There was an article making fun of the law firm hiring process in the recent ABA newsletter, readable here, and its inflexible attention to grades.
Meanwhile I'm getting more and more disheartened by it. It's hard enough to know what the best career path might be without being shut out of entire categories of possibilities. I have a B average. I grant you it's not as stupendous as an A average would be, but it seems to suggest, I would think, that I did the work, went to classes, and essentially learned what I need to know. Apparently, though, failing to attain a better GPA is a serious failing itself, for which there are serious penalties. With a B average it seems the punishment is shunning - I just can't seem to get firms to talk to me. But I shudder to think what a C average might get me. Perhaps a flogging? It makes one wonder what horrors await those with D's and F's...
Comments (1)
Cathy...
Remember that the world of legal jobs that you see at OCI is only a (small) subset of the world of legal jobs.
And you arn't really choosing from the universe of jobs that are out there. You're chosing from the (much smaller) universe of jobs that would be interested in you.
The key is to find out which jobs would be interested in you, focus on them, and then choose between offers. No reason not to shoot for jobs you probably can't get (ie the Skaddens of the world), but if that's keeping you from looking at the world of jobs you can get, or is getting you overly frustrated, that's a problem.
A job that clearly won't hire you essentially doeesn't exist, no matter how much you might think that they should want to hire you. The "top" firms value grades, law review and conformity above all else when they are hiring. You can't change that, and they think that it works for them (and apparantly it does, as they continue to bring in the bucks-- which is basically all they care about).
Mark
Posted by Mark | September 24, 2004 12:59 PM
Posted on September 24, 2004 12:59