when a school requires - as a part of its curriculum - that you work 40 hours a week twice a year, and then during one of those times, schedules a one time informational session on gov't honors programs and clerkships, should that be seen as okay? For the ONE TIME CHANCE to figure out what is required - and how to take this particular school's non-traditional ways of doing things (i.e., "ungrades" and work requirements) and make them fit into the requirements - to be smack in the middle of a work day? Does that seem RIGHT? And when the people who have this information, who are VERY closely related with those who enforce the REQUIREMENT of the school that people be working full time, doing jobs which they are EVALUATED for, only make themselves available to those who have 'stopped by the office and signed up on our door' for an appointment? an in office - not telephonic appointment?

I do not understand why this is okay.

And I am sure that any protests I voice will be met with the response "you could have dealt with this while you were in school in the spring." To which I reply, "well, in the spring, I had not yet spent 3.2 weeks highly frustrated, unfulfilled, and generally unhappy in the job that I had ASSUMED I would be thrilled to accept come August."

All I really want is a hand out (as in a bunch of papers stapled together -- b/c I know that asking for it in PDF form would be too much). A hand out that explains our unique timelines due to the fact that the Dean has to read through all of our evaluations and assign a grade to them so they can then be uploaded into OSCAR and whatever other technologically savvy systems exist out there in the world of post-law-school employment.

To be fair (i.e., cautious), I just sent an e-mail asking for this very thing (information in written form), and I have not given them a chance to respond. I will post an appropriate update if I am given such an opportunity. I would love to be able to say tomorrow "oh, they gave me a handout! They sent me an email with a concise statement of all the deadlines and requirements! I know now what I have to do!!"

Update: Alright, alright. I cannot join the ranks of hundreds of law school bloggers constantly complaining about their career services. I received an e-mail before 9:30 a.m. reassuring me that they would CERTAINLY take care of me, get me a hand out, and even post it on the school bulletin board.

Update II: I also decided to be proactive about my thus far "highly frustrated, unfulfilled, and generally unhappy"-ness from my summer experience, and I believe things are about to turn a very happy corner. There are many summers in this program who are more than happy to have nothing to do, and bill all required 7 hours to the summer program as they visit their drinking buddies down the hall. I, however, am not one of those many summers, and apparently, to transform the summer to one of my own personal priorities and forms of enjoyment (i.e., intellectually challenging work), a little solicitation on my part was required. Looks like the summer holds promise yet :)

posted by Zuska @ 9:39 PM

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