I graduated from a 14 law school without a job lined up back in May 2021. After the bar exam, I then applied to every relevant posting I saw and mass mailed to many firms. Although I have had many interviews these past few weeks, I haven't had much luck so far. It's now mid-October and most of my classmates have started working at their firms.
Nonetheless, many have told me that the market is really good right now and that Corporate practice areas are mass hiring. But, I don't see many postings for entry-level hires or first-year associates.
Thus, I was wondering if anyone has any helpful tips or strategies on how to proceed to find a job. My Law School's Career Services Office was not too helpful and discouraged mass mailing. I have mass-mailed firms and contacted their recruiters but I usually get told to just check on the firm's career openings page and see what's available or that they aren't hiring, and even then, most junior associate positions require at least 2 years of experience.
Does anyone have any encouraging words or advice to offer? Any positive words or support would also be greatly appreciated.
Any Advice on Job Search? Forum
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hdr
- Posts: 195
- Joined: Tue May 19, 2020 12:25 pm
Re: Any Advice on Job Search?
At this point it's going to be difficult to land an entry-level biglaw position. Firm recruiters will not help you. You need to try to connect with partners who went to your law school (or undergrad) and see if their firms have any openings or hiring needs. Many will ignore your emails but some will want to help you. If all you do is contact recruiters and apply to public postings, your resume generally will not get looked at by anyone with hiring authority.
You should see if your school offers school-funded fellowships or something of that nature, and find something potentially relevant to biglaw practice (e.g at a trade association or a hospital, but not a legal aid organization). You might be in a better position a year from now when you have some meaningful experience.
I know plenty of people who graduated without jobs and ended up as biglaw associates in 1-2 years, but without exception, they networked persistently.
You should see if your school offers school-funded fellowships or something of that nature, and find something potentially relevant to biglaw practice (e.g at a trade association or a hospital, but not a legal aid organization). You might be in a better position a year from now when you have some meaningful experience.
I know plenty of people who graduated without jobs and ended up as biglaw associates in 1-2 years, but without exception, they networked persistently.
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peoplearehungry
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Re: Any Advice on Job Search?
Screw CSOs, man. Most seem to have a huge bias for the top end of the curve and almost nothing helpful for the back end. Like, how hard can that really be? Congratulations, you coordinated arrival and departure times for OCI. Kudos. If there is an exceptional CSO out there, I have yet to hear of it.
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Anonymous User
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Re: Any Advice on Job Search?
Kirkland & Ellis in Salt Lake City
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legalpotato
- Posts: 219
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Re: Any Advice on Job Search?
lol is the reason for this comment that they are hiring literally anybody out there?
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Anonymous User
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Re: Any Advice on Job Search?
Delete double post
Last edited by Anonymous User on Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Anonymous User
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Re: Any Advice on Job Search?
legalpotato wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:39 pmlol is the reason for this comment that they are hiring literally anybody out there?
Yes and OP is from a T14 and they are hiring folks with lesser credentials, and they want to hire a lot so I don't think it's a bad fit.
Plus, OP could prob start there remotely (they seem to be forgiving about that since their office is in a building that's being constructed right now) then lateral or transfer offices later if wanted, but it's way easier to lateral than to get a 3L job IMO.
