So let me apologize. I’m so incredibly sorry. I didn’t realize that answering questions with our specific experiences and thoughts was the wrong thing to do. My bad: I really am a disgrace! Turns out that, to avoid scaring 0Ls, we should have spun yarns about unicorns and glitter with jobs just drifting around the law school, there for the taking, if we could only jump high enough!
I feel terrible now that, when someone asked a question about something I have direct experience with, I didn’t realize that they did not want me to tell them about my experience! They wanted me to tell them about what their experience will be, which will obviously be different from all of ours—perfect and worry free. That will sure answer their questions!
So to that end, I emailed a girl in our section who always sounds like she’s talking about precisely the things you want to hear about (rainbows and butterflies). Seriously, she makes anything sound happy. I’ve quoted her response below. I just hope it’s not too little too late…I sure don’t want to continue doing a disservice to my school by telling the truth!
Question: How is OCS at Ilinois?
Email Subject Line: What I think about OCS at Illinois! Hint: I LOVE IT!! wrote:Jeepers, that’s a good question! First, the office is FILLED, just FILLED with cotton candy and soft pillows. This is because it is a naturally stress free environment where all of the cool cats at Illinois go to relax and talk about how much bread they’re going to make!
But if you do need something, they’re always soooooo willing to help! By golly, just the other day I sauntered in there, worried (haha! I know, I’m a square, right? We all get jobs!) about my job search because I’m thinking about targeting a secondary market (But now I know Illinois doesn’t have secondary markets: we place students where ever they want to go. After all, that’s OCS’s motto—“where you want to go is our primary market!”).
So I wondered up to the desk, nibbling on cotton candy, and I asked for some tips on my market. It’s like she knew I was coming! She gave me a big ol’ helpful spreadsheet with every law firm in the Midwest! And sure enough, down in the middle of page three and running until just before the end of page five, was my market! They went above and beyond! Not only did I get a list of places IN my market, I got a list of places in markets I’m not even targeting! See, they try to foresee what people want and help them before they ask. Clearly, they can tell that one day I’ll want to target a number of other cities. So far, I’m not actually interested in those cities, but OCS knows best so I’m just waiting for the day that I wake up and say “You know what? They were right! I DO want to live THERE!” And when that day comes, I know I’ll be prepared thanks to the lovely folks down at career services.
Another success story: I went in looking for a little help with my law firm research. After all, it seems like the firm websites are all so similar! And dag-gum they had just what I was looking for! A book! About all of the law firms! Sure, I wasn’t interested in all of them and sure, that book is available for free online, but it sure was comforting to know that they had copies of it, too! The book was made of nice materials, too—that good, old fashioned paper and ink stuff—so you know it’s good quality! It almost felt mass produced! Could you imagine any other career services writing you a book?!? I couldn’t! It doesn’t seem to contain any Illinois specific information but I assume OCS edited the entries about the firms so that the pertain ONLY to Illinois students. That just seems like something they’d TOTALLY do because they know it would be SOOO helpful to us to have some context!
I could go on forever about how wonderful and amazing career services is, but I suspect you tire of reading my glowing recommendations. I just hope that this post can be a beacon of light in the fog of doom and gloom spreading around here!
Edit: I saw some of the other posters were giving your friend some NASTY advice about SLU! Don’t you DARE listen to them—It’s a wonderful school! I hear that their career services office hands out lollipops and that everyone who goes there makes exactly the amount of money that would make them happy, but not so much that they get the greedy yips. I would TOTALLY go there (I LOVE lollipops) if the following conditions were satisfied: 1. I got in.
Hope that helps your friend!!!!
You won't have any classes with them though, don't worry
<3
Order a Founders Breakfast stout and whatever off the menue (it's all good). Best BBQ in town. Get there at 11AM or 5PM, otherwise be willing to wait a while for a table.
