After nine months of intense studying as a 1L, I thought I’d be finished worrying about final exams for a while. But boy was I wrong. As it turns out, the JD-MBAs at Northwestern take classes over the summer, both at the law school and business school. Most of the group takes classes full-time, so they are able to spread the workload throughout the summer. And a smaller portion of the group, including me, work and take classes, so spend more time studying and catching up at the end. But no matter which route you choose, in mid August, all JD-MBAs have a pretty tough schedule. Even though we all saw it coming a few months ago, most of us never understood how tough it would actually be until now, where we not only have to get ready to start classes at Kellogg, move, and go through recruiting, but we also have to take final exams for our summer classes.
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As incoming 1Ls, most students didn’t know much about the world of law firms. They didn’t know which type of law they were interested in, weren’t sure which firms they’d ultimately like to work at, and couldn’t tell you what specific geography they’d end up targeting. Law schools know that, so during 1L year they do a good job at bringing firms to campus, sending out mass emails about career options, providing students with networking events, and giving us lots of resources to learn things on our own. Well, after doing that for the past few months as 1Ls, the students here are finally putting that work into action. And just last week, interviews finally began, marking the beginning of OCI at Northwestern Law.
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Writing a cover letter can be a daunting task. In law school, cover letters often take a back seat to other parts of an application given the perception that firms are more interested in your academic performance than anything else. So students often don’t invest the time to put their best work forward which can be detrimental to a job search. In business school, a good cover letter can often make the difference between a job interview and a “ding” email. So students spend a lot of time crafting their stories, sometimes at the expense of writing cover letters effectively. My view is that in this economy, cover letters for any job can be critical, and that time and strategy can both play an important role in the final product.
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Despite many of the public interest goals applicants write about in personal statements, most students at top law schools usually end up spending a few years at a big law firm. One reason is because law firm salaries are high and help students to pay down their loans. Another reason is that students gain a measurable skill set that employers value, both in the legal and business worlds. So for months, students read cases, outline, take exams, and aim for the best grades possible before eventually going through the recruiting process and interviewing at law firms all around the country. Well, that time has finally come for Northwestern’s class of 2012. And next week officially marks the beginning of law school OCI.
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Being the top executive today in any organization is a demanding job. In times past, most organizations were based on the hierarchical business model. At the helm of the ship were the managers with the most tenure that made all the decisions, and at the bottom were employees who sat behind and did what they were asked to do. But today’s leaders have a more nuanced task. Today, organizations are flatter than ever before, job titles are broader, and the lines of authority have become blurred, especially in professional services firms. Similarly, the ability to scale technology and capacity to work with a diverse team is critical. So the question is, what skills do you need to maneuver all those factors and lead your organization to success in the future.
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A couple of weeks ago, law students and summer interns in Chicago gathered after work to attend a networking event downtown at Kirkland and Ellis. Kirkland has hosted a number of events this summer, in the new building they moved into along with Boston Consulting Group about a year ago. These events have not only been a great way to socialize with a wide range of people in the legal industry but also a way to get to know some of the various attorneys and recruiters who work at Kirkland.
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In a bad economy, layoffs and hiring freezes are the norm. So not only are companies downsizing, but they’re also more hesitant to bring in new employees and making fewer offers to summer interns. Objectively, this makes sense, as company managers strive to reduce costs and cut budgets as soon as possible. But that objectivity changes when it starts to happen at your company. And it really hits home when you come to realize that your position is impacted. Whether a good economy or bad one, one thing to keep in mind is that every job is still a sales job, because ultimately you have to sell yourself. And in a recent question I received on GottaMentor.com, a summer intern asked a question exactly about that.
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Writing essays for business school is a daunting task. Applicants usually find it difficult to decide what story they want to tell the committee and as a result they have a tough time bringing all the details of their essays together. That’s because some applicants are unhappy in their current jobs. These people invest a lot of time discussing the job they want after business school, but neglect talking about what they want to do in the long term. Another group of applicants is more idealistic. They are strongly compelled by their long term goals, but in the meantime don’t articulate actionable steps to achieve them. In my experience speaking with hundreds of applicants, many of them tend to fall into one of these categories. That was confirmed in a couple of recent phone conversations I had last week with applicants who will be applying to business school this fall.
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Have you ever waited for a special moment just to find it wasn’t everything you thought it would be? Like finally graduating from college after four years but then realizing that you had one more course before you actually got your diploma. Or running a marathon and when after running for hours you were excited to finally turn the last corner, but when you looked up you realized that you had another couple of miles to go. Well something similar happens with law students, not only at Northwestern but at every school. And after experiencing the euphoria of graduation, walking down the isle, and getting their law school diplomas, the students still have to take the Bar Exam at the end of July.
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Have you ever saved a file at work, just to return the next day to find out that it looked different than it did the day before? I have. And I bet you have too. Did you think that someone else changed your file, either purposefully or mistakenly, and that your real work was compromised as a result? Or instead did you assume that it was your fault and that you must have done something wrong? It’s often the case in these situations that a manager will come up to you and to address the mistakes. In such cases, you can either defend yourself and ensure that your boss understood that the mistakes were not your. Or you can agree to fix the work that you’ve, often never actually resolving the misunderstanding that actually happened. In my experience, most people have been in both situations before and often they find it hard to manage this conflict.
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After nine months of intense studying as a 1L, I thought I’d be finished worrying about final exams for a while. But boy was I wrong. As it turns out, the JD-MBAs at Northwestern take classes over the summer, both at the law school and business school. Most of the group takes classes full-time, so they are able to spread the workload throughout the summer. And a smaller portion of the group, including me, work and take classes, so spend more time studying and catching up at the end. But no matter which route you choose, in mid August, all JD-MBAs have a pretty tough schedule. Even though we all saw it coming a few months ago, most of us never understood how tough it would actually be until now, where we not only have to get ready to start classes at Kellogg, move, and go through recruiting, but we also have to take final exams for our summer classes.
