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Currently clerking at a federal district court in a smaller city after graduating top 5% from a lower T50 school. I'm moving to NYC after my clerkship (location is non-negotiable due to my significant other) and had planned to work for a firm, but I really like working for the government (sense of public service, work-life balance, etc). I didn't like the culture at the large firm I summered at and I don't need the money enough to put up with the hours.

Would it be feasible to skip working for a firm and go straight to a federal agency in the NYC area? It seems like almost everyone who works in government started in private practice, but I like the idea of sticking with the government. I'm most interested in civil rights adjacent areas like employment and housing, so choice agencies would be EEOC, DOL, HUD, etc--but I'd do others. I know honors programs are out there and will apply (though few have slots in NYC), but I'm thinking more along the lines of just applying to openings on USAJobs.

Are there enough federal agencies in NYC that hire recent grads that I'm reasonably likely to get a job this way? If not, I guess I'll have to suck it up and do private practice, or look into state/local government.

So, the short answer is that this isn't necessarily impossible, but it's not an easy path. Federal agencies tend not to hire people straight out of school. The ones that do tend to funnel that hiring exclusively through their honors programs. You're free to apply through USAJobs if there are open positions that you're qualified for, but keep mind that if a job posting says "must have one year of post-JD experience" (or three years or however many), it's a hard requirement - if you don't have that much experience, your application won't get passed along to the hiring committee and you won't be considered. And it's just not very common to see jobs for new grads.

I think the Social Security Administration and the VA tend to be exceptions (in that they'll hire new grads), but with all due respect to people in those agencies, a lot of their lawyer positions involve very repetitive, low-complexity, rote kinds of work, which many people don't enjoy. Look at the salary cap - the lower the promotion potential is, the less complex the job is likely to be (doesn't mean it won't be the right job for you, but I have heard negative things).

I'd look into local/state government gigs, or legal aid, as a way to get experience that would be transferable to a federal job. Private practice is also totally fine, but you might enjoy the public sector alternatives more.

(Also, look at the requirements for the honors programs - most application deadlines are in the fall with interviews/hiring taking place from Thanksgiving thru January, depending on the agency, to start the job in the following fall. You can't have a real job before starting an honors program job - it disqualifies you unless you can manage to keep it under a certain length of time; I want to say 9 months but I haven't looked in ages so am not sure. Basically, if your clerkship ends in the fall, you'd almost certainly have to clerk again or do some kind of fellowship to maintain your eligibility to enter through an honors program. If your clerkship is two years, of course, that's no issue, but I wanted to mention it.)