How did you land your first job after law school? Excluding OCI. There are far too many of my peers from my graduating class still unemployed.

I failed the job search game while in law school. Figured I would pass the bar and find a job after. Took the LA bar, and passed only a 60% pass rate that year. Couldn’t get a job in LA, moved back to FL sent more than 100 job apps (no exaggeration I kept a spreadsheet). I ended up taking a job teaching middle school English in FL. Did that for 6 months and knew I couldn’t do it forever, also was dying to practice law but my LA law license was no good in FL or any other state for that matter. Career services from my law school told me not to take the FL bar bc they heard it was difficult. Ignored them and took the FL bar and passed. Got a job investigating teacher misconduct, and then parlayed that experience (8 months) into a job prosecuting teacher misconduct for the department of education. So two years and two bar exams later I got my first job as an attorney. I love my work now, work 40 hours a week, have great benefits and never have to come in on the weekends. If you look long enough opportunity will find you. Good luck

Rank 100 or so school. Struck out at patent law fair in Chicago. Struck out at every OCI. Graduated top third of my class with executive board experience on law review, a high tech journal, and SBA. Had a judicial clerkship and worked in-house at a tech company during school as well. Passed the bar on my first try and still was unemployed for four months after that. Finally got my first job through Craigslist at a workers comp defense firm. Didn't want to practice in that area but when you're down to $400 and need to pay next months rent you take whatever is offered.

About that time my significant other was in biglaw and was looking at me like dead weight. Wanted to move somewhere far more expensive and wanted me to still cover half of rent. Obviously was not going to do that. So queue single me moving into a postage stamp apartment while doing a job I hated.

Second I put in my year I started applying to everything I could. Recruiters were worthless because they only wanted to plop me into workers comp roles. Found my next job with a solo firm, again through Craigslist. That place was a different kind of hell. Paralegal threw a fit and claiming discrimination when she found out I negotiated more vacation time on hire than she did.

Boss decided to just take away my already earned vacation as a solution. Quit on the spot. Hired me back for more salary but I was already looking for new jobs.

A friend (not in the legal field) happened to know a lawyer he thought I'd mesh with and made the introductions. He was right and by the end of the month I had a new job with a large law firm in a practice area I enjoyed. I now love the people I work with and do not plan on leaving any time soon.

The path getting here was not easy. It nuked an almost four year relationship I thought was going to turn into twenty. Homelessness was on the table since I was too stubborn to go home a failure. Even when I did find work the pay was shit and I was treated like the disposable attorney I was. I hated myself and my career path. Dove into alcohol and drugs to cope.

Was not a great time but gave me an important perspective on life. I kept a positive and go getter attitude. I refused to accept that this was the position I was allotted in life. I am very grateful for where I am now.

So anyone going through something similar. Keep your head up. It can get better but it's only going to come from your effort and not feeling sorry for yourself. Use your dissatisfaction to fuel your personal growth until you land where you feel you belong. Most importantly. Lean on your friends. I had a Facebook chat with my closest friends from law school and we bitched about how shitty everything was. We weren't alone in our struggle and that helped all of us while we were unemployed or in contract attorney hell. Years later that chat is still active and now we use it as a free resource in our law practice.

"Anyone ever handled an ex parte in x county?"
"Anyone have experience with this judge/attorney?"
"Client needs a family law attorney, know any?"

We're now a force multiplier for each other in our practice.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Keep your head up. It does get better but you gotta work towards that.

Didn’t. Washed up on the shores of Contract-Gig-istan after a great internship went nowhere. No advice, just adding a data point.

In 3L I took an internship with a startup company. Stayed on on the condition that they let me call myself in house counsel while I looked for jobs. Used the law school databases to make a list of every firm in my practice area with 5-70 attorneys within 50 miles and contacted all of them.
Then I started taking on my own clients using the startups offices for meetings, and once I had a few meetings, I reached out to those firms again to tell them I could bring business.
While I was solo, I found local attorneys to review my work at their billable rates and I talked to the local ethics hotline to make sure everything was above board.

I didn’t do OCIs because I was discouraged after seeing peers of mine on multiple advocacy boards/law review not getting offers. It was very time consuming and draining for them. Every decent thing that’s come my way has been from networking and leveraging each opportunity. Including the job I just landed that will turn into an offer this summer if I don’t totally screw it up.
A friend of mine just got her dream job across the country— she graduated in FL, took the bar in Cali and joined bar associations there, went back to FL for two months, then moved to CA permanently a month before results, took a crappy job through a temp agency, got her results (she passed), and then applied to a few firms in her preferred practice area. The first one called her back and couldn’t believe she moved to California not knowing anyone or whether she’d passed the bar. They gave her the job on the spot.

Low ranked law school, no bites at OCIs. I went a non-traditional route by getting a tax LLM and working in the field before getting my foot in at AM100 firm. It’s tough but you just have to keep hustling.

T2 law school grad here. Got no offers from my 1L and 2L summer gigs - thanks Great Recession! I just kept networking like crazy through the state bar association and other similar organizations. I ended up getting a call from a partner I met through the state bar asking if I’d be interested in interviewing for an associate position that had just opened up. Don’t give up and keep putting yourself out there!

Thank you all for sharing!! One thing for certain is that it’s all about hustling to find the right fit. Glad to hear such inspiring experiences.

Had a biglaw summer associate job through OCI paying serious money. Thought I was so great and unique and special with my shiny new law degree and my high honors gpa. Worthy of praise simply because I was me.

Great Recession hit and the job didn’t pan out long term. Suddenly, I was a dime a dozen. Was lucky enough to get into a good insurance defense shop for half the money and half the perks and 30 percent more hours. Had to fight my way back for years with no vacation just to hit low six figures. Boy did I change how I looked at the world.

Beware, the first attorney job may not be such a victory.

Tier 2 school, decent grades. I interned with the DOJ in law school with the hopes of being an Honors Program Fed hire (I am a partially disabled Vet which helps me a lot). Struck out when the DOJ was only hiring Admin Law Clerks for Immigration Law judges through the HP.

Got a gig with the city as a law clerk with a handshake agreement that it would be a attorney position once I passed the bar. However, the new mayor instituted a hiring freeze and that offer evaporated.

From there I hired the job search concierge service at Law Crossing to apply to jobs for me. They found me a position as an attorney.

However, my licensed attorney job now pays me $55k per yr. I worked full time during law school and made more money than this and it is mega frustrating to be in this situation, especially since I am still doing tons of work and make peanuts.

I ended up getting hired at an AmLaw 100 firm as a project attorney making $125k after taking the bar. I had a friend at the firm recommend me when another group was drowning and needed bodies. I’ve been with them for 2.5 years and I got promoted to associate and I’m making $210k because they counted my year as a project attorney as if it were time as a full-fledged associate.

Come work in state government. We’ll take all the wayward law students and attorneys who (1) aren’t picked up by firms, (2) want a healthy work/life balance, and/or (3) have already been chewed up and spit out by firms (i.e. burnt out and willing to take a pay cut).

I was willing to move for the right job, applied widely to jobs that fit my somewhat niche interest, and had the best luck with jobs posted to my (T14) law school’s job board. I got my first job (on the opposite coast) offer the day after graduation, which was nerve wracking when it seemed like everyone else had gotten their job through OCI years ago. But it turned out to be the perfect fit for me and I honestly felt so lucky that I hadn’t been successful at the OCI process and got that job instead.

Top 50 law school. Got hired in-house at the F500 company I interned with in law school. They specifically said they weren’t hiring right out of law school but I worked really hard and my boss said they couldn’t imagine what they’d do if I left and offered me a job to stay.

Worked for a trial court judge and her staff attorney for free while I waited for my bar results. Money was tight. It was a miserable experience financially but after I received my bar results she reached out to some of her contacts on my behalf and got me an interview that led to my first job.

One of my professors in law school was a prominent partner at a large firm in town. I did well in his class, showed him that I wanted to do what he did, he brought me into the firm as a law clerk (skipping the OCI process), then a summer associate (again skipping the OCI process because i was already in the door) then associate.

Get out there and meet people doing what you want to do.

USAjobs.gov

I was no offered from my 2L summer firm for economic reasons supposedly. I snagged a clerkship last minute which gave me breathing room to finish school and take the bar. Halfway into my clerkship I applied for jobs and got a job with the State. I then leveled the clerkship and my gov experience and got into big law three years later.

I took the first job I was offered and I found it through my schools online job services

Top 50 school. My job search during law school was a joke. OCIs never provides anything fruitful and I was constantly applying to fellowships and not even getting interviews.

I was trying to move back home after going to school out of state. Competing for jobs against two law school in the state. My school & career services made it seem like my middle of the class gpa was not high enough for any of the jobs I wanted and started pushing non-law options towards me.

So I started applying for clerkships. I didn’t waste time on the federal and appellate clerkships. (People often pretend other clerkships don’t matter or are less important. ) I applied to trial court clerkships even in obscure cities. I applied in the city, but also in the small obscure outer cities that were an hour or two outside the city. I hoped less people were applying to those and I was right. I ended up landing a clerkship at a smaller city about an hour and a half from where I grew up. I made it back to my home state, I’m learning a ton, and I’m networking with attorneys from all over to create some opportunities for myself when I’m done.