How to start looking for in house jobs? Forum

[Anonymous User]

2.5 years into biglaw (real estate). My firm is full of lovely people and the hours aren't any crazier than usual biglaw, I'm just... over it. I hate billing time, I'm not wildly into working for so many different clients, and I loved being in-house during the two externships I did at different companies in law school. I'm starting to feel like I really can't go 5 years before bailing out.

So my question is, how do I start looking to transition? Should I just be checking job listing sites and googling companies I know and like? If anyone has advice or can point me to relevant previous threads I'd really appreciate it!

[Anonymous User]

best thing to do is network and hit up your buddies who work in f500 to push your resume along when you see an opening anywhere. spamming your resume is a crapshoot. I've been passively applying via linkedin for a couple years now and barely have even gotten an interview from anywhere (this is nyc). my paper credentials are very strong, so I don't think it's me, I just think there are way too many people applying for publicly posted positions. and from personal experience the people I know who went in house did it via networking.

[Anonymous User]

best thing to do is network and hit up your buddies who work in f500 to push your resume along when you see an opening anywhere. spamming your resume is a crapshoot. I've been passively applying via linkedin for a couple years now and barely have even gotten an interview from anywhere (this is nyc). my paper credentials are very strong, so I don't think it's me, I just think there are way too many people applying for publicly posted positions. and from personal experience the people I know who went in house did it via networking.

I think for your first inhouse job this may be the case. Even then, I got an inhouse job in 2014 from a regional biglaw firm doing tech trans and corporate with 2.5 years experience outside of that respective market. Things are also much easier for tech trans, privacy, and SEC lawyers. I essentially rebranded myself inhouse to be a tech trans and privacy lawyer. 4-5 years out, I basically got an interview for every privacy job (from indeed.com) that I applied for and maybe half of the tech trans jobs that I applied for.

I think things are a little harder for corporate and real estate lawyers. Things are A LOT harder for litigators....

[TooMuchTuna]

I found my two corp/transactional in-house positions using Indeed.

As a side note, I agree with the poster who said it's A LOT harder for lit associates. From what I have seen, in-house legal departments just don't have a need for in-house lit associates since we use outside counsel for that stuff. I also have some friends who are lit associates that just couldn't get any bites, even with amazing credentials. Most of them wound up going from biglaw to boutique firms.

I have no idea what the market looks like for real estate associates, but I assume companies like CBRE would need them?

[sopranorleone]

I found goinhouse.com to be a great resource. I got several interviews from there, even as a second year.

[dedede]

I actually found my in-house job through a recruiter. This recruiter, like most recruiters, focuses on lateral moves. However, I'd made it clear that I was primarily interested in going in-house, and when she heard about this opportunity, she reached out to me immediately. It's certainly worth a shot.

[1styearlateral]

4-5 years out, I basically got an interview for every privacy job (from indeed.com) that I applied for and maybe half of the tech trans jobs that I applied for.

Are you a CIPP?

[jhett]

Also check out Ventureloop if you want to work for startups.