Bummed out

[coquita]

I guess this can be flamed b/c it is basically me having a pity party for myself. But here goes. I am near the top 10% of my class at a T4 school and do not have a job yet. I am involved in moot court and the works. I just had a callback interview for a firm a week and a half ago. The interview with all three interviewers went very well. I just got a rejection letter from them, 1 day before Christmas. So I am bummed.

I know it could be worse,and there are certainly lawyers and law students in this economy that are hurting worse than I am, but seriously could they have waited until after Christmas? So yeah, I'm bummed. If anyone else is in the same boat, feel free to vent.

[UFBoldAsLove]

my sympathies.  i wish the economy looked the way it did when we all started law school.

Ditto. I just had 4 rejections in my email inbox this morning. Pretty much all of them saying they were no longer hiring 1Ls for next year. One said "I am no longer with XXX, but with the severe economic downturn, my guess is they aren't hiring." Ouch. 

[UFBoldAsLove]

um, wow. 

Yeah. But hey, at least its not personal. Of about 120 firms I applied to (I know, I'm crazy), only 1 rejection has seemed to be about ME. The vast majority have simply said they aren't hiring 1Ls anymore.

[Thistle]

um, wow. 

Yeah. But hey, at least its not personal. Of about 120 firms I applied to (I know, I'm crazy), only 1 rejection has seemed to be about ME. The vast majority have simply said they aren't hiring 1Ls anymore.

the op is a 3L...vast difference between not being able to find a 1L summer gig and being shut out as a 3L.....

[Miss P]

Although to be fair, if you can't find anything to do 1L summer you may as well kiss most 2L summer and post-grad options goodbye as well, no?

This may be true, but I've never heard of a student who couldn't find something to do 1L summer.  UF and others are talking about paid work.  All 1Ls should be able to find unpaid work, and most 1Ls do unpaid work, even in a good economy.

[Miss P]

I'm not having much luck finding unpaid work 

You'll find something; don't worry.  Public interest hiring stretches into March.  You may not get your top choice (fed gov't, large impact organization), but you'll definitely find something in legal services.  What interests you most?

[TTom]

I guess this can be flamed b/c it is basically me having a pity party for myself. But here goes. I am near the top 10% of my class at a T4 school and do not have a job yet. I am involved in moot court and the works. I just had a callback interview for a firm a week and a half ago. The interview with all three interviewers went very well. I just got a rejection letter from them, 1 day before Christmas. So I am bummed.

I know it could be worse,and there are certainly lawyers and law students in this economy that are hurting worse than I am, but seriously could they have waited until after Christmas? So yeah, I'm bummed. If anyone else is in the same boat, feel free to vent.

I feel for the OP. There seem to be several problems at issue. With some 200 ABA accredited law schools and bar exams that merely test for competence, there is almost no barrier to entry to the profession. Law schools are cash cows for universities, so schools refuse to be upfront about the realities of the job market. Each year more and more JDs get pumped out with nowhere to go. It would be easy to say that the OP should have done his/her research before attending a Tier 4 school, but the truth is that honest information about the legal market is hard to come by. Although I go to a higher ranked school than the OP, I would be a hypocrite if I faulted the OP for making the decision to  go to a Tier 4. I too was ill informed about the job market when I started school.

I just hope that this sort of information will become more available for potential law students. They need to know that attending lower tier schools may not be the best idea.

[Thistle]

lots of people will accept volunteer work though, no?

[,.,.,.;.,.,.]

Miss P will cheer you up, PJH!     Our OCS said that everyone should find something.  What about an RA position?  That's my contingency plan.

[Miss P]

So things are looking pretty grim.

See PM.  I think you're going to be fine!