Complete Failure

[Dip827]

So i graduated this past may and have basically been rejected by everyone, is it time to move onto home depot???

[OldCraig]

I'd say it's time to go....

[Changed Name]

I wouldn't give up.  You'll land something eventually.  Maybe you need to change up the way you're searching?

If you don't mind me asking, what caliber school did you graduate you from and what was your ranking within that school?  Just sort of curious to see how this is affecting law students across the board.

Good luck, dude.

[TimMitchell]

Where did you go to school?

[raider1218]

Have you been rejected by everyone?  Random midwest D.A. or public defender offices, every gov't gig you can find...?

I love how people act like the DA and PD's office will hire anyone with a JD and a pulse. 

[jacy85]

Do you have your bar results yet?  Because many of us don't, and at this point, employers won't take on someone until they've passed the bar.

[goaliechica]

I love how people act like the DA and PD's office will hire anyone with a JD and a pulse.

Sorry to crush your notions of superselective average DA/PD offices but it is, without a doubt, easier to land small town PD and DA jobs than biglaw, and it gets easier to land DA/PD job the less desirable the geographic area is.  It matters whether the guy has artifically narrowed his search and is only applying to firms in NYC...

Do you have stats on that? Or is it just anecdotal? I'm not being confrontational - I'm honestly just curious. I know your comment was limited to "random midwest" DA/PD jobs, but I kind of have the impression that it's hard to get jobs in less urban areas if you have no compelling reason for explaining why you want to be there. It has also been my impression that DA/PD jobs actually want to see you express some interest/have some experience on your resume, while firms don't really care, but that's coming from a super-selective area of the world, so it may not apply to smaller towns and non-coastal areas.

[goaliechica]

Do you really need stats that an A.D.A. gig is easier to land than biglaw??? 

From my anecdotal experience, in every town I've lived in the D.A. and public defender offices tend to be populated by people who went to fourth tier law schools or graduated bottom of the class from University of Insert State Here. Also, biglaw tends to hire in fall of 2L year and you get your offer in fall of 3L year, so people who are left in the job applicant pool post-graduation tend to be people who didn't get biglaw or midlaw or small law with SA programs.

The only hitch is that you usually need to be admitted to the bar in the state you're applying.  It is hard to get FIRM jobs in less urban areas if you have no compelling reason for explaining why you want to be there, primarily because of the summer associate process because nobody wants to waste $30k on a kid who is going to leave.  (Also, because firms generally over-pay you for the first few years and then expect a return later.) The government is usually cool with the fact that your compelling reason to be there is to get a job.  Also, I'm sure there's some cronyism going on in lots of small towns for those kinds of gigs.

If you want to serve people, that's great. If you want to work in government, that's great. If crimlaw is your thing, that's great.  But highly selective?  With the notable exceptions of a few major urban areas, not really. 

::shrug::

My only experience is in a major urban area, and, anecdotally, those jobs, in this region, seem to be harder to get than BigLaw gigs, in some respects (as in, they might not care as much about grades, but they definitely care about whether or not you can convince them that your interest is genuine). I'm sure you're right as a general rule, though.

[archival]

::shrug::

My only experience is in a major urban area, and, anecdotally, those jobs, in this region, seem to be harder to get than BigLaw gigs, in some respects (as in, they might not care as much about grades, but they definitely care about whether or not you can convince them that your interest is genuine). I'm sure you're right as a general rule, though.

My region, too.  Maybe most large urban regions?  This quote from YBR's source sort of supports that: "There are tens of thousands of prosecutor and public defender jobs. Certainly, some are more difficult to get than others, but for the determined job seeker, an expansive search will very likely find success."

Plus, Everybody Knows that my local-unit defender/prosecuter gigs are really only available if you know somebody who knows somebody.  Which just supports Matthies's mantra: networking is critical.

[Matthies]

Its basically the same here. The only way to get into the PDs office is to intern there for at least two semesters, unpaid. DA is even more selective. I know t14 grads doing both. Nirether the PD nor the DA do OCI here you have to approach them about an internship they don’t go looking, so its definitely easier (less work on the students side) to get big law in Denver than it is to get in with the PD/DA. Is this the same everywhere? Hell I don’t know I don’t check resumes of every cities PD/DAs to make sure they went to t4 or state schools.