People weren’t wrong about the structured 2L recruit: It truly is as energy draining as everyone said it would be. I thought that people were exaggerating, but going through three days of interviews, especially as an introvert, has left me needing multiple days of straight up sleep. Stressful isn’t strong enough of a word to describe this process.
People say that going through this process is like dating. Before school starts, you send in your applications and wait for Intent to Call (ITC) or rejection emails from firms to know whether they may be interested in you. It’s almost like putting up that flattering picture of yourself on Tinder trying to woo someone and waiting for someone to swipe right. And then when someone does, a meeting is set up. After the meeting, you find yourself asking: did they really like me? You start reading into their words. They said, “talk soon,” does this mean that they’re going to call me? Then you take a hard look at the recruit numbers on Ultra Vires and realize that the odds seem to be stacked against you. You hear about other people’s accomplishments, and you may even start to doubt yourself a little bit. All the chatter about the recruit is all that everyone is talking about, and it may cause you to feel a little bit disoriented.
In retrospect, I realize now how silly this all sounds, especially given the fact that I knew that there were so many more opportunities outside of the structured recruit. But rationalizing to myself still didn’t make the anxiety go away.
Prior to law school, I worked as a legal assistant at a full-service law firm in downtown Toronto. I saw first-hand what it was like when students came to the firm in their flashy, new suits, prepared for their in-firm interviews. They were bright-eyed and full of smiles, but I knew that they were nervous (at least some of them). The recruiter would send out emails to the entire firm to be on the lookout for the students, and it was a busy time for the recruiters, as well. Having gone through the recruit myself, I can now put myself in their shoes and understand that there must’ve been enormous pressure on these students—impressing multiple lawyers back-to-back can be intimidating. The recruit is an overwhelming process to go through: it’s biased in the sense that if the interviewer finds something about you that relates to them, they might gravitate towards you in a strong way. It’s more based on personality rather than grades and extracurriculars at that point. I found that they tend to like people who can chat more, so I had to crawl out of my shell and play an “extrovert” for a few days. It was still difficult for me. I’ve had incredibly awkward interviews where, as soon as I entered the Zoom chat, I sensed that they did not like me. I’ve had interviews where we sometimes sat in silence, as they wanted me to lead the interview with questions for the entire hour. I’ve had interviews where I clicked so well with an interviewer that I was sure I was going to get an offer. What is odd is that my sense of how well an interview went was no indication as to whether I would be invited for the next round. I thought I killed some interviews, but I didn’t hear back from them. I thought I did poorly in some interviews, yet I somehow made it to the next stage.
To make things more complicated, the LSO rules do not benefit the students at all – while ideally we should tell the firms that we want that they’re our first choice, we’re left in the dark as to how they feel about us. So, when other firms pressure us for a decision, we’re unable to tell them they’re our first choice and I think it makes us look bad (side note: I received an offer from a firm that I did not “first-choice,” but I still believe it generally has a huge impact on whether you receive an offer). I believe this whole process seems outdated and truly needs an overhaul. There is a lot of unnecessary stress involved in the process. People often point to the NYC recruit and say that we need to be more like them, with more time to decide and no dedicated offer day/time. In many ways, I feel like the LSO recruitment rules give all the power to the firms, and the power imbalance is real.
If you landed a job through this recruit—congratulations for getting through this process, and now you can sit back and relax until summer arrives. It is no doubt that a huge burden is lifted once you have secured a job. But remember to be humble and kind, as there may be some that are feeling the sting of not landing a position.
To those who have not landed a job (yet!), just remember that this recruit is NOT the be-all and end-all. There are so many amazing jobs out there, some that are even better than those offered in the structured 2L recruit. There seems to be so much pressure on landing these jobs that we lose sight of all the other truly wonderful opportunities that are available outside of the formal recruit. Do not stress. There are boundless opportunities. Regardless of what happened, you will end up where you’re supposed to be, and you might even be a little thankful that you didn’t get what you thought you wanted from this recruit.