It turns out the agency whose Honors program I was supposed to join in six months’ time had lost their hiring authority. Who knew that was a thing? Apparently it is. OPM – the Office of Personnel Management – can completely shut down an agency’s ability to hire.
So everyone who had been given a job offer – from administrative assistants to non-attorney staff to attorneys – and who had not yet started in their position – me and dozens of other “Honors” attorneys included – lost their job offer. Just like that, nine months of work – the time it takes to make and birth an entire human being – was flushed down the drain.
Less than one month later, I would have an offer from my dream job. The one I almost never applied for.
After losing nine months of time, I panicked. Suddenly I was sending my resume out to anyone and everyone I could find who practiced in civil rights law. Job application post be damned, you were getting my resume.
It’s worth noting that this was in March 2015, a solid six months before my clerkship was ending. And I was in panic we-gotta-get-these-applications-out-now mode. SIX MONTHS before my lush job ended.
Well you can guess what happened. A lot of people were interested. At least in talking. Some had no positions to offer, but they were happy to share their wisdom of the market. Others, meanwhile, asked to set up immediate interviews and wanted to know how soon I could start.
Um, six months? Is that too long from now? Oh, I guess that makes sense – how would you know what need you will have in six months? Unlike BigLaw and the federal government – incredibly large employers with predictable and tracked turnover – small civil rights firms can’t wait six months before they hire you.
Why hadn’t anyone ever told me that? Why hadn’t anyone ever told me that these firms want talented and committed candidates, they just need us to apply when we can actually start working?
One place I knew was not hiring but where I had been encouraged to reach out to regardless turned out to be the firm that would hire me.
I sent an awkwardly-worded email to the firm’s most senior non-partner attorney (we abhor the term “associate” at our firm) and attached my resume. Thank goodness I did, because man that email was awkward. And even though the firm was not under any circumstances hiring an attorney, I was invited to grab a beer with the two non-partner attorneys a week or two later.
The non-interview beer quickly turned into an informal interview over beers from the tap in their office. The repeated question I found myself trying to answer was, “We aren’t looking to hire, but how soon could you start?” Turns out, they had a case going to trial in October and needed someone to help work up the case.
With the blessing of my judge – and leaving him no ripe motions on my half of the docket – I started my dream job six weeks later.