On law firm interviewing -- relax, if you can

2L Serious Law Student is fretting about the upcoming on-campus interviews:

Everyone keeps saying to relax, just be yourself, and I hear stories from others about the cheerful conversations they have shared with interviewers. But I don't think I'm ever going to be one to be able to shoot the breeze for twenty minutes with a demographical category of persons who for me have always signified authority figures.

The advice about being yourself is pretty good if you're confident that you will do reasonably well on the market. And herein lies an important point: getting one really good offer may be better than getting two or more good offers. It cuts down on decision regret (wondering if you made the right choice), or the temptation to split summers. More importantly, you are less likely to be miserable at a place that you fit in at.

If you aren't the type of person who likes to shoot the breeze for 20 minutes, and Firm A is made up of people who like to do that, maybe -- all things being equal -- you'd prefer to work at Firm B. To non-lawyers, law firms probably all look more or less the same. But to lawyers, you'd be surprised at the range of differences.

After I finished my clerkships, I was a free agent and I interviewed with a number of Los Angeles firms ranging from appellate boutiques to branch offices of large firms to large indigineous firms to small litigation boutiques. Two of the firms were quite similar in terms of the academic profile of associates they hired, staffing of cases, prestige, etc. Yet, my reaction to them was quite different. (Let me stress: this is completely my own subjective impression, and I know of a number of people who interviewed with the same two firms and had the opposite reaction from me. So by no means do I offer this as anything other than my own experience, and it's not meant to influence anyone who can figure out who the two firms are.) The interview with the firm that I went to was quite fun, because many of the people there had the same kinds of nerdy interests that I did, and as one of the interviewing associates later told me when I started working there that it just seemed like I was bound to get an offer.

I ended up withdrawing my application from the other firm. Maybe I would have been rejected, and if so, perhaps I could have interviewed differently. But it's hard to see what I would have gained by doing so.

Now, I happened to hit the market at about the best time possible -- late 1998, when law firms were scrambling to hire. So I realize that it's easy for me to say, relax, be yourself, because I was lucky enough to have options. The job market today is tougher, and if you are afraid that you'll only get one or two callbacks, it's much harder to feel free to be yourself at the screening interview. That's certainly an understandable feeling, and I don't have any magic advice. But just keep in mind that not getting a callback from every single firm you screen with is not failure in any sense.

PS. On the subject of 20 minute interviews, I met co-blogger Kevin Heller during one of my callbacks (though I think it may have been a 30 minute interview). So even a 30 minute interview can turn out to lead to a good friendship and professional relationship, even if you don't end up at that firm.

Comments

[Dylan]

I have my hands over my ears shouting: "LALALALALALALALALALALAAAAAA..."

[Kevin Jon Heller]

Tung's instincts were right on that one, by the way. I ended up hating the law firm (which will remain nameless) where where we met and left not long thereafter to pursue screenwriting. Frankly, my friendship with Tung was by far the best thing that came out of that job. Even if his %$&#@* reasonableness always makes me seem more partisan than I really am...

[Tung Yin]

Even if his %$&#@* reasonableness always makes me seem more partisan than I really am...

Score one for the moderates!

[jobless]

what if you don't get an offer after your 2L year? what should you say? I'm positive it didn't have anything to do with my work product. I just didn't like the uptight nature and completely undiverse and conservative atmosphere. during my call back, they made it seem like it was very laid back and liberal. NOPE. and then I got screwed and no offer b/c they said they overhired.

Now that the market sucks, what can you say when you have finally landed an interview after a year of nothing?? any tips?? I hope you see this comment even though this post was a year ago...