No 2L summer job? No worries

Katherine Georgious

At this time of the year, a lot of time and effort is rightfully expended helping 2Ls navigate the stressful waters of in-firm interviews. But for those who chose not to do OCIs, or who did OCIs but didn’t get the results intended, the end of October brings about a very different kind of stress. As your friends fret about managing six interviews in two days, you might be second-guessing your decision to put all your eggs in one criminal law firm’s basket. Or perhaps you feel frustrated because you badly wanted to work on Bay Street and you rocked those 17-minute interviews, yet your phone never rang. Regardless of how you ended up with an interview-free November, your 3L brethren want you to know that not having an articling position locked up by November 6th is hardly cause for concern.

Firstly, you can still find a great 2L summer job. Remember, if you do not get a position through the OCI process, that makes you part of the majority of law students across the province. The Faculty has probably told you this a million times but it really does bear repeating: there are numerous places that hire summer students that don’t do OCIs. You can work at a small firm; you can do research for a professor; you can form your own project with external funding; you can go on that IHRP internship that you didn’t have the guts to do in 1L. The list goes on and on, with far more options than just doing doc review at one of the Seven Sisters.

If 2L winds down and you’re still jobless, there is still no need to panic. There are plenty of articling positions at places that do not hire 2L summers students, and many of these places are incredible employers. Criminal defense firms, family law firms, clinics, advocacy groups, public interest firms, and a variety of other niche employers seek out articling students.  By not tying yourself down in the OCI process, you leave yourself available to apply to these one-of-a-kind opportunities. Best of all, if your heart is set on corporate law or litigation, you also need not despair, for numerous firms in these fields also seek out articling students outside of recruiting 2L summer students.

Now, it should be noted that having such an abundance of options for articling is quite overwhelming. You will spend many long nights on Google, researching what kind of jobs are out there. All of the employers you find will start blending together. You’ll start to go a little stir crazy because it will feel like you’ve been perpetually applying for jobs since the middle of 1L. But having such a breadth of employers available to you gives you an opportunity to examine what you really want from your legal career. You apply to OCIs before you actually do any upper year courses and before you have any understanding of where your interests lie. By the time you apply for articling, your experiences both in and out of the classroom will help you make a far more informed decision of where you want to start your career. And since there are so many possible places to go, you won’t feel the temptation you may have felt during OCIs to just apply everywhere and hope for the best; you can actually be picky without feeling like you are shutting too many doors.

Of course, it’s not all gumdrops and rainbows outside of the OCI process. As mentioned, perpetually applying for jobs is exhausting. Moreover, not having an articling position secured while you are facing a mountain of student loans can be a major cloud over your head. But remember, statistically speaking you are one of the most educated people in the whole damn country. Yes, you feel super poor right now and yes, the words “articling crisis” have been permanently etched in your brain, but you are not a beggar. You are a chooser. You deserve more than just securing an articling position; you deserve an articling position that you love. You deserve to start off your legal career in a place that will train you to be the best type of lawyer you want to be. To quote a wise 3L who still hasn’t picked his articling position, “Don’t let your artificially constrained perception of your job prospects destroy your dreams.” 

The cloud of uncertainty that hangs over your head while you are an unemployed law student is better than the cloud that hangs over when you have to go to a job you hate. So, if you opted to skip the OCI process because you knew it wasn’t for you, don’t fall into doubt about that decision. And if you did want an OCI job, but it didn’t go as planned, don’t despair. The legal profession is a big world that you have yet to fully explore, and this could end up being an incredible blessing in disguise.

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