SAUSA Forum

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Anonymous User
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SAUSA

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:36 am

Is it worth applying to be an uncompensated SAUSA, and what are the chances that after one year you get promoted to full time AUSA?

Anonymous User
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Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: SAUSA

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Jul 15, 2022 11:10 am

Whether it’s worth it probably depends a lot on your financial situation.

From what I’ve seen, SAUSAs get basically the same experience as any other AUSA with a similar level of experience, so it’s worth it in that respect (maybe you’re less likely to get put on complex long term investigations if you have a shelf life of a year, but that’s not absolute either, depending on your background and interests and how the specific office handles cases).

I think it’s extremely uncommon for uncompensated SAUSAs to get hired by the districts in which they SAUSAed (some districts even have a policy that they just won’t hire their uncompensated SAUSAs) but I do know a number of people who went from the uncompensated position to a regular AUSA job in another district. So I don’t think it’s at all likely that you’d be promoted to paid AUSA after one year, but it can give you relevant experience and a step up in applying to other openings. IME people who already have experience doing AUSA work definitely have an advantage in hiring in other districts (not a guarantee of anything but it definitely helps, though for instance SDNY probably isn’t going to change their hiring criteria because you did a 1 year gig in like the district of Idaho). I also think you can often continue in the position after a year, although of course the money thing will get really old (the advantage is just that you can probably continue until you have something else lined up rather than having to leave at a year exactly).

From what I can tell from the people I know who did this, the experience can vary by office, but the person I know who was most unhappy with the experience was in an office that I think has a lot of turnover and where a lot of people are unhappy in general, so probably not really specific to the SAUSA gig (although perhaps particularly galling when you’re not getting paid).

Anonymous User
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Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: SAUSA

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Jul 15, 2022 12:01 pm

It depends. If you can afford it by living with parents/spouse and not contributing, then maybe. In terms of moving to a paid position, I haven't heard of anyone who moved from SAUSA to AUSA in the same district. Granted, I don't know many SAUSAs to begin with, but from what I understand it isn't common.

There's broadly a lot of turnover in USAOs to begin with, but it does vary from office to office. The more "desirable" locations like DC, SDNY, EDNY, and CDCA tend to burn a lot of people out. Whereas offices in like Idaho, Wyoming, or Kentucky seem to have more lifers.

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