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I am a transfer student at a T20 and I got a SA position at a big firm through OCI, then afterwards did a write-on for a secondary journal. Now I am contemplating whether I should actually join since I already have the SA position. Is it meaningless at this point to join when the only reason I was going to join was to boost my resume? I intend to go into IP prosecution

Did you have the journal on your resume when you applied for the SA position?

If you intend to do patent (or maybe trademark?) prosecution there is no reason to do journal (unless you want to do a clerkship, which would also be highly unusual for prosecution work). It may vary by school but journals can be significant work that may be better used pursuing other extracurriculars. A clinic with transactional work may be more pertinent/interesting.

i would only suggest it if you are at all thinking of maybe wanting to litigation instead in the future, since it's more common for them.

If it's on your resume, don't quit. If it's not, then definitely quit.

AZ123 wrote:Did you have the journal on your resume when you applied for the SA position?

This is important. My school will force you to notify employers if you have LR/ journal/ moot court on your resume when you apply and then fail to meet the basic requirements of these groups. If not, then I don't see this as a big deal. Though keep in mind people do get no offered or want to switch firms 3L year. You are limiting your options by dropping the journal. I'd stay on personally, you're paying for school might as well get the most out of it.

AZ123 wrote:Did you have the journal on your resume when you applied for the SA position?

No. I did not apply with it on my resume.

I'm in the same situation except the journal was on my resume. I wouldn't hesitate to drop it if I were you. It's a nightmare of busywork that will only marginally improve prospects in the rare event that you are no offered/want to do 3L OCI.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm in the same situation except the journal was on my resume. I wouldn't hesitate to drop it if I were you. It's a nightmare of busywork that will only marginally improve prospects in the rare event that you are no offered/want to do 3L OCI.

Yeah the possibility of a no offer is the only reason I am hesitating, albeit rather unlikely

Definitely drop.

believe me, secondary journals (all journals, really) suck massive massive balls. the "board" at any journal is little more than camp guards who threaten to fuck with your livelihood/career so they can get free labor out of you. that said, you don't know how shit is gonna turn out. maybe you get no offered or maybe you wanna lateral a year into your job. i highly highly doubt having journal on your resume will affect things one way or another in those instances... but it may serve some box-checking purposes and the peace of mind that comes with that, so i'd just stick with it. what else are you gonna do with that time? for all my bitching and moaning, it's a relatively minor time commitment (especially on a secondary) for a permanent resume line.

How much work do people on the journal say it is? If it's chill then probably worth sticking it out. FWIW mine was like ~10-15 hrs/semester.

Unless it would hurt you in some way (i.e., you're already taking max credits and one more thing would definitely affect your grades), I'd say just do it. It's not important for your SA, and it may not be important for IP Pros, but it's worth having in case you don't get an offer from the SA, in case you want to do anything else down the road, etc. It's not as big of a deal as LR, but a lot of people will still care a lot about a journal of some kind, anyway.

FWIW, I'm in IP, and people do look fondly on candidates who did a journal/have written papers or articles, etc., about IP topics. They won't ding you if you didn't do journal, but it is a boost.