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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Taking the time to write a detailed recommendation is easier said than done. Writing a good one will take at least a couple of hours, though it’s more likely that it will take longer if the writer invests time to make it good. The person has to get to know you and your resume in more detail, think about your accomplishments both professionally and personally, reflect on your career trajectory as an employee and eventually as an employee with an MBA, and then put all of that together to come up with something insightful and hopefully compelling. Like I said, easier said than done. So if that’s true, how should you approach someone who you really want to write it for you, especially if they do not have much time?
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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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The business and legal industries are radically changing. Today it’s impossible to escape complex legal issues as a CEO in business. Similarly, if you’re a leading corporate lawyer, you consistently run into firm and client business issues, especially in today’s environment. How can an employee who’s been in the industry for years keep up? And even if they can, would they be better off being trained in both business and law? While some students know early that they want both degrees, others decide to make a career change later in their careers. And then there’s a third group that comes to the conclusion during their first year of law school.
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I overheard a guy talking at a networking event earlier this week. Turned out he was a law student working in Chicago this summer and had just finished his first year at another law school. Like so many others, he was afraid he might graduate without a job and was looking for a few tips on how to navigate the process. He mentioned that he attended a top tier program outside of Chicago, spent a few years before that as a paralegal at a white shoe firm, and attained a median GPA at his school. But he still feared his prospects coming out.
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Hey everyone, I hope you had a great 4th of July weekend. This will be a pretty quick post, but I wanted to write to tell you about a recent MBA graduate I know named Kaneisha Grayson. Kaneisha is a recent graduate from the dual MBA/MPP program at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, and she just launched a new MBA admissions coaching site called The Art of Applying. To jumpstart her new venture, Kaneisha is hosting a free webinar for up-and-coming MBA applicants, where she’ll not only provide tips for applying but also share her story with the audience. So I wanted to pass along a bit of information about the webinar.
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About two weeks ago, only days after beginning my new job at Vedder Price, I had the special privilege of having lunch with the Chairman of our firm. In addition to making a good contact at the firm, and eventually making my way onto a couple of his interesting projects, I also had the thrill of seeing first-hand how a top lawyer and revered leader in Chicago navigated his way to the top and what his thoughts were regarding 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.
