Law Students

Update

Posted on January 03, 2010
Hi there!  As you can imagine, I have been really busy with getting used to my new job, unpacking and the Holiday season.I really like my new city, and am figuring out where things are.  I am not really used to having such reduced variety for shopping...

Found an apartment

Posted on November 25, 2009
The past few days have been spent apartment hunting in smallish town in the middle of nowhere.  After several Google Maps sessions, I have definitely determined that my new town is at least 1.5 hours from everywhere.  And by everywhere, I mean all the places where I have friends, or that have really cool stuff going on...

Update on my "getting pushy" post

Posted on November 20, 2009
As you might remember, I emailed a potential employer (who I had interviewed with before) a couple weeks ago.  The idea was that I wanted to find out if I had a chance to work at that org, in a town that's much closer to friends and family, before I took the job in the middle of nowhere...

Sorry for my absence

Posted on November 19, 2009
I know I haven't posted in a while, but I have been pretty busy.  Lately, I have been "Twittering Professionally" which means I post tweets about news in my field, and of things that are interesting to me as a lawyer.  So, Twitter is taking up a lot of time...

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I got a job offer!

Posted on November 06, 2009
So, I guess my email was not necessary.  Got home today and there was a job offer in the mail.  I haven't accepted yet, so all I will say is that it is a legal services organization in a non-major city.  The position itself is absolutely ideal...

Risky Business

Posted on November 05, 2009
So, I have finally done something that I had avoided in my job search so far - I got pushy. Why?I had interviewed for a job at a public interest org in July, and didn't get the job.  And they recently posted another job for that same location...

Things that are more important than money

Posted on October 26, 2009
Here is a great post on "The Simple Dollar" about 15 things the author found are more important than money.The short list:ExperiencesWisdomMarriageFriendshipsPhysical healthMental healthPersonal passionsCommunicationSelf-relianceSecurityHelping othersPersonal growthThankfulnessHobbiesSpirituality At a time in my life when I have less money than I ever have, (seriously - this includes when I was 16 years old!) I can truthfully say that all of the above have become really vitally important to me...

Networking FAIL

Posted on October 22, 2009
Tonight, I went with my friend L, a biglaw attorney, to a pro bono event in town.  The event was billed as a "celebration" of pro bono efforts by local attorneys, but it really was just a "hey, you should do pro bono work" push from local legal services orgs...

Ways to keep busy during unemployment

Posted on October 17, 2009
As my period of unemployment goes on (and on) I have gotten a little better at finding things to do that are more fulfilling (and slightly more productive) than the hand wringing and hoping that had been occupying me in the past 4 months.  What have I been up to?Twitter: I have started more carefully following the legal (ish) things that interest me and tweeting about them...

Job interview on Monday went well

Posted on October 14, 2009
I had a job interview on Monday in the middle of the state to work at a legal services non-profit.  As usual, the interviewers tended to focus on the one area that I am lacking, rather than the many areas where I have a good amount of experience...

I am not funemployed!

Posted on October 06, 2009
I was reading an article about 20 somethings who are "funemployed" and the blogger who is taking credit for coining that term.  And I got mad.  The funemployed are young professionals who were laid off and are using their savings and unemployment compensation to do things they "always" (how long can that be when you are 26?) wanted to...

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Posted on October 04, 2009
Yesterday was my Grandma's 85th Surprise birthday party.  She is an amazing woman, raising 4 kids by herself and supporting them with only a 9th grade education after my grandfather died just a few years after he returned from fighting in World War II...

Phone interview went well

Posted on October 01, 2009
So, I had my phone interview today, and it went pretty well.  I still got hammered on the "why here?" question.  I answered by saying that I want to stay in-state, and would love to start my career in MediumTown, where I would be centrally located in the middle of the state...

Online job hunting

Posted on September 29, 2009
Did my semi-weekly sweep of the government job sites.  Nearby cities, counties, the state job board, even the usajobs.gov site.  Nada.  Couldn't find a thing that I am remotely qualified for. The one thing I have learned through all this job hunting is not to waste my time applying for government jobs unless I meet at least some of the qualifications...

Phone interview next week!

Posted on September 26, 2009
I have a phone interview with another legal services organization.  This one isn't very familiar to me, because it's in the middle of the state, in a city I have visited only a couple times in my life.   Since I know that housing law is part of the position, I am going to spend tomorrow re-reading those statutes, in the hope I might be able to talk more intelligently at the interview on this topic...

Forecast: continued unemployment

Posted on September 24, 2009
The worst thing about the legal profession is that you can go on the state bar's website and see who got the jobs that you unsuccessfully interviewed for.  I really wish that this wasn't possible.  I would rather believe that the person who got the job I coveted was a superwoman (or man) who practically invented public interest law...

Networking

Posted on September 23, 2009
As a 3L, I was a project assistant for the law school's pro bono program.  The program is just getting off the ground, and having some growing pains.  The program is supposed to match attorneys with students to work on a pro bono case together, but generally there either are not enough cases or not enough attorneys to match up all the students...

Taking a Paralegal Job to Ride out the Recession?

Posted on September 22, 2009
I have been sending out resumes and networking my ass off lately..  Today, I got a call from a headhunter, asking about whether I would take a position as a paralegal working on a short term document processing project.  The pay is almost as much as our local Legal Aid group pays...

Using Social Media in a Nonprofit Job Search

Posted on September 22, 2009
Leveraging Social Media in a Nonprofit Job SearchShared via AddThis

Google Webmaster is hilarious

Posted on September 18, 2009
So I tried out the Google Webmaster gadget that is part of the Blogger Dashboard and found some interesting stuff.  Like the most searched term to get to this blog is "Burger King Secret Menu."  I thought I was known for my honest take on law school and life afterward, but my real claim to fame is knowing that you can order "off menu" at fast food restaurants...

Best Value Law Schools

Posted on September 17, 2009
OMG - the National Jurist ranked my law school in the top 25 for best value.  Well, so far it hasn't exactly paid off.  Maybe in a normal (non-recession) economy it would, but not right now.  What's interesting about the list of the top 50 is that the school with the highest US News ranking is Texas (followed by Minnesota), but most of the schools listed as great values are those ranked in Tiers 3 and 4 by US News...

Consumer law: getting out of your cell phone contract

Posted on September 17, 2009
Most recently law school graduates, and those just beginning law school have probably moved recently.  And, if you are like me, you desperately want an IPhone, instead of whatever you are using now.  That usually means switching cell phone networks...

I got offered a job

Posted on September 16, 2009
My friend is a lawyer, and he needs a legal assistant.  In Colorado. If this job pays more than $40,000, I would seriously consider moving there and taking it.  I have no interviews coming up, and only 2 outstanding applications.This state isn't doing it for me, and I absolutely loved Colorado when I stayed there for a week in 2007...

Major case of the blahs

Posted on September 12, 2009
I seem to be suffering from a major case of the blahs this week.  Or maybe it's just boredom. Part of it may be that I got rejected from 4 different jobs this week.  I also have been spending way to much time by myself.  I thought when I moved back to my home city, that friends who live here would want to do stuff all the time, and that my social calendar would go back to being full, like it was when I lived here BLS (Before Law School)...

Public interest law blog

Posted on September 08, 2009
If you are a wanna be public interest lawyer, you should check out the Equal Justice Works blog. One of the contributors, Heather Jarvis, is an expert on student debt and its impact on public interest careers. I had the opportunity to meet with Heather last year, and she was very informative...

What does Facebook know about you?

Posted on September 05, 2009
If you're like me, you don't read most of the privacy notices that are attached to the applications you include in your profile on Facebook. All those quizzes you take also include a caveat that the developers will be accessing your profile, which, in most cases contains a lot of private information...

Law schools and judicial clerkships

Posted on September 05, 2009
This handy chart from the always questionable US News shows the rankings for law schools placing students in judicial clerkships after they graduate. My law school is doing a poor job, placing less than 10% of students. Meanwhile, the University of North Dakota is kicking ass, placing right behind Yale with 28% of students in clerkships...

Ouch!

Posted on September 04, 2009
I feel like I am becoming a prime example of why we need health care reform in this country. I lost my health insurance (the one that cost me about $150 a month from the university) in mid-August. Now I have noticed that when I jog or go for a long (over a half hour) walk, pain radiates around my right foot...

Hello....Hello Hello is there anybody out there?

Posted on September 04, 2009
Sometimes, I use my blog like a diary, then remember that other people can and sometimes do read this thing. It's difficult to worry about what I write when I am not even sure anyone is reading it. I sometimes wish that I had a whole bunch of readers so that I would be inspired to actually carefully consider what I write, and maybe even edit stuff before I post it...

Going too far

Posted on September 03, 2009
Yep, I am totally desperate for a job. But I have to keep reminding myself that I went to law school for a reason, and that reason didn't include doing icky things like insurance defense. I just can't and I won't. I applied for a job that a friend of a friend recommended, and it turns out that the guy doesn't want someone to do "some family law and contracts work...

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