1L Summer Job Search C/O 2017 Forum

[03152016]

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[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any experience applying to 1L diversity fellowships? Most of them require a personal statement and I'm wondering if I should approach them the same way I did law school PS or if there is a different approach that needs to be taken.

[Manteca]

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[SLS_AMG]

The early bird doesn't get the worm when you aren't even allowed to apply until December 1. Waste time worrying about 1L summer at your own risk. You'll be a hell of a lot more worried about 2L summer when your grades suffer as a result.

[sesto elemento]

[Kimikho]

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[Anonymous User]

Can't tell you how many people I know had "substantive" 1L gigs at firms, AUSA, fed gov etc. got laughed out of rooms at OCI because of their grades. probably damn near the best possible 1L gig you can have was landed by someone at my school who then struck out at OCI. Can't elaborate or will be outed. Absolutely nothing you do 1L summer will translate into what you will be doing as an associate at a BigLaw firm. BigLaw firms know that, CSO knows that , 2Ls and 3Ls know that. 1Ls still get their panties in a bunch over 1L jobs for god know what reason.

Someone above said it's all about EXPERIENCE + GRADES. Maybe for every other job in the world besides the 2L SA. Two of the people going to Cravath from my school were research assistants. BigLaw firms know that's a bullshit job, no matter how much you tell them you improved your research and writing skills. Doesn't matter though because Grades.

[sl5uw13]

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[Anonymous User]

Can't tell you how many people I know had "substantive" 1L gigs at firms, AUSA, fed gov etc. got laughed out of rooms at OCI because of their grades. probably damn near the best possible 1L gig you can have was landed by someone at my school who then struck out at OCI. Can't elaborate or will be outed. Absolutely nothing you do 1L summer will translate into what you will be doing as an associate at a BigLaw firm. BigLaw firms know that, CSO knows that , 2Ls and 3Ls know that. 1Ls still get their panties in a bunch over 1L jobs for god know what reason.

Someone above said it's all about EXPERIENCE + GRADES. Maybe for every other job in the world besides the 2L SA. Two of the people going to Cravath from my school were research assistants. BigLaw firms know that's a bullshit job, no matter how much you tell them you improved your research and writing skills. Doesn't matter though because Grades.

This. Given my experience and the experiences of my classmates, TITCR.

Your 1L grades could literally make or break your legal career before it even begins. As long as you do ANYTHING legal 1L summer, you'll be fine if your grades are on point. It won't matter for shit if you are the right hand of God your 1L summer if your grades aren't spectacular. Forget about 1L summer, laser focus on grades!

[MCFC]

Sure. Grades are wayyyyyy more important. But it's mid October. There's really nothing wrong with spending a few days getting cover letters ready to go.

[Jay2716]

You should be spending more time networking and developing connections for the 2L job hunt than working on the 1L job. Plenty of people get 1L jobs in April. April is too late to start networking.

Unless you're in Texas, in which case I think the 1L job hunt actually matters.

[JustHawkin]

OP updated with some useful info via sesto and a banner courtesy of smccgrey!

[runinthefront]

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[A. Nony Mouse]

Can't tell you how many people I know had "substantive" 1L gigs at firms, AUSA, fed gov etc. got laughed out of rooms at OCI because of their grades. probably damn near the best possible 1L gig you can have was landed by someone at my school who then struck out at OCI. Can't elaborate or will be outed. Absolutely nothing you do 1L summer will translate into what you will be doing as an associate at a BigLaw firm. BigLaw firms know that, CSO knows that , 2Ls and 3Ls know that. 1Ls still get their panties in a bunch over 1L jobs for god know what reason.

Someone above said it's all about EXPERIENCE + GRADES. Maybe for every other job in the world besides the 2L SA. Two of the people going to Cravath from my school were research assistants. BigLaw firms know that's a bullshit job, no matter how much you tell them you improved your research and writing skills. Doesn't matter though because Grades.

This is likely true, but keep in mind there are a few people who go to law school to work somewhere other than biglaw.

[BlueLotus]

Can't tell you how many people I know had "substantive" 1L gigs at firms, AUSA, fed gov etc. got laughed out of rooms at OCI because of their grades. probably damn near the best possible 1L gig you can have was landed by someone at my school who then struck out at OCI. Can't elaborate or will be outed. Absolutely nothing you do 1L summer will translate into what you will be doing as an associate at a BigLaw firm. BigLaw firms know that, CSO knows that , 2Ls and 3Ls know that. 1Ls still get their panties in a bunch over 1L jobs for god know what reason.

Someone above said it's all about EXPERIENCE + GRADES. Maybe for every other job in the world besides the 2L SA. Two of the people going to Cravath from my school were research assistants. BigLaw firms know that's a bullshit job, no matter how much you tell them you improved your research and writing skills. Doesn't matter though because Grades.

This is likely true, but keep in mind there are a few people who go to law school to work somewhere other than biglaw.

If you're a 1L aiming for PI, you should chill out on the jerbs front because hiring for summer internships doesn't really kick off for these sorts of positions until next spring. Focus on finals.

[mi-chan17]

Given how early it is, I would prioritize grades first, like many have suggested. The only thing I would recommend, at this point, in preparing for summer jobs is thinking very seriously about where you want to end up. I say this only because certain career paths, though admittedly not many, can be foreclosed by what you do 1L summer.

So, basically what I'm saying is, take this time to rock your grades and figure out if you want to do true-believer type PI. If you do, then use winter break to prepare a resume/cover letter/etc. that sells that.

If you don't want TBPI, then pretty much any legal job will do. So focus on grades, and worry about jobs later in the year.

[NYCFAN1]

Can't tell you how many people I know had "substantive" 1L gigs at firms, AUSA, fed gov etc. got laughed out of rooms at OCI because of their grades. probably damn near the best possible 1L gig you can have was landed by someone at my school who then struck out at OCI. Can't elaborate or will be outed. Absolutely nothing you do 1L summer will translate into what you will be doing as an associate at a BigLaw firm. BigLaw firms know that, CSO knows that , 2Ls and 3Ls know that. 1Ls still get their panties in a bunch over 1L jobs for god know what reason.

Someone above said it's all about EXPERIENCE + GRADES. Maybe for every other job in the world besides the 2L SA. Two of the people going to Cravath from my school were research assistants. BigLaw firms know that's a bullshit job, no matter how much you tell them you improved your research and writing skills. Doesn't matter though because Grades.

to make 20-30k over the summer...

[chuckbass]

Nice OP

I'm going to spend the day of 12/1 applying to firms for diversity positions.

It's not much work now making a list of firms to apply to and looking at their requirements, and it's good to start now though if you're doing the same because most of the ones I've seen so far require some sort of personal statement and some also request references/LORs. It'll only take a day, and it'll be a good break from studying considering you can't study every waking moment.

[sublime]

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[20141023]

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[BigZuck]

even if you can't get stellar grades, you can still land a 1L SA

Uh, not sure I completely agree with this point Reggie, at least as it relates to most mere mortals

Anyway, this is something I think you might be overstating a bit:

Researching and applying to firms during your first semester should be easy given the fact there is fall break, Thanksgiving break, and many other opportunities to do this stuff - applying to 1L SAs and studying for class are not even close to mutually exclusive activities.

From what I understand, despite their ever-pervasive love of RIGOR, doesn't Chicago kind of go easy on 1Ls in the fall? Correct me if I'm wrong on that, that's just the sense I have got from reading TLS. I know for UT bros (which is probably a school where students should be mass blasting on December 1st given that Texas is the land of milk and 1L SAs), fall of 1L is kind of a bastard. There is no fall break, Thanksgiving is just Thursday-Friday (and probably classes cancelled on Wednesday, but sometimes professors make those up during "deadweek" or at least mine did), the graded LRW memo is due like December 5th or something, and then finals start like the 10th with only 3 days of "deadweek" before that.

I 100% agree with you that it's doable to mass blast December 1st and juggle all that and not get bad grades (I did) but I think the point a lot of other people are making ITT is well taken. Be careful and don't let the job search impact your grades. I think you might be underestimating the degree to which that could be possible (maybe depending on one's school?). I know that personally I could churn out firm apps at a good rate now because I am well-seasoned. But last year? I was still trying to figure out how to be a law student and navigate classes, let alone figure out the differences between firms and come up with a bunch of decent tailored cover letters. It was a lot to juggle and I'm pretty good with time management but I wouldn't call it easy. In fact, that was the only part of 1L that I found to be a bit overwhelming. Doable, certainly, but I think cautioning people to be cognizant of their time/priorities is TCR.

Anyway I pretty much agree with what you said and I'm probably annoyingly picking at that part based on my own experience, I just know a few UT students have posted ITT and I think they (and maybe people at other schools?) should just try to take a look at the end of their semester and figure out how they're going to get all this stuff done.

[sublime]

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[20141023]

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[A. Nony Mouse]

I get the above, but isn't it still the case that most people aren't going to do a 1L SA? I'm not saying people shouldn't try for one, but they're still fairly rare, numbers-wise, and people shouldn't feel like they're doomed at OCI without one. (Not that you said they were doomed, Regulus, but I think saying OCI is "much more difficult" without a 1L SA is a little anxiety-inducing when doing OCI w/o the 1L SA is much more common.)

[BankruptMe]

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