Do firms look at previous employment when hiring SAs? Forum

[lawsohard93]

Starting law school Fall 2016 and as the title suggests, I'm wondering if firms who interview 1Ls for SA positions would at all care about previous employment. I'm 1 year out of undergrad and have worked in 3 law firms of varying sizes and practices as an intern and file clerk. It's nothing fancy or impressive, just something I did in undergrad to figure out if the law firm environment really was for me. But I'm concerned as to whether having unimpressive work experience would hinder me from getting a potential SA offer (which I've heard is hard to get already) even if I'm successful in getting good grades my first semester. I know there's a variety of work a 1L could do in the summer outside of an SA at a firm and I'll definitely be looking at other options but it can't hurt to try!

[PMan99]

Do firms care: Yes
Will it be determinative: Probably not

[foregetaboutdre]

Starting law school Fall 2016 and as the title suggests, I'm wondering if firms who interview 1Ls for SA positions would at all care about previous employment. I'm 1 year out of undergrad and have worked in 3 law firms of varying sizes and practices as an intern and file clerk. It's nothing fancy or impressive, just something I did in undergrad to figure out if the law firm environment really was for me. But I'm concerned as to whether having unimpressive work experience would hinder me from getting a potential SA offer (which I've heard is hard to get already) even if I'm successful in getting good grades my first semester. I know there's a variety of work a 1L could do in the summer outside of an SA at a firm and I'll definitely be looking at other options but it can't hurt to try!

If you're talking a 1L SA, at least the way it worked my school (via OCI and mass mail), I think your work experience may matter a little bit more than usual just because if you're smart you'll mass-mail on Dec 1 (before grades). Every firm will ask for your first semester grades (which is determinative to get a screener and/or a callback), but some may give you a screener before your grades and then request them or they will only ask for candidates grades with a pretty strong resume. This is esp. true if you have something really good like I-Banking, Computer Science, prestigious consulting, etc...

To be honest your work experience will most likely put you in the middle of the pack/average of your classmates. And yeah 1L SAs are a rat race tbh, I think every 1L falls into the same trap that they'll be the one to get a 1L SA and sometimes it doesn't work even with great grades, experience, interviewing, great school, and applying on Dec.1

TL;DR 1.Try to get the best grades possible 1L year. 2. Apply/mass mail 1L SA firms ON Dec. 3. Hope you get lucky. 4. Have a back up.

[lawsohard93]

Starting law school Fall 2016 and as the title suggests, I'm wondering if firms who interview 1Ls for SA positions would at all care about previous employment. I'm 1 year out of undergrad and have worked in 3 law firms of varying sizes and practices as an intern and file clerk. It's nothing fancy or impressive, just something I did in undergrad to figure out if the law firm environment really was for me. But I'm concerned as to whether having unimpressive work experience would hinder me from getting a potential SA offer (which I've heard is hard to get already) even if I'm successful in getting good grades my first semester. I know there's a variety of work a 1L could do in the summer outside of an SA at a firm and I'll definitely be looking at other options but it can't hurt to try!

If you're talking a 1L SA, at least the way it worked my school (via OCI and mass mail), I think your work experience may matter a little bit more than usual just because if you're smart you'll mass-mail on Dec 1 (before grades). Every firm will ask for your first semester grades (which is determinative to get a screener and/or a callback), but some may give you a screener before your grades and then request them or they will only ask for candidates grades with a pretty strong resume. This is esp. true if you have something really good like I-Banking, Computer Science, prestigious consulting, etc...

To be honest your work experience will most likely put you in the middle of the pack/average of your classmates. And yeah 1L SAs are a rat race tbh, I think every 1L falls into the same trap that they'll be the one to get a 1L SA and sometimes it doesn't work even with great grades, experience, interviewing, great school, and applying on Dec.1

TL;DR 1.Try to get the best grades possible 1L year. 2. Apply/mass mail 1L SA firms ON Dec. 3. Hope you get lucky. 4. Have a back up.

Makes sense. Would those factors play less of a deterministic role in other summer jobs then? Such as judicial clerkships or other positions law students typically work during there 1L summer? Wouldn't want to be at a disadvantage from the get go.

[foregetaboutdre]

Starting law school Fall 2016 and as the title suggests, I'm wondering if firms who interview 1Ls for SA positions would at all care about previous employment. I'm 1 year out of undergrad and have worked in 3 law firms of varying sizes and practices as an intern and file clerk. It's nothing fancy or impressive, just something I did in undergrad to figure out if the law firm environment really was for me. But I'm concerned as to whether having unimpressive work experience would hinder me from getting a potential SA offer (which I've heard is hard to get already) even if I'm successful in getting good grades my first semester. I know there's a variety of work a 1L could do in the summer outside of an SA at a firm and I'll definitely be looking at other options but it can't hurt to try!

If you're talking a 1L SA, at least the way it worked my school (via OCI and mass mail), I think your work experience may matter a little bit more than usual just because if you're smart you'll mass-mail on Dec 1 (before grades). Every firm will ask for your first semester grades (which is determinative to get a screener and/or a callback), but some may give you a screener before your grades and then request them or they will only ask for candidates grades with a pretty strong resume. This is esp. true if you have something really good like I-Banking, Computer Science, prestigious consulting, etc...

To be honest your work experience will most likely put you in the middle of the pack/average of your classmates. And yeah 1L SAs are a rat race tbh, I think every 1L falls into the same trap that they'll be the one to get a 1L SA and sometimes it doesn't work even with great grades, experience, interviewing, great school, and applying on Dec.1

TL;DR 1.Try to get the best grades possible 1L year. 2. Apply/mass mail 1L SA firms ON Dec. 3. Hope you get lucky. 4. Have a back up.

Makes sense. Would those factors play less of a deterministic role in other summer jobs then? Such as judicial clerkships or other positions law students typically work during there 1L summer? Wouldn't want to be at a disadvantage from the get go.

It's hard to tell everyone has their own preferences. Of course great work experience will help, but most people going to LS don't have significant WE. Also the people interviewing you may have went straight through undergrad and did not have any WE before they started and understand. Basically grades + your school + ties to where you're applying (besides NYC) will be the most important things for any job hunt. But yeah, tons of people get judicial internships w/o a lot of work experience their 1L summer.

[lawsohard93]

Starting law school Fall 2016 and as the title suggests, I'm wondering if firms who interview 1Ls for SA positions would at all care about previous employment. I'm 1 year out of undergrad and have worked in 3 law firms of varying sizes and practices as an intern and file clerk. It's nothing fancy or impressive, just something I did in undergrad to figure out if the law firm environment really was for me. But I'm concerned as to whether having unimpressive work experience would hinder me from getting a potential SA offer (which I've heard is hard to get already) even if I'm successful in getting good grades my first semester. I know there's a variety of work a 1L could do in the summer outside of an SA at a firm and I'll definitely be looking at other options but it can't hurt to try!

If you're talking a 1L SA, at least the way it worked my school (via OCI and mass mail), I think your work experience may matter a little bit more than usual just because if you're smart you'll mass-mail on Dec 1 (before grades). Every firm will ask for your first semester grades (which is determinative to get a screener and/or a callback), but some may give you a screener before your grades and then request them or they will only ask for candidates grades with a pretty strong resume. This is esp. true if you have something really good like I-Banking, Computer Science, prestigious consulting, etc...

To be honest your work experience will most likely put you in the middle of the pack/average of your classmates. And yeah 1L SAs are a rat race tbh, I think every 1L falls into the same trap that they'll be the one to get a 1L SA and sometimes it doesn't work even with great grades, experience, interviewing, great school, and applying on Dec.1

TL;DR 1.Try to get the best grades possible 1L year. 2. Apply/mass mail 1L SA firms ON Dec. 3. Hope you get lucky. 4. Have a back up.

Makes sense. Would those factors play less of a deterministic role in other summer jobs then? Such as judicial clerkships or other positions law students typically work during there 1L summer? Wouldn't want to be at a disadvantage from the get go.

It's hard to tell everyone has their own preferences. Of course great work experience will help, but most people going to LS don't have significant WE. Also the people interviewing you may have went straight through undergrad and did not have any WE before they started and understand. Basically grades + your school + ties to where you're applying (besides NYC) will be the most important things for any job hunt. But yeah, tons of people get judicial internships w/o a lot of work experience their 1L summer.

Makes sense, I guess I shouldn't stress too much about things that I don't have control over and put my focus on grades for when I start school. I'm moving all the way across the country for law school so no ties to the area. But the firm I work for has a office in that city and I'll be asking to meet with some of the associates that went to the law school I'm going to be attending for advice/general questions about law school and how they went about getting jobs. It's quite an exciting/scary move at the same time. Thanks for all the advice!