Anyone still looking for summer jobs?

[ApproachTheBench]

Hey guys, I hope this isn't considered spam...  My company has recently up an internet service that saves students a lot of time in the job search process and can really increase your chances of getting hired. We're trying to get the word out quickly without being obnoxious, so sorry if this post kinda reads like an ad. 

Basically it allows you to search through 1500 firm offices (only 800 or 900 if you are a 1L, as some offices don't hire 1Ls.) You uncheck whichever firms you don't want to apply to, click send and your resume and a customized cover letter is sent off to all the firms that remained selected.

The link is http://www.approachthebench.com

If you were planning on using some kind of mail merge, this will save you a lot of time over the mail merge process- I spent a couple days my 1L year printing out letters and licking envelopes, it was just too time-consuming.

With this service you just have to send in your resume and cover letter, spend 20 minutes to an hour going through firms, click the Send button and you're done! It saved me a lot of time last year (I wrote a scaled down version for myself just to see if it would work) and I got great results. Also, the e-mails look like they come from your e-mail address (the customized cover letter text is the e-mail body and the resume is an attachment)- the firms don't know you're using us.

This is a great tool to save you guys time and get your resume out there. If you've had a hard time getting an in with a firm (and this is very common, especially among 1Ls), use AtB to send your resume out to 500 or 600 firms. Even if you only have a 5% response rate (that's a very low estimate) that's 25 callbacks- more than most people can handle.

I wrote a more detailed guide to getting a job on the site, so check it out if you're interested. Any suggestions and comments are also very welcome. We're thinking about setting up a student rep program for next year, so leave a message on here or e-mail us. You can catch me on AIM at ATBSupport.

[zemog]

Regardless if this is SPAM or not, or whether one has a job lined up or not this summer, where's the freaking link 

[ApproachTheBench]

Regardless if this is SPAM or not, or whether one has a job lined up or not this summer, where's the freaking link 

I'm so sorry!  Duh!

http://www.approachthebench.com

I'll go edit the original post. 

[racheles05]

I signed up for this service today and it works great. I'm willing to vouch for it; you can come to FSU and kill me if it doesn't work. Ted has been online all night when bugs come up, too, but I think most of the bugs are resolved now. FSU doesn't pay for the NALP mail merges, which are $20 for 50 firms, so this was definitely cheaper than doing that.

[ApproachTheBench]

I signed up for this service today and it works great. I'm willing to vouch for it; you can come to FSU and kill me if it doesn't work. Ted has been online all night when bugs come up, too, but I think most of the bugs are resolved now. FSU doesn't pay for the NALP mail merges, which are $20 for 50 firms, so this was definitely cheaper than doing that.

Yeah I think that's something I should have pointed out- that $30 / year and 1 hour of time for this is a lot cheaper than $50 for stationery, $40 for 100 firms from NALP, $37 for 100 stamps, and 7 or 8 hours of time.

[racheles05]

Ted, who founded this company, is a friend of mine, so I want to get that out of the way so I don't sound disingenuous. I don't have anything to do with his company, though; I just wanted to try his software out because I hate doing mail merges. Anyway, I've been getting responses (rejections) to the resumes I sent out with Approach the Bench. That means that the software works and employers received what I sent out. A few of the emails bounced, but I sent the email addresses to Ted and he said he fixed it. It's a lot better, for me at least, to get the rejections via email because they come in so quickly. It's like ripping a bandaid off.

It's a new website, so there were some bugs, but it's working great now. I use Firefox, so there was a glitch with uploading my resume using that browser, but Ted fixed that. If you're using a browser other than Explorer or Firefox, I recommend IM'ing Ted about it first so you don't get frustrated in case there's a problem.

The only downside is that so far Ted's program is only for private firms, and I'm interested in public interest. It would pretty much kick ass if I could use it for public interest, but I guess most people want to get paid for the summer anyway.

Oh, and I did get an invitation to a reception at a law firm in response to a resume I sent out via Approach the Bench, so I guess that's better than a rejection.

I'm pretty fair-minded, so if I discover any horrible flaws, I'll post them here, too.

[Trancer]

seriously though, we are in law school... its sad that you think we believe you guys are independent parties.

[racheles05]

I don't know what you're trying to imply. I said I'm Ted's friend, but I don't have anything to do with his company. He lives in Virginia; I go to law school at FSU. I've been on this message board for a while now, so I'm not some fake person who is posting just to help him sell his software, if that's what you're implying. I figured it would be helpful to both people who are trying to figure out what law related thing to blow money on next and to Ted if I posted my experience with his software. I mean, I mentioned all the bugs and the benefits and I think I was pretty objective considering I'm friends with the author of the software. I don't know what else you want from me. I would rather read about people's experience with a product, any product, before I blow $30 on it. 

If you're going to imply something disingenuous, you should be more specific. I thought I was being helpful. 

[Villus]

I thought I was being helpful. Oh well.

[racheles05]

I thought I was being helpful. Oh well.

Huh?