Timeline to lateral from DOJ honors to nonprofit? Forum

(Deciding to leave, same firm different office, Reference requests)
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Timeline to lateral from DOJ honors to nonprofit?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:37 am

I’m about a year into a job as an honors attorney at DOJ. I like my job and my colleagues, and I think my office does great work, but I am eager to move into the nonprofit world so that I can focus on issues I am personally more passionate about. My section did not ask me to commit to any particular period of time, but I have no desire to leave too early and leave the section feeling that it wasted its time or resources hiring and training me. How long should I stay in my current role if I want to leave on good terms and minimize awkwardness or bitterness? Is it frowned upon to leave after only one year? What about 18 months or 2 years? Are there some explanations for leaving that are better received than others?

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Re: Timeline to lateral from DOJ honors to nonprofit?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:36 pm

If your goal is to not make anyone mad, then stay 2 years. Bare minimum is a year. Anything less than a year could raise eyebrows for people looking at your resume. Like, the nonprofit employer you're applying to might think, "this person has a history of wanting to leave jobs after less than year. Will this person leave *this workplace* after less than a year too?"

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Re: Timeline to lateral from DOJ honors to nonprofit?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:45 pm

Thank you! I’m also totally unclear on how much notice people are expected to give before leaving, if anyone happens to have thoughts on that

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Re: Timeline to lateral from DOJ honors to nonprofit?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Sep 28, 2022 1:45 am

The short answer is, it will be fine and you don't need to worry so much.

The longer answer is: IME, government work is mission-driven enough that generally people are supportive of you following a mission to something like the non-profit world. While I don't think people would shun you if you were, say, going to a big firm for the money (especially if you're in a practice area where people do that more often), there'd probably be more potential for - not really disapproval, but perhaps disappointment at your level of commitment. That wouldn't be a reason not to make such a move, if it were the right move for you, but I think you'd avoid a lot of that in going to a non-profit. (Of course, if the non-profit is dedicated to a mission directly antithetical to the work you do now - like you work for OIL and want to go work on immigration reform for the ACLU and sue the government about immigration stuff - you probably will encounter some people who take that personally, even though I don't think they should, but if that's the case you're not going to be happy working there anyway).

I also think there's a recognition that while the honors program is designed to create government lifers, honors attorneys don't really have any practice experience so may not yet be adept at figuring out which job is really the best for them. So I think to some extent you'd get more understanding of changing jobs than if you lateraled in with a bunch of experience where you should be able to evaluate if the job is really for you before taking it.

Also consider: Do people in your component have a history of working in the kind of non profit work that you want to do? Do people leave and come back? Have previous honors attorneys stuck around forever or did they go off to other things? My experience has been that DOJ attorneys are generally kind of broad-minded about this stuff, but if you are in an office of people who have only ever worked for the government and have never considered going anywhere else, that could color how they react.

More practically: I don't think there's anything magic about 2 years' experience in terms of burning bridges. If you can get a job you want more at this point, then take that job when you get it. I also don't think that working for only one year at your first full-time job out of law school is a problem. No one is going to assume that a one-year stint is a bad sign that you will job hop; it's having numerous jobs you leave quickly that's a problem.

The issue is more likely to be getting a job, not because you look like a flight risk, but based on whether you have enough experience to be a desirable candidate, and when and where jobs open up. Not saying I think you'll have a hard time getting another job, but just that the timing isn't necessarily predictable, so your concerns about leaving too early might be mitigated by the amount of time it takes to get a new job.

In terms of notice, I don't think there's any hard/fast expectation. It will depend in part on when your new job wants you to start, and I would imagine you would need to address conflicts. While it's always good to be able to wrap up as much of your current workload before you leave as possible, you should be able to negotiate something that works for all parties. The generic professional job norm is two weeks; I think if you can give more, it's appreciated, and there's no downside - the government isn't going to fire you as soon as you give notice, they just don't do that.

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Re: Timeline to lateral from DOJ honors to nonprofit?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Sep 28, 2022 12:25 pm

Thanks, these responses are very helpful! In case it is relevant, I have never actively sought job openings elsewhere, nor do I plan to before I have worked at DOJ for ~2 years, but I happened to be contacted by a group doing a project I am really excited about. I explained to them that I am reluctant to leave my current job prematurely but said I would think about it, and so I am specifically trying to decide if I should pursue that opportunity.

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