We know that many of you are beginning to think about your 2L summer job search. In this kind of economy, we believe you need more than just general career advice. Whether you are interested in a career in government, public interest, or the private sector, our office stands ready to provide you with the counseling and support you need to develop a targeted individualized job search strategy.
We’ve mentioned before that we are available by phone during regular business hours and that the most efficient way to arrange this is through our on-line appointment scheduler. However, we also want to stress that, for those of you who are having difficulty fitting an appointment into your regular work day, you should feel free to contact the attorney-counselor with whom you are interested in meeting directly and we will do our best to arrange a phone or in-person meeting (here or perhaps in SF) after-hours, before-hours, or over the course of a weekend.
Here is a list of the attorney-counselors specialty areas to help ensure that you receive the most relevant guidance:
Public Interest Job Search (including DA & PD careers) — Alex Lee or Linda Maranzana
Government Job Search — Eric Stern
Private Sector Job Search — Marsha Rabkin, Sarah Cunniff, or Terry Galligan
You can find our contact info here. None of us will be taking any vacation or using any furlough time during the month of August. However, some of us will be out on various days in July. Here are our July schedules:
Marsha Rabkin
(Out of the office from July 1 – July 9)
Terry Galligan
(Out of the office from July 23 – July 30)
Sarah Cunniff
(Out of the office until July 9)
Linda Maranzana
(Out of the office from 7/15 – 7/30)
Alex Lee
(Out of the office from 7/12 – 7/14)
Eric Stern
(Out of the office from 7/12 – 7/16)
For those of you pursuing public interest or government options, stay tuned for an announcement with details about the 2L summer public interest and government job search. Also, keep in mind that there will be a number of prestigious public interest & government employers participating in OCIP again this year. You can find a list of those organizations who have already registered on the Fall 2010 OCIP website (though, for the most up-to-the-minute list, you should always check the OCI section of the b-Line).
The Fall 2010 OCIP website contains all of the information you need to learn how bidding works, how to avoid scheduling conflicts, limitations on canceling or trading time slots, preparing OCIP resumes, writing samples and reference lists, and more. If you missed our April OCIP Info Session, you might find it to be a useful introduction to the process. You can find a link to the webcast version (and other OCIP related webcasts) here.
For rising 2Ls interested in working at a large law firm outside the Bay area next summer (and remember flexibility is key in the current job market), consider sending a resume, cover letter, and transcript (if you think it will help you) to those out-of-the-area firms who are not coming to campus. While firms typically will not pay for you to fly to them to conduct initial screening interviews, they may be willing to meet with you if you are already planning on being in their city. Therefore, it may be particularly helpful if you can state in your cover letter that you plan on being in their city during a specific date range. This approach will have maximum effect if the dates fall during their recruiting season (August or early to mid-September). It is best to try to give firms at least a couple of weeks advance notice of your travel plans. If you are currently working out of town, you may want to contact local firms now about the possibility of meeting with them before you return to Berkeley. A good resource for identifying large law firm contacts is: www.nalpdirectory.com.
Regardless of the kind of job search(es) you intend to conduct during the Fall semester, you ought to send us a draft of your updated resume (via career@law.berkeley.edu) for our review and comment. Doing so by Friday July 16th will guarantee that it will receive a careful look and be returned to you before you need to begin submitting it to employers.