devarim

I suppose I owe my loyal readers (I like to pretend I have some) and explanation of what happened with my job search, and how it is that I am magically now employed. Way back in September of 2003, at the urging of an advisor in the B.U. Law Career Development Office, I applied for a clerkship on Probate and Family Court here in Massachusetts. I almost didn't bother to finish the application, because it required a writing sample--a short memo on one of three given fact patterns It was mainly my strong interest in one of the fact patterns (on grandparent visitation rights) that kept me going on the application, even though I had not yet taken either family law or trusts & estates. The application also killed any shot I had at making it through that semester without pulling an all-nighter. (For those of you playing along at home, I also pulled two all-nighters in the spring--both for family law--meaning that since the middle of high school I have not made it through a single term without at least one all-night marathon of studying, writing, and/or procrastination. Hopefully the working world will be different.)

I received a call for a first-round interview fairly quickly. I thought I did well; my one flub was answering a hypothetical question (dealing with ex parte communication) "incorrectly," but my out-loud thought process wasn't too shabby, and I understood the proper course of action once it was explained to me. A short while later, I received a call for a second-round interview, at which I thought I did very well. I was told decisions would be made just before Thanksgiving. However, I didn't hear anything on the expected date, and when I called for a status update, I was told...well, I was told that I couldn't be told anything. Helpful.

A couple of weeks later, my contact person (who, as of September 1, will be my supervisor, but now I've ruined the end of the story) told me that if I was still interested in the clerkship, I would be placed on a waitlist along with two other candidates. We would be hired based on budgetary decisions (mainly controlled by the state legislature). Of course, since family law is my dream field, and since I love the idea of a clerkship, I said yes. Thus began a months-long process of resume and transcript updates, friendly "check-in" phone calls, and anxious anticipation of budget-tweaking (apparently there is no firm deadline on this--it seemed nearly every other month I was told there would be a decision "in just a couple of weeks"). I generally acted as if this job was a no-go, and continued interviewing for other positions, even in the couple of weeks before the bar exam.

Then, about a week before the bar, I did a stupid thing related to this job application. At least, I felt at the time that it was stupid. My contact person called to find out whether I was still interested in the position, and I told her that it was my first choice among all of my open applications. Then I casually mentioned that, if I received an offer, I would like to have a meeting to discuss some "concerns." Based on the timing of the phone call and the bar exam, I thought it would be nice of me to give this mini heads-up. Well, one thing lead to another, and I ended up discussing my Shabbat/holiday requirements on the phone. Yup, before I had an actual offer. My contact person thanked me for my honesty, we hung up, and I went into an hours-long crying fit, certain that I had lost the job. I mean, obviously they couldn't not hire me because of my religious observances (unless my demands were unreasonable), but the combination of bar exam stress and overactive paranoia had me convinced that I was condemned to a life of misery over this slip-up. It took a tremendous amount of willpower to push it from my mind so I could concentrate on studying for those last few days, and I had an elaborate answering-machinie-checking system set up whereby Julian would get the messages first and not tell me if I had been rejected until after the exam, lest I become preoccupied with my own stupidity again.

The day after the bar, my contact person called and requested a letter spelling out my requirements. Whew. Good sign, but still no offer. She mentioned that they were still trying to reach one of my references. I had everything spelled out in an email by the end of the weekend, and began a final week of sweating it out. At the end of that week, she called back to start discussing the specifics of how I would take the necessary time off. It took a couple of minutes before I finally asked, "Does this mean I have an offer?" The answer, obviously, was yes.

I'm still pondering whether I was stupid or not.