market. Pretty happy with it though

While my personal situation is probably extreme, I think there is at least a small chance for anyone outside of LR/top 10% that they will strike out. If you're serious about DC / home market, consider making a ton of networking calls/coffee breaks/etc with every partner alum in DC/home market (preferably senior partners, rainmakers, or anyone listed on chambers). And then bid entirely on NYC at OCI. If you network ALOT and hustle hard, you can probably get DC, but if only rely on OCI you will most likely not get DC

I'm glad you were able to get a job you're happy with! But this does sound a little scary. Can you provide more details about what you think went wrong during OCI?

I'm the original anon who almost struck out. Here's the thing about OCI - interviewing is really important, and in ways you don't really consider. I've always had a lot of friends and gone out/partied a lot. Amongst friends and family I had the reputation of being really social, almost to a fault. So I thought top third + Penn + social skills were going to get me the job of my dreams. Even so, I bid really conservatively for my grades and took every interview off the waitlist. Probably did 26+ screeners

Here's how it turned out: while I did come off as friendly at OCI, I think I also came off as unserious about working despite the fact that I had a ton of work experience before law school. I didn't even think that could happen, but it really fucked me. I probably had the lowest screener-to-callback conversion rate out of all my friends. So I had a huge false sense security, and it really almost screwed me.

I"m not trying to scare all the 1Ls on this board. The real message of this story is that YOU NEED TO DO MOCK INTERVIEWS. Everyone, and I mean, EVERYONE considers themselves to be an above-average interviewer. You must do mock interviews to confirm this, and then you have to get better at it. As I think my case demonstrates, its possible to have above-average social skills and below average interview skills. mock interviews help with that, and mass-mailing will be your saving grace if you strike out like I did. TL;DR - mass mail and practice interviewing, even if you think you're "good" at interviewing