"April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go."
~Christopher Morley, John MistletoeWalking to the Jacobs parking lot on Saturday, I saw a robin
nesting in the flowering tree outside Park Hall. After a teasing us for a few months, Old Man Winter has finally released his grip on us, and Spring is really here. Little shoots and buds, birds and insects are waking and emerging.
And so are legal employers! Even though some of the more visible jobs hire a year or more in advance, remember what it was like looking for a job before the wacky paradigm of the “law school job search” warped our expectations. Before law school, you didn’t go to the Gap to apply for a job, only to tell them that you want to start in 10 months! Employers hired you closer to when you were ready to start.
Small firms, public interest agencies, solo practitioners, and all kinds of great summer and graduate employers fall into this “real world” category! Especially if they don’t have a designated HR or recruiting person/department, if they post jobs at all, the vast majority of them don’t think about summer until the snow is all melted and they see their first robin!
What does that mean for you if you’re looking for a job right now? Here are some things to do:
1. Don’t give up on the CSO’s postings on Symplicity. Jobs continue to roll in all through the month of May and into June.
2. Now is the time to recontact those employers that may have told you that they “weren’t looking right now, but they’ll keep your resume on file.”
3. Don’t be afraid to approach a small law firm or solo practitioner and ask if they need extra help for the summer. They are much more equipped to make a decision about their needs now.
4. Public interest volunteer positions can sometimes be the best and most hands-on experiences. Even if you can only afford to volunteer one day a week with a Legal Aid Office or Public Defender or DA, it will look just as good on your resume. Check the employer section of Symplicity (employer type=Public Interest) or PSLawNet.org or Idealist.org for organizations to approach.
5. If you haven’t come to the CSO with an update on your search lately (or ever), come on in! Everyone’s search parameters are different, so we can sit down, help you devise the most efficient strategy, and help find you contacts and leads.
6. If you’re graduating, realize that employers may still not be able to make a decision about their needs until you’re ready to start work. That will be AFTER the bar exam. Graduation is an unfair and illogical deadline to give yourself to have a job offer. (You can quote me to your Mom and Dad). Don’t beat yourself up on the timing, and keep your eye on what your ultimate dream job is!
After a long winter, it feels wonderful to look forward to summer! Enjoy this time of year (exams notwithstanding), don’t panic, but get do excited about getting some great experience! Look around, explore, inquire, ask, seek. You might discover an opportunity, secret and wonderful, hidden in plain sight, just like my little robin in the tree outside Park Hall.
Just when you thought it was over, it starts up again! In less than a month, it will be time to start thinking about Summer/Fall recruiting again. The CSO will start collecting resumes for our earliest program, the Off-Campus NYC Interview Program at the London Hotel in NYC, on July 7, so the whole crazy process starts very soon! 
