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I haven't had internet at home for basically the entire semester. OHAI GUYZ

If anyone is interested, I would be happy to provide any answers I can about the St. Louis market. I hire for our small firm, have done so for more than a decade and we just finished our process and hired 1 summer associate. We typically hire 1 or 2 summer associates each year. I was also the hiring partner for a local big firm many years ago. Some of the posters have a pretty good handle on the situation in the market, but if there is something I can add, I will try. Also, I would be interested in general in what you see in applying for jobs in the St. Louis market. It is always helpful to us. We had over 150 resumes for 1 position and I am always interested in knowing what the students are looking for or their perspectives.

So, I'm interviewing with the City Counselor's Office and the County Counselor's Office next week. Does anyone have any insight into the offices? I think they'd both be good experiences. They both sound like they do similar work.

Edit: I should clarify, I'm talking about St. Louis.

Hey guys. So I've been hearing a lot of conflicting information on this topic and I was wondering what consensus was in the 2L class.

For people that have something this summer that they'd like to turn into a full time offer, what do you do about summer job fairs?
On the one hand, I feel (ITE) foolish to put all of my eggs in one basket and perhaps even arrogant to not cover my bases with other applications.
On the other hand, I've heard that you are basically shooting yourself in the foot by going to other job fairs. Current employers take it as a signal that you either don't want to work there are assume they are giving you an offer and are shopping around. Potential employers see it as a signal of disloyalty and cannot be sure that if you do get an offer from your current employer you wont just take it over theirs.

This might be a bigger problem with IP and diversity fairs since they all happen during the summer.
Resoundingly, what I've heard from students at other schools is that I should not to attend fairs and do interviews. Wait out the (no)offer. But man that just seems like a frightening thing to do.

Has anyone spoken with CSO about this? Anyone haver personal insight?
Preemptive apology for talking about job things because people always hate it, but it's a genuine question that I would think more people than just myself are wondering about.

~Happy finals~

Well, in addition to having to have an excuse for missing work, you are going to have answer the "What's wrong with your current firm" question at interviews at the fair.

Also fairs tend to be a bust for 3Ls anyway, just like 3LOLCI.

If you can get time off without them knowing about the fair or do it after the program, I'd try to go if you are worried.

Oban wrote:Well, in addition to having to have an excuse for missing work, you are going to have answer the "What's wrong with your current firm" question at interviews at the fair.

This is kinda what I'm thinking too. These fairs are during the week in the middle of the summer? If so, it would be awfully hard to do them without sending up red flags.

I think 3L OCI would be a better way to trade up. My understanding is that the main group that 3L OCI can be beneficial for is people who had SAs and want to trade.

Do you not think your current gig will lead to an offer, or is it that you just want to try to trade up? You'll need to come up with some answers to why you want to make a move.

romothesavior wrote:

Oban wrote:Well, in addition to having to have an excuse for missing work, you are going to have answer the "What's wrong with your current firm" question at interviews at the fair.

This is kinda what I'm thinking too. These fairs are during the week in the middle of the summer? If so, it would be awfully hard to do them without sending up red flags.

I think 3L OCI would be a better way to trade up. My understanding is that the main group that 3L OCI can be beneficial for is people who had SAs and want to trade.

Do you not think your current gig will lead to an offer, or is it that you just want to try to trade up? You'll need to come up with some answers to why you want to make a move.

PLIP is a different animal though, as are (I'd imagine) the regional patent fairs. For those, the calculus gets tougher if you have any reason to suspect that you might not get an offer. I'm going to sign up for all of them and just drop the interviews at the last possible second if it turns out that they were an unnecessary precaution. God knows I don't want any part of that process again unless I have to.

stratocophic wrote:

romothesavior wrote:

Oban wrote:Well, in addition to having to have an excuse for missing work, you are going to have answer the "What's wrong with your current firm" question at interviews at the fair.

This is kinda what I'm thinking too. These fairs are during the week in the middle of the summer? If so, it would be awfully hard to do them without sending up red flags.

I think 3L OCI would be a better way to trade up. My understanding is that the main group that 3L OCI can be beneficial for is people who had SAs and want to trade.

Do you not think your current gig will lead to an offer, or is it that you just want to try to trade up? You'll need to come up with some answers to why you want to make a move.

PLIP is a different animal though, as are (I'd imagine) the regional patent fairs. For those, the calculus gets tougher if you have any reason to suspect that you might not get an offer. I'm going to sign up for all of them and just drop the interviews at the last possible second if it turns out that they were an unnecessary precaution. God knows I don't want any part of that process again unless I have to.

PLIP is obviously the main one i'm thinking about. Its THE patent job fair in the country.

It's not a situation where I'm afraid it wont lead to an offer. I just never want to be in a situation where I look back and say "wish i had done more" ya know? Plus, I thought other people may have had the same question. I think i'm going to do the same as stratocophic and sign up for all of the fairs.. dropping interviews at the last second.

The internship goes until aug3. That's when PLIP is, and all the regional IP fairs are shortly thereafter.

Anyone doing a NY/DC externship in the spring? I'll be in NY this fall and was wondering if anyone wanted to sublet my place for the fall semester, or I sublet your place in the spring.