DOJ Honors Program 2024-25 Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just thought I would start this thread for anyone who is interested/has questions. It looks like they released the participating components today.

https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/h ... components

There’s 25(!) slots in the Antitrust Division. That’s way more than the year I participated.

[Anonymous User]

Really significant drop in EOIR spots, and pretty substantial cuts to Tax and USAOs. This feels like one of the largest reductions in recent years. I wonder why

[Anonymous User]

Really significant drop in EOIR spots, and pretty substantial cuts to Tax and USAOs. This feels like one of the largest reductions in recent years. I wonder why

I would wonder if the DOJ’s significant budget cut affected its hiring next year. I’d imagine a Trump administration might engineer a broader hiring freeze. Not sure why EOIR is seeing a big drop, considering the issues with the border/immigration.

[Anonymous User]

Really significant drop in EOIR spots, and pretty substantial cuts to Tax and USAOs. This feels like one of the largest reductions in recent years. I wonder why

My understanding is that USAOs have been facing budget cuts.

[Anonymous User]

Really significant drop in EOIR spots, and pretty substantial cuts to Tax and USAOs. This feels like one of the largest reductions in recent years. I wonder why

My understanding is that USAOs have been facing budget cuts.

The Congressional budget passed a few months ago + executive order bumping locality pay by 5.2% really hurt federal agencies, including the DOJ: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/budget/2 ... or-others/

[Anonymous User]

For the first time in forever, SDNY is not hiring through Honors anymore.

[Anonymous User]

For the first time in forever, SDNY is not hiring through Honors anymore.

Did they even interview anyone in the last cycle?

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know what parental leave policies are for DOJ participating components? Does it depend on the component?

Already coming off of clerking where this would not have been ok, and it's tough to keep sacrificing family planning for work. Wondering if I should just forgo this process entirely.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know what parental leave policies are for DOJ participating components? Does it depend on the component?

Already coming off of clerking where this would not have been ok, and it's tough to keep sacrificing family planning for work. Wondering if I should just forgo this process entirely.

DOJ parental leave is the same as for the rest of the federal government, which is described here: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversig ... tal-leave/

Key takeaways are that it’s keyed to FMLA, so you have to have worked for 12 months before you’re eligible. It’s 12 paid weeks, which must be taken in the 12 months following birth, but does not have to be taken all in one chunk. You do have to agree to work for 12 weeks following use of the leave.

You can combine it with your usual annual/sick leave, which accrues at 4 hrs/pay period for your first 3 years with the feds, then 6 hrs/pay period from years 3-15, then 8 hrs/pay period after that. (To be clear, that’s 4/6/8 hours for annual and the same for sick leave, they’re not combined.) You can also take FMLA (which is unpaid) and if worse came to worst, I think most agencies would approve some amount of unpaid leave if you exhausted absolutely everything else.

There’s also a leave bank where employees can donate leave to be used by employees who use up all their leave - this is DOJ-wide. I’m not sure if it’s an option for parental leave without some kind of medical component, though (so not just taking time off, but something like the birth parent recovering from medical complications or your infant has medical complications - a friend of mine used this when her child was born very very prematurely and was in NICU for weeks).

And in my experience, the culture is extremely supportive of people going out on leave as needed. The nice thing about being a cog in the great federal wheel is that mostly, there are people who can cover for you. Overall I think the federal leave system is pretty good, but your first year tends to be kind of tough as it takes a while to build up leave time. You can borrow from the leave you will accrue during the calendar year, but of course then you won’t have any leave until the next calendar year (so don’t be like a friend of mine who started in late November and had no leave time accrued/no leave time to borrow from and had to take unpaid leave over the holidays).

[Anonymous User]

when do people think we will hear back about finalist status? The timeline said “late September” but does anyone have more info?

[Anonymous User]

when do people think we will hear back about finalist status? The timeline said “late September” but does anyone have more info?

If you go back to previous years’ threads and see when people reported hearing back, that will give you a pretty good idea. It’s almost all done on a central timeline so everyone hears back about everything at pretty much the same time, and it tends to be on the same schedule year after year. My year (a few years ago now) I got notified on Sept. 26, and it will probably be somewhere around that ballpark.

Also, just to clarify: the next thing you’ll hear about is not whether you’re a finalist, but whether you’ve been chosen for an interview. Interviews are usually held 3-4 weeks after that.

After the interview, components designate their finalists - these are not necessarily people who will all get offers, but they are people for whom the components get authorization to make an offer to, so it includes back-ups. In practice, most components designate pretty much the same number of finalists as people they will make an offer to (with the exception usually of OCIJ, which designates more finalists than will get offers b/c of the logistics of hiring clerks for all the immigration courts). But all of them can designate more finalists than will get offers.

Offers generally go out around the 3rd week of November (OCIJ offers can trickle out for a couple of months, because people get offers for specific locations, many of which are shall we say remote, and so more people turn them down for other options and they will then go back to the pool of applicants).

If you follow the community option in the online-application system, Deana Willis regularly updates about the different stages in the process.

[Anonymous User]

I’ll say it’s my experience that there are more “finalist” designations than number of offers. Typically, in my branch and at least two others I know of in this division, a “finalist” designation means a) you’re getting an offer OR b) you’re an alternate if someone says no.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard back on interviews yet?

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard on being selected for an interview?

[Copy_Pastas]

Has anyone heard on being selected for an interview?

Not me!

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard on being selected for an interview?

Antitrust interviews went out today, not sure if others did

[Anonymous User]

I believe all interview selections went out today so if you've been selected, you'll see the component name(s) that selected you when you log into Avue

[Anonymous User]

Reading the Avue Community posts, it sounds like finalist designations may be made this Friday. Has anyone heard from their references that they've already been contacted?

[Anonymous User]

Do references checks mean anything? One of my references let me know that two of the components I interviewed with reached out to her…is that a good sign or do they reference check basically everyone who does an interview?

[Anonymous User]

Do references checks mean anything? One of my references let me know that two of the components I interviewed with reached out to her…is that a good sign or do they reference check basically everyone who does an interview?

IME that’s a good sign. The components that checked my references ended up giving me an offer. YMMV, but there’s my anecdote.

[Anonymous User]

I imagine it varies per component. The component I interviewed for contacted my references before the interview period even began, so in my case I assume it doesn't mean anything significant.

Do references checks mean anything? One of my references let me know that two of the components I interviewed with reached out to her…is that a good sign or do they reference check basically everyone who does an interview?

[Anonymous User]

Do we have any reason to believe that components may change the number of offers they make based on the election results?

[Anonymous User]

Can more than one component give you an offer? Do they talk to each other to try and give only one offer per candidate?

[Anonymous User]

Do references checks mean anything? One of my references let me know that two of the components I interviewed with reached out to her…is that a good sign or do they reference check basically everyone who does an interview?

I think it’s a good sign, I’m pretty sure they interview —> rule people out —> reference check the rest. Doesn’t guarantee an offer but I think it means passing another hurdle.

Can more than one component give you an offer? Do they talk to each other to try and give only one offer per candidate?

I’ve heard mixed things on this but it may depend on the components involved or perhaps policy changed at some point. I have seen a couple of people say they had more than one offer, although the vast majority seem only to get one.

[Anonymous User]

Can more than one component give you an offer? Do they talk to each other to try and give only one offer per candidate?

I received offers from different components.