Lawyering Through Life

Thoughts on Round 2

After Round 1, I knew I was going back for a Round 2. After today...I just can't quite tell. When I showed up, I was told that the first person I was supposed to meet was sick and I was meeting with someone else instead. I felt immediately thrown for a loop and was instantly disappointed. The first person I was to meet with was the BigWig, the guy who makes the final hiring decisions. He is the top litigation partner in the office and he is home sick! Boohoo. Instead, I met with a corporate partner, who announced that she hadn't read my resume, she didn't understand why I couldn't start till August, she didn't know anything about the litigation group (by her own admission, she told me to only ask general questions and even then her answers may not be *right* because she doesn't litigate), and then left before my time with her was up, which meant I was alone in a huge conference room for about seven minutes. Seven lonely minutes as I sat there wondering if this was a waste of my time and I would never get hired here and maybe they just interviewed me to be nice and curry favors from my judge, and if it is the latter, boy, are they unlucky, because my judge is not easily impressed nor is he swayed by such flattery....all these thoughts raced through my head as I waited for the second partner to come into the conference room. I thought I was sunk because the second partner seemed very intimidating in his picture on the firm website and used to be a federal prosecutor and frankly anyone who has worked for the Man makes me shaky....

But, I recovered and actually had a great conversation with partner #2. He is a huge proponent of state court clerkships and we talked in detail about the volunteer work I do with refugees because his nephew is a refugee. Then it was off to lunch with two female associates whose role apparently was to sell me on the firm. Since I am already pretty much sold, their work was easy and we had a nice lunch. So, now I wait. Waiting is the worst part! I have a feeling I will have to go back before they would make me an offer (provided that they are inclined at this point to make me an offer) because I didn't meet with the BigWig. Argh argh.

Wish me luck! And more importantly patience. I don't want to seem desperate and scare off this potential suitor. Once my thank you notes are mailed, all I can really do is wait.

As an added bonus, the office is right next to a mall. And across the street from another mall. Every possible clothing and shoe store my heart desires is within a stone's throw on the office. Definitely would be disastrous.

posted by jersey @ 4:54 PM