Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that we at PSJD are big fans of post-graduate fellowships. These choice entry-level positions are ideal ways to begin your public interest law career–for some of them you even get to write your own job description!

Thing is, it can be a challenge to identify the fellowships that fit your interests, plan for each one’s (sometimes quite involved) application process, and research how best to meet the nuanced expectations of the different organizations you’ll need to impress to become a post-graduate fellow. That’s why we do everything we can to help prospective fellows by publishing the PSJD Comprehensive Fellowship Guide.

What does this have to do with this week’s juicy internship? Creating this fellowship resource is a lot of research, and every year we hire a law or graduate student to take on this daunting task. This is a paid position, here in DC, that will require someone to do extensive research and outreach to various fellowship organizations to update the Guide for 2015-2016.

So if you’re interested in a post-graduate fellowship, consider getting a headstart by mastering the field and building your network this summer as the PSJD Publications Coordinator. We’re looking for current law students with the ability to work independently, a high level of attention to detail and accuracy, (preferably) some knowledge of HTML, and a few other choice characteristics.

If this sounds like you, check out the full post on PSJD. (Application deadline: April 3rd, 2015)

The PSJD Fellowship: Not just a thing you could do, but a place you could be…

I know you all haven’t heard from me in a while. This February I spent a lot of time away from the office, travelling to various schools to talk to students about how to get the most out of PSJD. (I really love that part of this job; it’s fulfilling to meet the people who are relying on PSJD’s services to help them get out of school to do great work in the public interest legal world.) At the end of many of these presentations, I opened the floor up to general questions people might have about how I’m approaching my own career search or other topics they might have initially thought were too personal.

A number of students across several campuses asked me variations on the same basic theme: “How do I find work for myself in Washington DC?”  It’s a good question (there are many, many opportunities here for public interest lawyers), and I’m a good guy to ask (PSJD’s based here, after all). I answered each variation on this question as students asked them, but in hindsight I realize that I neglected to mention a potentially helpful strategy for law students trying to relocate to DC after graduation: the PSJD Fellowship itself.

Those of you that follow this blog know that I wrote about the 2015-2016 PSJD Fellowship back in January. To recap, this position (my current job) is a great opportunity for graduating law students with an interest in helping us help you. But there’s another way to look at it: if your background or your current interests make you a good candidate for the PSJD Fellowship, the PSJD Fellowship is a good way for you to relocate to Washington DC and embed yourself in the public interest community here. I went to school just a few metro stops away, but several of my predecessors moved here from various other legal markets and then into other employment in DC when their fellowship year was up.

Not everyone can do this job, and not everyone would want to. But, if you read the job post and feel you might be a good fit, it’s worth remembering that the PSJD Fellowship isn’t just a thing you could do—it’s a place you could be.

If you’re interested, though, act fast—the last day to apply is this Friday, March 6^th 2015.

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

If you want to do public interest work this summer but haven’t been able to figure out how to pay for it, look no further: The Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI)’s Law Student Internship Program is open to all 1L and 2L law students from across the country who are interested in working with legal service agencies in Illinois over the summer. These positions are paid : PILI raises the funds necessary for each agency to pay its PILI Interns (the funds are paid to the agency as a grant, rather than directly to the Intern as with many other internship funding programs).

Interns work 400 hours full-time, with PILI ensuring quality supervision by experienced agency attorneys, and providing extra educational, networking and mentoring opportunities.  Through this program, PILI helps our partner agencies increase their impact while also helping you develop your legal and client interaction skills, build your professional networks, and strengthen your commitment to public interest law and service.  Applications will remain open until all Internship positions are filled.

If this sounds like you, check out the more detailed, full post on PSJD.

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

If you’re a 3L or recent grad with a passion for (and experience with) international human rights work, you shouldn’t miss your chance to apply for the Donald M. Wilson Fellowship at the Robert F. Kennedy Center’s for Justice & Human Rights.

Among other responsibilities, the recent law grad selected as Fellow gets the opportunity to conduct human rights research, prepare documents in support of litigation before international tribunals and contribute to litigation strategies, and report on Congressional hearings.

If this sounds like you, check out the more detailed, full post on PSJD (application deadline: 02 February, 2015).

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

The National Law Center for Homelessness & Poverty is the only national legal advocacy organization dedicated solely to using the legal system to combat homelessness in the United States. This week, they dropped a big policy job on the market. They’re looking for an attorney with a background in impact litigation and policy and 2-3 years of experience supervising staff (among other things) to help set the organization’s strategic vision and to lead program planning (among other things).

If this sounds like you, check out the more detailed, full post on PSJD (rolling deadline).

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

Alright! This week’s entry-level Job’o’th’Week is…my own! Every year, NALP hires a recent law graduate to help strengthen PSJD’s services. Every Fellow is different, but we all try to bring a job-seeker’s perspective to the task of maintaining and improving PSJD. There are many aspects to this job, and anyone with ideas for improving the way we develop our content, communicate with our users, or educate students about career development should consider applying. (My predecessor, Ashley Matthews, made great strides developing our social media presence. I’m focusing my time on trying to improve the website’s inner workings.)

I believe in PSJD. It’s a vital resource for law students and lawyers trying to figure out a much less straightforward area of the legal market (public interest jobs) that simultaneously receives less attention from careers professionals because there are fewer public positions than private ones. I hope you agree. If you have an interest in our work, I encourage you to apply.

Check out the full post on PSJD (application deadline: March 6, 2015).

Sam Halpert, 2014 – 2015 PSJD Fellow

Okay, grasshoppers. Over the last month, we’ve tackled your resumes and your cover letters. We’ve mastered the art of building, contacting, and maintaining your mentor-and-peer network. We’ve also developed a strategy for talking about work at a party without putting the room to sleep. Our holiday job search training montage is almost complete! The hardest stuff–the things I’ve needed to think through with an expert like Christina–is behind us.

But we’re not done yet. Over the winter break, in addition to putting this series’ advice into practice, remember that we have a few more outstanding holiday job search tips for you to consider. The ones that are left are pretty self-explanatory. You’ll just need to get out and get them done!

1. Professionalize your online presence. Try Googling yourself. Remember, you’re not safe simply because many people share your name. Employers will have your resume, so see what comes up when you search for yourself using your name and also student groups on your resume, the name of your school, etc. Also look at your social media (employees of prospective employers may be part of your network). Clean up your image where you think you need to. (Ask a career counselor if you’re not sure what image you need to project in these semi-public spaces.)
2. Visit the courthouse. It’s a great way to expose yourself to a legal work environment, and you might even get a chance to build your network.
3. Volunteer with a legal aid office. Look through PSJD employer profiles if you’re stumped. See whether you can find someone doing work in your area who needs a hand (often organizations solicit volunteers on their websites).
4. Write an article, or research a topic. Even if you don’t find a place to publish your ideas, it’s still a great excuse to talk to lawyers who do work you’re interested in. If you have an idea related to topics we cover on PSJD (e.g. a profile piece on what your upper-class friends think they’ve learned one year out from graduation), write to PSJD–we may be interested in publishing your work here on the blog.
5. Join a bar organization. If you don’t know what practice areas you’d like to follow yet, consider asking your informational meeting network to help you decide.
6. Update your professional references. The end of the year is a great time to check back in with the people who’ve offered to be your reference in the past. Let them know what you’re up to and at least give them a general sense of where your job search is taking you now. Also, evaluate your references. Are they still relevant for the types of legal positions you’re now seeking? If not, determine who else could potentially be a reference and make that connection. (This task has gone much more smoothly for me with the skills and tools I practiced during the informational meeting portion of the series.)

One more thing: Don’t forget to take a well-earned rest! Hopefully, contemplating these tasks isn’t as daunting as it seemed when we proposed them over Thanksgiving. If you can manage a restful break while still tackling even some of the ideas on this list, you’ll be ready to impress employers in the New Year.

So good luck, and let us know how it goes! If you find anything you’ve read here particularly helpful or you run into unexpected challenges, we’d love to hear about it. Write to us at psjd@nalp.org, and you may see your triumphs or your concerns addressed in future editions of PSJDblog.

Happy holidays!
-Sam

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

So far, the experienced edition of the Job’o’the’Week has focused on great opportunities for attorneys at the top of their fields to push themselves. This week we’re looking at a position that will likely represent a turning point for a formerly entry-level attorney. If you land a job like Surfrider Foundation’s Legal Associate position, you’ve arrived. Any environmental lawyers out there who have put in their time at entry level positions or racked up enough clerkship or fellowship years might consider this position as their first “experienced”-level job.

Surfrider is looking for a full time employee with at least three years of experience and a strong commitment to protecting coastal areas. You can read all about it in the full job post on PSJD. Applications are due on January 5th.

Photo: Brenda Gottsabend – CC License

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has many openings for Civil Rights Trial Attorneys with bar certification and at least one year of professional legal experience with litigation. (If you’ve done litigation in a clinic, ask your career advisor whether you can count that experience on your application.) If you’re interested, you’ll need to act fast. The deadline for applications is 11:59pm TOMORROW.

The job post on PSJD is here, but to since you’ll need to apply through USAJobs anyway here are the direct links:

Two vacancies in Las Vegas NV: https://my.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/388435700

Five vacancies in Phoenix AZ, St. Louis MO, Buffalo NY, and New York NY: https://my.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/388434900

Okay, grasshoppers. Welcome to the fourth week of our holiday job search training montage. So far, we’ve revamped our resumes, reconsidered our cover letters, and mastered the process of arranging informational meetings, step by step by step. If you’ve kept pace, you’re probably pretty exhausted (especially if you’ve been dealing with final exams and papers as well). The good news is that at this point, the worst is behind you. This week, we have just a few more holiday job search tips to unpack before we’re ready to make the most of our winter vacation.

Today, we’re going to look at holiday job search tips #2 and #3 together: crafting a pitch and networking at holiday parties. It’s likely that you’ve already begun to receive invitations to various holiday parties—if you haven’t already attended a few. These mixers are a great way to interact with people in a more informal way. The part I often struggle with, though, is communicating on issues I deeply care about without bringing an inappropriately serious atmosphere to the party. After a conversation with Christina, though, I have a new strategy for mixing business with pleasure—and a well-crafted “pitch” is part of it.

Working on Your Pitch

There is a wealth of advice out there for creating a good “pitch” or “elevator speech.” Basically, it’s a clear, concise, memorable and appealing statement of (1) who you are and (2) what you do. Many sources (see, e.g., Above the Law) think you’re likely to get 30 seconds to capture your conversation partner’s attention. Christina thinks you’re better off aiming for only 10 or 15. Regardless of how long you decide to make it, the key is to practice it—try it out on classmates, colleagues, and career advisors. (You can also visit your career advisor if you’re having trouble coming up with one in the first place.)

Delivering Your Pitch

A note for those who don’t like barging into conversations: I hate walking into conversations cold, but sometimes you don’t really have a choice. If you find yourself running solo at a networking event, try to set a small, realistic goal for yourself, something like, “I will talk to two people before I leave,” or “I will stay for 40 minutes.” You may also want to break the ice by starting with someone else you notice hanging around the edges, unsure of how to open.

1. GETTING IN: Know your audience. Many of us reach for legal jargon because our work is complicated, and therefore difficult to describe succinctly and clearly without specialized language. If you’re speaking to someone without a legal background, impress them with clarity, not sophistication. For example:
   

   Conversation w/Legal Background	Conversation w/o Legal Background
   “This summer, I’ve been surveying state court cases concerning tent cities, looking for homeless litigants’ novel arguments.”	“I’ve been looking for new ways for homeless people who live in tent communities to protect their interests in court.”

   If you’re at a law-related event, or someone steers you toward a stranger with the introduction, “So-and-so’s a lawyer too!” (this happens), you at least know that the person you’re speaking with shares some kind of background with you. But you still might have to tailor your introduction further. For example, I was at a networking event during my 1L summer and a lawyer from a firm asked me what I was doing with my summer.  I told her, “I’m working for an organization that represents political prisoners in front of international tribunals.” Her response: “Oh, so you represent terrorists?” Our exchange never recovered. I should have front-loaded more information about how we vetted our potential clients. Whenever you can, try and find out about the person you’re speaking with before you open. You can ask the person who introduced you for more information, or simply start your conversation with a question.

2. GETTING THROUGH: Keep it short throughout the conversation. This is often where I fall down. When people ask me what issue is most important to me (water affordability, by the way), I have a 20-30 second speech explaining why all prepared for them. But it’s a crazy issue that almost always leads my conversation partner to ask a follow-up question. The hardest thing (at least for me) is not to take a person’s interest in my work and run with it as far as I can. I want people to understand my issue, and I want to go into depth with them. Keeping responses short is hard, but it ensures you don’t go so far into a topic that your partner feels trapped or bored.
3. GETTING OUT: Remember, there was a point to starting this exchange. You’re there to figure out if you want to make this person a part of your network. You should focus on this next step in the process, not on any end goal. (In other words, don’t turn social events into informational meetings). There are three ways these exchanges may go:
   1. If you’re enjoying the conversation on a professional level, ask if you could get their contact info so you can follow up with an informational meeting later.
   2. If the conversation isn’t going anywhere for you, make a graceful exit (not difficult if your conversation partner is also sticking to short, clear responses). Something like, “thanks, I really enjoyed speaking to you, but I should really [hit the buffet/find my friend/etc]. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you in the future.” should do the trick.
   3. If you’re enjoying the conversation on a personal level and you’re still reading, switch to a different advice column.

Alright, everybody. See you Friday for the final installment. Until then…

Wax on, wax off,
-Sam