Feeling so defeated in trying to find my first in-house role - got to the final interviews multiple times but no offer after almost a year of searching. I already took a leave last year at biglaw because of bad burnout and am just dreading work every day. Need some words of encouragement.

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Hi there. It took me years. I finally decided to show some personality in a round of interviews and ended up in a dream job. Don’t give up!

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Personality is everything. If you’re getting the interview you have the requisite background, everything after that is just fit.

Sure, I’m checking that they know what they’re talking about, and looking for red flags that they’re lazy or incompetent, etc. But the primary metric I use is, “does this person suck?” Are they going to be a pedantic pain in the rear, pissing off the business folks, and leading to more work for me?

If we don’t vibe, I might hire someone less impressive on paper.

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This is spot on. Assuming basic competence, EQ over IQ every day of the week — and even more so with AI which balances the raw IQ playing field tremendously. Being liked is the only thing that will save you in the world of AI IMO — that was probably always true — but more so now.

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I feel ya, class of 2022. Been applying since summer of 2024. Prob had some final rounds starting November of 2024 but nothing until I got an offer last week. Funds

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Same here. Class of 2023.

It took me well over a year to find my first in house role. So don’t give up!

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As an in-house paralegal for a large public company, I can tell you that the hiring process can be long and frustrating. 4 years ago we interviewed 8 people for a job on my team, put a few candidates through multiple rounds, only for HR to suddenly institute a hiring freeze. We were ready to send an offer. We needed that person. We've never filled that position. We're operating on a shoestring and the last of our nerves while the company does stock buybacks. But we have a company instance of ChatGPT so it's fine, right?!

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