The Job Won’t Find You

You're in law school. School is something you excel at and you have managed the structure of academia better than most. Most of you are orderly and create outlines for your classes and study hard. But you aren’t in the top 10% of your class. 90% of you won’t get a job through OCI’s. Now what?

You have to find the job. It’s that simple. And at first blush, this seems daunting. There isn’t a course catalog on jobs. There isn’t a place to go sign up for unfilled jobs. For that matter, many of the jobs aren’t even publicly advertised. Worse, those posted require 3 – 5 years of experience.?

First, you need to have a sit down with yourself. Why? Because much of what makes you a successful student isn’t going to get you a job. And you need to prepare for the process.?

You cannot control the outcome. You can control your attitude. Your attitude matters and will shape much of what happens. Embrace the fact that you are in law school. You can achieve your career goals. You have the opportunity, and not everyone gets to try to achieve their goals.

Next, tell yourself to embrace and enjoy the process. Fundamentally, why not? It’s more fun to enjoy it than hate it. And you control if you enjoy it or hate it.?

Ask for help. Practice introducing yourself. Interact with lawyers on LinkedIn. Work on how you can promote yourself. Unless you are a caustic, rude, ungrateful person, everyone in the law has been in your shoes.

Will everyone help you? No. So what. They don’t have to help you. And that’s fine. You don’t want their help anyway.

Over the course of my career, I learned this: someone will help you. And one contact can change your world. All of the sudden you have 10 – 15 more contacts. You have information you never knew existed. You have a lead on an internship or a job.?

?But before any of the good stuff can happen, you have to start. Don’t wait to create the “perfect” plan. Start. Now.?

The jobs won’t find you. You find the job and you find the career. Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves and there is no worse person to fool.