Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges Forum

[IAFG]

Now would be a good time for 1Ls to start contemplating their 2L Fall job hunt strategy.

What do you recommend? Start compiling a spreadsheet for mailing over the summer?

I would start by doing an inventory of your interests and résumé to start thinking about what it is you want to do. Then I would start trying to start conversations with lawyers doing stuff that sounds interesting to you.

[Pokemon]

Should I take FedJur with Konto? I know he is a confusing lecturer, but any more info about him... particularly his grading.

[eschewinganonymity]

2L here - can someone PM me any teachers that totally don't care about attendance. Any course will do...have to drop some of my courses that are not going to work with my schedule.

[franklyscarlet]

Adding to 1L job search stuff- if you're a diverse student, start applying for diversity SA spots now. There's a decent amount of people in my class who ended up at firms 1L sumner through those. Feel free to PM if you'd like to talk about them.

[09042014]

2L here - can someone PM me any teachers that totally don't care about attendance. Any course will do...have to drop some of my courses that are not going to work with my schedule.

Burns and barsa don't.

[crumpetsandtea]

2L here - can someone PM me any teachers that totally don't care about attendance. Any course will do...have to drop some of my courses that are not going to work with my schedule.

Burns and barsa don't.

Neither does Hughes for 14A.

[splitmuch]

Pfander told us he didnt care for civ pro 2

[Solistus]

I'm a 1L, and I have a few questions about OCI / the summer job search. I was delayed getting back to Chicago and didn't have a chance to visit Career Services this week. I have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, but that's too late for OCI signups.

Right now I'm working on my resume. I have all the basics filled out on a free online resume tool - contact info, work and education history with short descriptions of my previous jobs. Nothing particularly exciting there, and unless there's something I need to be sure to do radically differently from a typical professional resume, I think I'm alright there.

Should I have some sort of objective / summary statement at the top? If so, what sort of things should it say? On my resume for wage slave jobs pre-law school, I had some empty platitude of a 'mission statement' about being motivated/energetic/[positive adjective] and seeking opportunities to build a career in [field I'm currently applying for jobs in]. Do I want/need something like that on my legal resume?

Any general tips for 1L OCI would be appreciated. About what proportion of 1Ls find their summer job at OCI? What types of summer jobs does OCI focus on - is it mostly firms? Anything you wish you knew before your first OCI?

Finally - I got an email from my torts professor asking if I would be interested in a summer research assistantship. It's not an actual offer - he says he's asking "several" students from last semester to see who would be interested in discussing it further. How does a research assistantship for a professor compare to other 1L summer job opportunities in terms of how well it will set me up for 2L OCI? I would definitely enjoy working with this professor over the summer, developing my research and writing skills and hopefully cultivating a strong recommendation for future job applications, but I vaguely recall hearing that working for a professor is not at all prestigious and won't look as good as interning for a judge, firm, govt agency, or nonprofit. Is that true? Is it a big enough deal that I should be worried about it or let it dissuade me from pursuing the assistant position?

[Flips88]

Should I have some sort of objective / summary statement at the top? If so, what sort of things should it say? On my resume for wage slave jobs pre-law school, I had some empty platitude of a 'mission statement' about being motivated/energetic/[positive adjective] and seeking opportunities to build a career in [field I'm currently applying for jobs in]. Do I want/need something like that on my legal resume?

No. Never put something like that on a legal resume.

[rinkrat19]

I'm a 1L, and I have a few questions about OCI / the summer job search. I was delayed getting back to Chicago and didn't have a chance to visit Career Services this week. I have a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, but that's too late for OCI signups.

Right now I'm working on my resume. I have all the basics filled out on a free online resume tool - contact info, work and education history with short descriptions of my previous jobs. Nothing particularly exciting there, and unless there's something I need to be sure to do radically differently from a typical professional resume, I think I'm alright there.

Should I have some sort of objective / summary statement at the top? If so, what sort of things should it say? On my resume for wage slave jobs pre-law school, I had some empty platitude of a 'mission statement' about being motivated/energetic/[positive adjective] and seeking opportunities to build a career in [field I'm currently applying for jobs in]. Do I want/need something like that on my legal resume?

Any general tips for 1L OCI would be appreciated. About what proportion of 1Ls find their summer job at OCI? What types of summer jobs does OCI focus on - is it mostly firms? Anything you wish you knew before your first OCI?

Finally - I got an email from my torts professor asking if I would be interested in a summer research assistantship. It's not an actual offer - he says he's asking "several" students from last semester to see who would be interested in discussing it further. How does a research assistantship for a professor compare to other 1L summer job opportunities in terms of how well it will set me up for 2L OCI? I would definitely enjoy working with this professor over the summer, developing my research and writing skills and hopefully cultivating a strong recommendation for future job applications, but I vaguely recall hearing that working for a professor is not at all prestigious and won't look as good as interning for a judge, firm, govt agency, or nonprofit. Is that true? Is it a big enough deal that I should be worried about it or let it dissuade me from pursuing the assistant position?

Most RAs aren't prestigious because pretty much anyone can get one with A professor. There are a few professors who swing a big enough stick that working for them is a pretty decent thing. I'm not the best person to ask which profs are on that list. But you can certainly pursue both the RA and OCI jobs until you figure out what you want to do.

Do NOT put an objective on your resume. You are not applying to be a corporate secretary in 1992.

OCS has a resume guide and resume templates on the website. Use these. Fit your resume onto a single page and make it match the template format. Legal hiring resumes are very boring and there is very little room for variance or creativity. I certainly would not depend on any online resume generating tool.
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/career/jobsearch/

[lgleye]

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[IAFG]

Igleye forgot "in house," which I would put before most small law SAs.

[lgleye]

.

[splitmuch]

Igleye forgot "in house," which I would put before most small law SAs.

Yep... In-house ranks up there w/ mid and judicial. I'd probably put small firm SA equivalent with most Gov't SA's, except Federal. Edited.

In-house and Mid > judicial. Even in term of "future benefit" and much greater in terms of immediate benefit. $.

[Mal Reynolds]

The irony that igleye is now the calm and experienced advice-giver is not lost on me.

[VulcanVulcanVulcan]

Finally - I got an email from my torts professor asking if I would be interested in a summer research assistantship. It's not an actual offer - he says he's asking "several" students from last semester to see who would be interested in discussing it further. How does a research assistantship for a professor compare to other 1L summer job opportunities in terms of how well it will set me up for 2L OCI? I would definitely enjoy working with this professor over the summer, developing my research and writing skills and hopefully cultivating a strong recommendation for future job applications, but I vaguely recall hearing that working for a professor is not at all prestigious and won't look as good as interning for a judge, firm, govt agency, or nonprofit. Is that true? Is it a big enough deal that I should be worried about it or let it dissuade me from pursuing the assistant position?

Remember that the most important function of the 1L summer job is as an addition plus to your resume and a talking point heading into 2L OCI (right after the 1L summer job ends). Assuming that BigLaw is your initial primary objective, then, for 1L summer, the desirability rank is as follows:

BigLaw SA > Mid Firm SA, In-House or Judicial clerkship > Small firm SA or Gov't SA > research assistant > summer job at Walmart

Of course, within each category, some are more desirable than others. In any case, consider your tort professor's offer as a last resort.... or only if your expected GPA heading into 2L OCI is sub 3.4

I slightly disagree with this, in that BIGGOV internships at federal goverment departments like DOJ, SEC, etc. look significantly better than judicial externships.

[splitsplat]

The irony that igleye is now the calm and experienced advice-giver is not lost on me.

hahaha.

side question. reading through the rules for miner moot court... has made me hesitant with how serious it seems. someone convince me that it's worth the extra work...

[IAFG]

TLS has a weird hard on for judicial externships. Since pretty much fucking everyone does them, and getting even circuit externships is not hard, I can't imagine it ranks up there with in house at a big corp or midlaw SAs.

[lgleye]

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[Flips88]

The irony that igleye is now the calm and experienced advice-giver is not lost on me.

I know, I know. Pretty freaky looking at myself on NU threads a year ago. Almost considered taking Valium during OCI. btw, Vulcan may be right about big Gov't SA..... doing half an SA at NYSOAG (thought not Federal) seemed to propel me beyond my stats at OCI.

Pretty surprised you didn't stress-vomit all over your interviewers or pull out some spreadsheets to explain why you would be a good fit for the firm.

[lgleye]

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[whereskyle]

Any examples of corps at which NU students have done summers?

[Blumpbeef]

Any examples of corps at which NU students have done summers?

Go on simplicity. There are reviews that people post for their summer jobs and you can look through those to see reviews for businesses that people worked at. It could be anything really.

[whereskyle]

Any examples of corps at which NU students have done summers?

Go on simplicity. There are reviews that people post for their summer jobs and you can look through those to see reviews for businesses that people worked at. It could be anything really.

Thanks

[VulcanVulcanVulcan]

TLS has a weird hard on for judicial externships. Since pretty much fucking everyone does them, and getting even circuit externships is not hard, I can't imagine it ranks up there with in house at a big corp or midlaw SAs.

This. Even if they are equivalent, everyone does them and will be repeating the same things about them at OCI. Might as well do something different and tell the interviewer something new.