1L Interviews: How to Sell Your Story in 20 Minutes or Less

The most industrious Common Poorwill, a nocturnal bird native to North America, will only hibernate for one month before once again starting its daily habit of hunting moths, grasshoppers, and beetles. So too does the North American law student awaken from their month-long winter break to re-initiate their habits of daily readings, writings, and cold-calls. But the inexperienced 1L also faces a peculiar challenge upon their return: the law school interview.  

Just as the prudent squirrel buries nuts for the winter, the thoughtful law student heeds the call of their Career Services Office to send out applications before winter break. Similar to the forgetful squirrel’s nut budding into a strong oak, the forgetful law student’s application can turn into a fruitful 20-minute interview. However, how much ground can be covered in 20 minutes? How simple is it to sell yourself as a professional in an industry you’ve only formally joined three months ago?

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A Neurodivergent Guide to Navigating Interviews as a Law Student

I have always found interviews challenging. As someone with a stutter and who identifies as neurodivergent, the interview format seems tailor made to cause me problems. Being a law student with a regular schedule of internship and fellowship applications has only added to my issues with them.

To me, the interview format is a uniquely discriminatory and exclusionary way of recruiting. Interviews feel inherently ableist because they benefit individuals who are able to perform in this very specific setting, while systematically disadvantaging individuals who cannot. Moreover, they provide a space for implicit bias to infect hiring processes and ensure that the same types of people get offered particular opportunities.1 This is a significant problem in the legal sector, where interviews effectively act as gatekeepers to a profession that is already overwhelmingly non-disabled and neurotypical (as well as white, straight, and cisgender).

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‘Just Law’ is Just Getting Started

For those who aren’t aware, I like to take on new challenges (like joining this blog, for example). As if 1L year isn’t busy enough, right? One of my favorites this year is the Just Law Podcast, which we launched in November 2020. We’ve put out ten episodes so far, with more great content coming before the end of the semester.

We have a great team. One of the toughest things (other than launching a podcast in the middle of a worldwide pandemic) is saying goodbye to good people, and this year we will be losing our 3L friends, Co-Hosts Lea Silverman and Kevin O’Sullivan, and Executive Producer Mark Grayson. These three helped found the podcast and were the main drivers in getting it off the ground, long before I came in. Suffice it to say, replacing them will be impossible.

But Joanna Plaisir and I will continue on, and our hope is to add new talent for next year to help us expand the podcast marketing and production team, as well as assist with interviews. We want to build Just Law for the long term, and hope to make it part of the fabric of BC Law, just like the Impact blog. Next year we’ll be in the studio (we hope) on campus, ready to record more great episodes for everyone out there listening. So if you’re a current or incoming student and have podcasting or sound mixing and engineering experience, and you want to get involved, email us at justlawpod@bc.edu and let us know. And check out Just Law on Captivate, or your favorite podcast platform.

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Find Your Firm: 1L Boot Camp Meet the Employers Night

As I’ve written about before on this blog, 1L Boot Camp is an awesome program run by the LSA and Career Services to help first-year students make themselves as marketable as possible during their respective job hunts. This Tuesday’s Meet the Employers Night is in many ways the crown jewel of that program. After months of presentations about best practices for résumé formatting, interview attire, and networking strategy (to name a few topics), Boot Camp culminates with this unique chance for the 1Ls to put everything they’ve learned to use.

What exactly is Meet the Employers Night? Basically, exactly what it sounds like. Representatives from fifty-one (51!) government entities, public interest organizations, businesses, and law firms set up shop in the Law Library and talk with the 1Ls about what they do, who they’re looking for, and what their hiring processes are like. Which organizations will be in attendance? Here is the full list: Continue reading