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Graduating from college and trying to find a decent-paying job can be an irksome and harrowing experience. After years of schooling, many of us are out there hitting the streets, all trying to battle it out for the same jobs and positions. Finding a job is a tough business right now. It feels like we all need five years of professional experience and proficiency in fifteen different programs and databases just to get a foot in the door. I thought if I went back to school, I could buy myself some time and pad my resume a little bit with a nice JD. But life has come to slap me right across my stupid face, because now I’m stuck figuring out how to get an internship instead of a job.
I thought trying to find an actual paying job was hard, but that was nothing compared to the soul-sucking experience that is trying to get a legal internship. It’s pretty much imperative that I snag some sort of internship for the upcoming summer, and I’ll be honest, it’s not as easy as it looks. For some unknown reason, firms and corporations are less than willing to accept any old schmuck from the local law-schoolin’ institution to work for them for literally nothing. I might as well be walking up and down my neighborhood streets, pushing a lawn-mower, begging people to let me mow their lawns for free. But instead of being like, “Yeah, awesome, a mowed lawn for free sounds great!” these people are like, “Hmmm, I don’t know, we have a lot of people trying to mow our lawn for free, what kind of credentials you got?”
It’s one thing to go around applying for jobs you are incredibly underqualified for, and subsequently getting rejected. It is an entirely different animal to be offering yourself for free, and having someone say no. Most internships pay nothing. A few give interns free parking and a coupon for lunch down at Jason’s Deli. And even fewer are the big-firm internships that pay young rascals like me, $35k for 10 weeks worth of work.
My credentials on paper are pretty much astoundingly average. But put me in an interview, baby, and I’m gonna shine. I’ve got interpersonal skills coming out of the woodwork. Will I have the highest GPA out of the summer associates in your office? That’s probably a no. But I’ve got a killer handshake, and sometimes I write funny things on the internet.
I have literally spent hours crafting cover letter after cover letter, trying to convince big-wigs that they need me in their office. The Ivy League kids may have stellar GPA’s and clerking experience, but can they hold a decent conversation with the partners or make a champagne toast at a fundraising event? Doubt it. I’m a mover and a shaker, folks, and I’m ready to always be #closing. Now where’s the microphone? .
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If this will be your 1L summer, and you’re in a pinch, volunteer at a legal clinic through your law school. You’ll get practical experience (while actually helping people) and it’ll give you something to talk about when interviewing for 2L summer.
Just my $.02 from being in the same situation a couple years ago.
I would also add that for 1L summer, government jobs and other nonprofits (not through your school) are great options. If you can land a federal gig for a judge or USAO, that’s gold. Same with a state AG’s office. Also, nonprofits are always understaffed and overworked.
Added bonus: your work at most of those places will be far more substantive than a firm and you’ll probably learn usable skills.
I definitely second this advice. Between 1L and 2L years I ‘interned’ 3-4 days for a federal judge (no academic credit and no pay), and then 1-2 days a week to get at least some sort of paycheck for living expense. It was a good resume boost, you meet other judges and people in law school working for those judges, and usually it’s pretty low stress.
I think it really depends on where you’re located. While I start law school in Sept (god bless my soul, I know), I’m from Long Island so the two federal districts are the EDNY and SDNY, which are both highly sought after. I work for a government agency, and all the legal interns that work in my office were denied and probably barely even considered for the federal courts.
You should ask Dave for advice, that guy made Midland his bitch.
Partners don’t want to talk to you, you won’t be invited to that fundraising event. Biglaw associates are literally drones meant to generate billable hours, not ideas, not small-talk, not the hottest legal theory since Palsgraf. Forget speaking with clients and wowing them with your above average physique and great ability to not be awkward, the clients don’t even want you to exist because they hate paying for a summer or even a first year associate; so good luck with those hours. My .$.02, find a niche that has applicability outside of traditional law (see: tax, healthcare) and run like hell to an underpaid job where you have a chance at 40 hours a week, ever. Best of luck and good luck on those outlines, you’re gonna need ’em.
Apparently we pay $3500 a week for Summer Associates so holler if you want a job. Only deal is you have to buy me lunch and dinner everyday.
Fantastic use of the humble brag
*Currently hollering*
http://www.sidleycareers.com/en/north-america/summer-program
Oh hey, I went to an event in Houston at Sidley over Christmas break. The hors d’ oeuvres brought that heat, honestly
Our Christmas party was lit and the food was phenomenal so sign on up.
In my third year of grad school for clinical psychology and I feel your pain, girl. Just let me listen to your problems without a paycheck, that’s all I’m asking.
I’ve got problems. Sup?
Trying to find a legal internship can be an incredibly frustrating experience, especially if you don’t have any luck with OCI’s in the fall. As horribly cliche as it sounds, continue to reach out and leverage any legal contact you can, and an opportunity is bound to become available. Some people have luck making informational interviews. You might also focus on smaller firms that could really use the extra help, or look to do a judicial externship. On the bright side, at least you aren’t currently trying to secure full time employment with the bar looming in the near future when all you really want to do is mentally check out for 3L. Do you know what type of practice you want to go into?
I think corporate of some type. Definitely transactional over litigation. I’d rather deal with people’s assets directly rather than their personal lives.
That’s awesome. So for your first summer, it matters less what legal practice you intern at and more that you are immersed in the legal field in some fashion. Any summer legal experience gives you stuff to talk about in later interviews- everything from legal aid to a corporate legal department counts, so even if its not a type of practice you see yourself in long term, it still has some benefit. Also, corporate law has so many avenues you can explore. Find a subset (Tax, M&A, Employment, etc.) that you like/are good at, and look to secure a summer position between 2L/3L in that area. One other thing you could consider is looking inward to your law school’s professors- many professors that don’t teach 1L courses are overlooked and often need research assistants. This gives you a chance to really dive in to a section of law you find interesting, and you have the chance to build a strong connection with a professor that can be incredibly helpful down the road. Success in a niche can really help you stand out and gives you a leg up in a notoriously congested job market. Best of luck finding a job for the summer!
This is advice looking past 1L summer (I’d suggest begging literally any judge to let you clerk because that’s the best thing you can possibly do). But, I was corporate law all the way in law school and graduated recently. Took me a year to find a gig and required me to move from a big city in Texas I wanted to live to a not big city in west Texas. So be prepared to go anywhere if that’s what you have your heart set on. It was tough to leave where I wanted to be, but getting to do what I wanted was worth it. Enjoying what you do is more important than the city you’re in (everywhere has happy hour and you work 60+ hours a week anyway).
more important* damn edit button.
I’m a counseling student and this hit hard. It’s part of our curriculum to do hundreds of hours of counseling for free, so once you factor in tuition costs we’re basically paying the school $10/hr to listen to people’s problems. But I’m making a difference, and that’s what matters, right?
YES. Not only are we not getting paid, we’re PAYING to not get paid. Love. Our. Field.
Sup?
I will hire you, my child, since you asked so kindly.
Network. Network. Network.
At least you aren’t doing medicine, I’ll be unpaid/underpaid until I’m 30.
And then depending on your speciality, Walk into a 300k+ a year job
still takes time to build doesn’t it?
It’s all about the 10 year plan (or at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself to attempt to feel a little better every time I get notifications about my student loans).