How to Chart Your Career Path: Get the Most Out of Your Career Services Office
by Donna Gerson

With the legal market at a historic low, the brunt of law students’ frustration surrounding jobs is often directed toward their career services office. If you are dissatisfied with your office, what steps can you take to maximize your experience?

As a career services veteran and a regular speaker at law schools, I see first-hand what career services offices do on a daily basis and the challenges they face. I may be the rare lawyer who has personally visited more than 80 different career services offices over the past decade. Based on my experience, career services offices are sometimes praised but more often vilified. Student dissatisfaction is often rooted in the notion that the career services office is supposed to find them jobs, specifically high-paying jobs.

Working in career services can be a difficult job in the best of times. Resources might be limited. Time must be stretched between many competing interests: on-campus interviews, judicial clerkship applications, small and mid-size firms, public interest law, government agency employment, and the full gamut of non-traditional options. Staff professionals counsel students (and, nowadays, recent graduates who are unemployed), run recruiting operations, cultivate current and prospective employers, manage judicial clerkship applications, plan and present educational programs, and collect employment statistics. Expectations are high and there’s a great deal at stake. Many law students accrue substantial amounts of debt to finance a law degree.

The weak economy, the high cost of law school, and the resulting weight of student loan debt make the job search an ever more pressure-filled experience. As a result, career services offices are subject to growing scrutiny and comparison.

Student Lawyer magazine conducted a reader survey about career services offices and received 863 responses from current students throughout the United States. The results illustrate some interesting data and suggest that law students’ experiences with their career services office depend in large measure on their expectations about the role of the office and the job search process.

Dispelling Myths and Magical Thinking
Career services offices are not placement agencies. Their job is not to place you in a job. Long ago (when law schools were predominantly white and male), a law professor was tasked with the lofty job of calling all of the white-shoe law firms and federal judges in town to “place” graduates in jobs, thereby ensuring a 100 percent placement rate . . . in 1955. That law professor is now 99 years old and relishes telling current students that “back in the day” all students were “placed” in jobs. Never mind that you might have been placed in a job you hated or for which you were unqualified, someone gave you a job at graduation, or so the story goes.

Fast-forward to more enlightened—and decidedly more difficult—days. For reasons that go far beyond the scope of this article, we live in a world with 199 ABA-approved law schools, not to mention private, for-profit law schools that are proliferating. The number of applicants to law schools continues to grow, despite warnings that there are fewer jobs and the jobs that are out there are not paying $160,000. More likely than not, law graduate starting salaries are actually in the $45,000 to $55,000 range.

Enter the career services office, which is tasked with the job of counseling and educating a diverse group of students, some who know why they have chosen law school, some who are convinced that they are destined for BigLaw regardless of their credentials, and some who are parking themselves in a bad economy with hopes that a very cool alternative career path reveals itself in the next three years.

The role of career services offices is to provide counseling, programming, and networking opportunities to assist law students in their own efforts toward finding the right job. They are resource centers with experts on staff to help guide law students and engage them in the job-search process. Harsh Parikh, a third-year student at UCLA School of Law, summed it up this way: “I had an overall positive experience because I took the initiative with our career services office. I think that’s what students need to realize—the office will not hand-feed you on what to do...they are a resource.”

Assessing Your Career Services Office
How can you measure the success of your career services office? The notion of a report card, while tempting, is simplistic at best and, worse, leads to misleading results. Every law school is different. These differences are based on ranking, national reputation, local-versus-regional focus, and public funding versus private funding, to name a few key data points. As a result, the idea of creating a universal report card to score a first-tier law school career services office against a fourth-tier career services office would be unfair.

Further, a comparison of employment data alone would be subject to intense controversy. At this time, we have no truly transparent, objective way to understand when a graduate is employed full time as a lawyer, unemployed, underemployed, and the masses of graduates who are either employed part time, temporarily, or in some other capacity. Because law schools cannot agree on how they report employment statistics consistently across the board, comparing employment numbers won’t provide relevant comparative data.

A law student or prospective law student researching a school and interested in understanding the breadth and depth of a school’s career services office might look at the following criteria: programming, networking opportunities, staffing, counseling and communications, physical space/hours, alumni assistance, and, finally, employment data. Taking into account all of these criteria may help law students better understand the level of services they are receiving, where improvement may be possible, and where law students’ expectations ought to be adjusted.

Programming
Every law school career services office offers educational programming. But students often complain that there are too few programs or too many programs. Rarely are there just the right number of programs.

If you don’t know when or where programs are happening, then refer to the section on communications. As tuition-paying students, you owe it to yourselves to learn about and attend educational programs while you are in law school. Make the time. Go even if the topic may not be of direct interest to you at this very moment. Why? Because programs enable you to hear from outside experts working in the profession who have something substantive to impart to you.

If you don’t like the educational programs currently offered because—as some survey respondents noted—they are “stupid” or “irrelevant,” then suggest some topics that may be relevant to you and your classmates. If the timing doesn’t jive with your schedule, suggest some times that might work for more students or see if the programs are taped and available for later viewing. Some law schools, such as American University Washington College of Law, keep extensive archives of programs, including audio webinars for students and recent graduates.

Networking Opportunities
Interestingly, programming relates directly to the next factor for assessing the success of your career services office: networking opportunities. Despite entreaties by many lawyers to step outside the confines of your law school building to meet actual practitioners, the majority of law students do not heed this advice, preferring instead to spend their time in other pursuits. The fact is that many law students will find jobs through their own efforts; the most successful job seekers reach out to alumni and others through networking.

If your law school is located in a remote locale with few opportunities to network or if you’re engaged in a long-distance job search, then one way to reach out beyond your geographic limitations is to network. Your career services office should to be helping you learn to network through programming (see above), personal contacts, alumni contacts, and bar associations. They ought to be able to walk you through the steps of how to conduct an informational interview and how to navigate a reception. If they don’t (or you think they don’t), then ask. Chances are, they offer these services but you may not know about them.

Staffing
The number of people working in your career services office can indicate how quickly your “quick question” will be answered, how soon you can schedule an appointment, and how much employer outreach can be accomplished by staffers while also counseling students and alumni, and planning educational programs. Some questions to ask: How many full-time and part-time professional counselors are working in your career services office? What is the ratio of staff professionals to students? Consult the 2009 Law School Career Services Survey, published by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), for detailed information. This biennial survey outlines staff structures and salaries on an aggregate basis, as well as by public and private schools, and by JD enrollment. The survey can offer a benchmark for your law school to help you better understand where your career services office falls in the staffing spectrum.

In addition to staffing information, drill deeper and explore the range of experience your counselors offer and their length of service. How specialized are the staff? Do you have a dedicated public interest counselor or a separate public interest advising center? Does your office employ a dedicated judicial clerkship adviser? Do the counselors’ experiences reflect a broad survey of the profession or is everyone a BigLaw veteran? Do you have public interest veterans with connections in the public sector? What’s the turnover rate? Is there a new counselor every six months? You want some history and institutional memory in your office, not only for the sake of the students but also for the sake of employer contacts.

According to the NALP career services study, about 79 percent of primary career services professionals have a JD degree. It may be the case that your career services office is headed by a non-lawyer, perhaps an MBA, licensed social worker, or higher education administration specialist. Depending on your school and its needs, these individuals can bring a great deal of objectivity and experience to the table so long as they are solid on the finer points of the legal profession.

How large is the budget for your career services office? Are they running on a shoestring or do they have funds to upgrade online subscriptions (particularly subscriptions with current job postings), attend professional conferences to network and learn about the latest innovations, and travel to visit employers and strengthen those relationships? Money can make a difference not only in levels of service, but also in the level of resources that are available to both staff and students.

More than any other criterion, the quality of the counselors staffing the career services office can be outcome-determinative for law students in a tight job market. The ability to connect with students and provide relevant, timely advice is the hallmark of an effective counselor. Roxana Amini, a third-year student at Chapman University School of Law, recalls a recent encounter with her career services director that illustrates how going the extra mile for students can make a difference. “The career services director sat with me on the phone on a Saturday and went through my résumé and cover letter word for word,” Amini relates. “I had e-mailed her late on a Friday and she did not hesitate or wait until Monday to get back to me.”

Counseling and Communications
Private, one-on-one appointments are where most of the hard work of career services takes place. Students who do not schedule regular appointments or drop in for personal meetings with career services counselors are denying themselves the opportunity to hear information first-hand, learn about resources, and, perhaps most importantly, develop the kinds of relationships that result in more personal service. Kristopher Immel, a third-year student at the University of Akron School of Law, exemplifies how the personal connection matters: “Our career services office contacted me after being informed of a tax/estate law firm looking for a law clerk. They contacted me knowing that I am also receiving my Master’s in Taxation, and that this would be a wonderful fit for me. Needless to say, I was able to secure an interview with their help, and have been hired on. Without the direct contact from the career services office it is likely that I would not have been aware of this opportunity.”

Lindsay Mather, a third-year student at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, has found her one-on-one meetings to be “really valuable.” As she searches for a full-time job in her home state of Wisconsin, Mather relates that she visits the career services office about twice a month, sometimes more when she is preparing for an interview. In addition, she e-mails often with a counselor whom she trusts and has found the staff to be helpful. “They’ve helped me with cover letters and revising my résumé for summer job applications, as well as applications, cover letters, and interview preparation for post-grad positions. I know I can always go there for advice and guidance whenever I need them—even if I don’t have an appointment, they’ll make a point of helping me.”

Beyond the one-on-one appointments, law students should also assess the quality and frequency of communications that their career services office offers. This will vary not only from school to school, but also from student to student (another reason why report cards are unreliable). Too many e-mails and students tune out. Too few and no one knows (or wants to focus on) what’s being offered.

How well does your career services office communicate about job postings and educational programs? Learn if your career services office publishes a weekly e-mail, daily updates on Symplicity, an “open question” session in your student lounge on a weekly basis, text messages, Twitter, blog, Facebook, or other social media platforms where you can easily keep track of the latest activities. E-mail your career services office a note today and ask them what you ought to be doing to stay informed.

Physical Space/Hours of Operation
While physical space ought not to be the primary indicator of a successful office, it can facilitate your use and enjoyment of the services provided. Is the career services office located in a windowless basement space? Is it clean, well lit, and user-friendly? Do you have access to a private phone booth for making calls from campus? Do have access to a free printer for résumés and writing samples? Are the hours conducive to evening and part-time students?

Ideally, your career services office ought to be equal parts library, student lounge, counseling space, and employer welcome center. If you’re less than pleased with the physical space or feel limited by the hours of operation, then say something.

Alumni Assistance
Does your career services offer programming and access to resources after graduation? Now, more than ever, returning to one’s law school for job-seeking and networking advice is a reality. However, you will do yourself a huge favor if you utilize all of the services, imperfect though they may be, while you are in law school.

Employment Statistics
Finally, take a look at your law school’s employment statistics with a huge grain of salt. Understand that until a uniform reporting system is instituted, the data contains incomplete information. This data is incomplete for several reasons: Law graduates fail to report their employment, law graduates go missing either deliberately or otherwise, law schools fail to report the number of responses they receive from law graduates, and every law school interprets the reporting requirements in different, creative ways. Bottom line: You can’t control the employment data and focusing on the veracity of employments statistics ex post facto will sap energy from your job search.

You can control your job search, how much time you put into your job search, and the day-to-day actions you take in partnership with your career services office to find the right job for you. Rather than focus on the employment data inconsistencies, focus instead on your job search and reach out to your career services office with an open mind.

When you do find a job, take a minute and e-mail your career services office with the whole story. Tell them the name of your employer, the location, and your salary. By withholding employment data because you feel angry or do not want the office to receive “credit” for finding you a job, you are part of the ongoing problem of incomplete information. If you want better information, then share your employment news.

Seeking Improvement, Demanding Change
Students have legitimate beefs about their career services offices and some offices are certainly better funded, staffed, and equipped than others. One survey respondent wrote: “I stopped even trying to work with them after they got my name wrong in two different reply e-mails.” Another law student wrote, “The career services office at my law school is utterly useless. It appears to only exist to frighten students about their career prospects by sending mass e-mails to everyone in the law school. . . . The career services office is patronizing and flaky. It did, however, push me to find jobs without their useless assistance. Yet they tried to steal the glory of finding and getting these jobs by demanding, actually on a daily basis over the summer, to know which firm I was working for.” Another student wrote, “My experience with career services was less than positive. The counselor I spoke with did not ask what my career goals are, what my background is, or what areas I’m interested in working with.” Yet another student wrote, “They are focused on OCI and the top 10 percent and nothing else.”

Student input is essential to seeking improvement and demanding change. If you have a complaint about your career services office, what should you do?

Express complaints directly to your career services office. Have a complaint or suggestion? Send an e-mail to your career services office and give concrete examples of your concerns. Copy your dean or the career services committee members if you feel it’s appropriate. Be a stand-up person and explain yourself in a civil tone. Don’t send an anonymous e-mail to your entire class. Don’t post anonymously on Above the Law. These tactics, while they may feel satisfying in the short run, won’t give you the chance to change the office for the better. One career services dean at a first-tier school shared a story about a law student who was an engineer by training. He came in to complain about how inefficient the on-campus interview system was. They had a candid exchange of ideas and the law student became a mini-consultant of sorts. The end result was a better-run on-campus interview process.
Serve on your school’s career services committee. The best way to have direct input is to volunteer on your law school’s career services committee or student advisory board. Student advisory boards or career services committees serve as a sounding board between the students and the office, offering advice, suggestions, and input. Not only can it be a great way to understand how your career services office works, but it’s also a meaningful way for the members of the career services office to know you better.

Marina Veljanovska, a third-year evening student at Georgetown University Law School, joined her school’s student advisory committee and, thus far, has had a positive experience. Veljanovska related that the students on the advisory committee helped facilitate changes to the Early Interview Week by recommending that the interviews occur in the third week, rather than the fourth week, in August. In addition, the advisory committee suggested revisions to the school’s federal clerkship website and identified the need for better coordination between the registrar’s office, the career services office, and the student body on bar exam deadlines and requirements. As a forum for feedback, Veljanovska reflects that the advisory committee is a “two-way street” that benefits both the students and the career services office.

Andrew Horowitz, a third-year student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who is still seeking full-time employment following graduation, is a member of his school’s student advisory board. In that role, Horowitz offers his ideas for improving the office and feels that this gives him perspective on the bigger picture. “No matter how well-funded or creative career services might be,” observes Horowitz, “there comes a point when students need to do their own job search because there’s only so much career services can do. I would love it if they could control the economy, but they can’t.”

Schedule an appointment. For students who have shunned their career services office because of negative experiences, take this challenge: Schedule an appointment today. If you have been dissatisfied with one counselor, try another. If it’s a small office and you have limited counselors, simply decide to try again. Bring a copy of your résumé and an open attitude. Come with a specific set of requests beyond “find me a job.” Once you get over the myth that the career services office exists to find you a job, you will be able to focus on having a conversation that helps you formulate your individual game plan. For example, ask for help identifying law school alumni working in a practice area that interests you and learn how to conduct an informational interview. Ask for help identifying small and mid-size firms in a particular locale and make sure your cover letter is appropriate for smaller firms.

One additional suggestion after visiting a counselor: Don’t leave without making another appointment and putting it on your calendar. By scheduling your next visit, you guarantee that you’ll stay honest with the work you need to do and follow up in a timely manner.

Adjust your expectations and own your job search. Jessica Bryant, a second-year student at Touro Law Center, understands the role of her career services office and the work she needs to do to find a job. Bryant, who spent three years working full time in marketing before attending law school, reports that Touro’s career services office “while small, holds programming many times a month to educate students about career and internship opportunities, as well as job fairs. They understand that we are a tier four school so they know that we need to work that much harder to differentiate ourselves from the many students we compete with for jobs. Every month, the career services office hosts an open house where they provide complimentary refreshments and encourage students to stop in and say hello. This allows students to really build a relationship with those in the office, which makes the experience that much sweeter.”

Bryant, who wants to work in the district attorney’s office this summer, is prepared for the hard work ahead. “I learned to motivate myself,” Bryant relates. Through her undergraduate work at Keuka College in upstate New York and to her work experience afterward, Bryant owns her job search and understands that she has the career services office as a resource to guide her.

One of the best metaphors for the role of career services comes from Margaret Reuter, assistant dean for career planning at New York Law School. Reuter suggests that law students think about career services professionals as personal trainers. “People like personal trainers because they break things down into doable steps, create small goals, and help you answer to yourself,” observes Reuter.

According to Reuter, “law students need to come to terms with the lack of predictability and have patience with the job search process.” With the help of your career services office, law students can choose a partner who will keep them focused on the goal of securing a job

Donna Gerson (donna@donna gerson.com) speaks at law schools and writes on legal career issues, including small firm hiring strategies, networking skills, and business etiquette. She is the author of numerous books, including Choosing Small, Choosing Smart.

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