FBI, CIA, State and other 'BigGov' 2L Gigs

[NeverTrustKlingons]

Does anyone know if these are restricted to the elite law school kids or more flexible re: school name?  As competitive as BigLaw (I'm guessing they about are)?

[CoxlessPair]

Flexible regarding school prestige? Yes.
Flexible regarding incredibly nerdy LSD monikers? No.

[jacy85]

Knowing someone who worked for the USAO in DC (which isn't quite FBI or CIA, but I'd still call it "BigGov" as you put it), I'd say the answers are 1) probably yes (but just guessing here, really), and 2) Yes.

[NeverTrustKlingons]

Yeah I know USAO is about as competitive as it gets -- Alito came up through that and I'd bet most of his buddies are HLS/Yale/etc.

[Veil]

1) somewhat more flexible re: school name
2) more competitive than BigLaw in a number of ways.

Have 2 friends at NYU/Col, both top third, both interviewed CIA/State Dept for summer positions and both got squat. Both have good international experience/backgrounds.

Of course, they had no trouble landing V20 associateships...but who's surprised.

[UGAfootballfanatic]

I have friends at a lower T1 working at the IRS, SEC, and USAO. They all had good but not great grades.

[vap]

For volunteer summer work, definitely more flexible about school name and less competitive than biglaw.

For permanent employment, less flexible about school name, and some are more competitive than biglaw.  If you don't have a national school name, they will want great grades, journal, moot court, and/or judicial clerkship.

SLIP (paid) summer work will probably fall somewhere in between those extremes.

Don't confuse permanent hire with summer work.  Summer work does not often lead to permanent hire like it does with firms.  Sometimes SLIPs will be asked to return, but usually volunteers will not.  Of course, this might depend on division/agency.  However, across the board permanent hire will be much more difficult to get than summer work.  USAO in DC, for example, has up to 100 interns every summer. 
(My basis for the above is just based on my experience with one office).

[NeverTrustKlingons]

Well damn.  Another reason why the 'big schools are only important for BigLaw' idea is wrong. 

[UGAfootballfanatic]

The students I was referring to are in the paid summer Honors programs for each office, which may lead to permanent employment. To the oP: what kind of lower-ranked school are we talking about?