Greetings,
I am currently a 1L at UCLA Law. BA in Political Science. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not getting my undergraduate degree in the career field I wish to pursue (corporate and financial law). It's hard enough to find a meaningful 1L summer job, much less one even tangentially related to corporate and financial law.
Almost all of the resources I have used to assist veterans looking for work are geared towards permanent placements in fields unrelated to my career pursuits. I have applied to every government agency I can find related to my interests, but so far nothing.
Any recommendations would be helpful. I am lucky in that I can intern for free and move anywhere in the country for a position that will give me valuable legal experience.
Answers
Hi Roger,
Before working at ACP I was an attorney and faced a similar problem late in my 1L year (back in 2007) -- I wanted to go into corporate law, but didn't have a corporate job lined up for the 1L summer. After a good number of weeks of freaking out I decided that I needed to broaden my search and I actually ended up taking a job as a legal intern at City Hall for a Councilmember in the District of Columbia. I let the Councilmember and her Legislative Counsel know what I was interested in doing after law school, and they gave me projects throughout the summer that had to do with business, regulation, local government finance, etc. It gave me great opportunity to write memos/do projects & research on anything I really wanted to do that I could tangentially relate to the goings-on in DC.
When it came to the recruiting process at the beginning of 2L year, not a single firm asked me why I didn't have a 'corporate law' internship my 1L summer. In fact, I spun a narrative that I knew that I'd get the corporate outlook once I got to a firm, so I wanted to take my 1L summer to see how government and business interact in City Hall. I added that I had interest in ultimately getting into politics someday and that I thought it would be a great blend of near-term and long-term interests. They ate it up. I got the summer associate position and the follow-on offer to be a finance attorney at a big firm in NYC.
TL;DR - What you do your 1L summer isn't as important as just doing something legal related and having a good story about it. Most of all, enjoy that summer.
Hi Roger,
Are you working with the Office of Career Services and the Office of Public Interest Programs (75% of students at my school work in government or public interest their 1L summer) at UCLA?
I work at a law school. I don't work directly with the Career Services office often, except on the judicial clerkship application process, and I have never searched for a legal job outside of academia myself, but my strong impression is that the Career Services Office provides a tremendous amount of hands-on assistance to students in searching for both summer and permanent jobs. From its website, UCLA looks similar to me. Here, there is a lot of on-campus employer interviewing and recruitment, counselors who discuss career goals and strategies, go over one’s resume, conduct mock interviews, liaison with alumni and employer contacts, and so forth.
That’s the first thing that occurred to me anyway.
Best wishes, Susan
You can contact Four Block which provides professional development to student-veterans and connect them with internship opportunities at corporations. Our mission is to provide opportunities for student-veterans to obtain the relevant industry experience they need to secure employment and begin new careers upon graduation. Visit our website at www.fourblock.com. (internships@fourblock.com)
Semper Fi
_____________________
Richard Buck
(914) 391-3375 (mobile)
76warrior85@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/ribuck/
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