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I'm on the westcoast and have an interview with a district court judge on the eastcoast. She asked me to fly in for an interview after a screener call. In situations like this, do judges usually interview one at a time or does she have multiple applicants lined up competing for the same spot? This trip will easily cost me $1000 so I'm just trying to see how much expectation I should have. Thank you.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm on the westcoast and have an interview with a district court judge on the eastcoast. She asked me to fly in for an interview after a screener call. In situations like this, do judges usually interview one at a time or does she have multiple applicants lined up competing for the same spot? This trip will easily cost me $1000 so I'm just trying to see how much expectation I should have. Thank you.

I've heard of judges limiting the number of folks they interview out of a sense of the costs for the applicants, but I don't think I've ever heard of a judge interviewing entirely one at a time. Not saying there aren't judges that do it, but I don't think it's the norm.

It just completely depends on the judge - different judges handle all this differently. If you're applying for clerkships you kind of have to just get over how much the travel costs or you'll drive yourself batty.

Yeah, it's completely unknowable unless you can find out how they hire from a former clerk. Even then, it may vary from cycle to cycle, it's certainly not going to change how much your travel costs, and it probably also shouldn't affect how you prepare.

Thank you. I just had a lot of expenses coming up next year and I was surprised I even got the interview. It will be a $1000 experience if I dont get it.

I wish.

I had a judge ask me to move our interview back by a few hours the afternoon before the interview necessitating an almost literally last minute change in my flight. The judge/staff knew I would have to change my flight time to make it work. Got there and had a great interview. Rejected a few days later. Later found out, via a friend, that they were full for the year I interviewed for before I even interviewed. As I had explained in my cover letter (and discussed on the phone when scheduling the interview), that was the only year I could clerk (due to another clerkship).

TL;DR, judge asked me to make a $500 last second flight change in order to interview for a job that the judge was incapable of offering me.

Some judges may care about the significant costs you are incurring, but others DGAF.

Anonymous User wrote:I wish.

I had a judge ask me to move our interview back by a few hours the afternoon before the interview necessitating an almost literally last minute change in my flight. The judge/staff knew I would have to change my flight time to make it work. Got there and had a great interview. Rejected a few days later. Later found out, via a friend, that they were full for the year I interviewed for before I even interviewed. As I had explained in my cover letter (and discussed on the phone when scheduling the interview), that was the only year I could clerk (due to another clerkship).

TL;DR, judge asked me to make a $500 last second flight change in order to interview for a job that the judge was incapable of offering me.

Some judges may care about the significant costs you are incurring, but others DGAF.

mjb447 wrote:Yeah, it's completely unknowable unless you can find out how they hire from a former clerk. Even then, it may vary from cycle to cycle, it's certainly not going to change how much your travel costs, and it probably also shouldn't affect how you prepare.

The horror story from the poster above makes me not want to know how many ppl are interviewing. F that. I hope my judge isnt inconsiderate. I mean it's pretty much a given that im not the only one competing for the job. One of X number of applicants will be shit out of luck and will have to eat the cost.

Anonymous User wrote:

mjb447 wrote:Yeah, it's completely unknowable unless you can find out how they hire from a former clerk. Even then, it may vary from cycle to cycle, it's certainly not going to change how much your travel costs, and it probably also shouldn't affect how you prepare.

The horror story from the poster above makes me not want to know how many ppl are interviewing. F that. I hope my judge isnt inconsiderate. I mean it's pretty much a given that im not the only one competing for the job. One of X number of applicants will be shit out of luck and will have to eat the cost.

Yikes. I can only hope that, for most judges, respect for their own time (if not yours) would stop them from holding that kind of interview.

This reminds me of the time I spent thousands getting a last minute flight and hotel in New York to interview for an AUSA job in the SDNY, and then got a rejection letter that might have been mailed before my interview.

This is probably a judge by judge thing. The second judge I clerked for was a little more selective when making people fly into town, so those guys had the inside track. The first judge didn't care at all. He'd interview 8 people, all of whom flew into town on almost no notice.