Associate Life Survey: Darn Kids (and Kittens)

Over the last several weeks, we’ve run quite a few ATL / Lateral Link surveys about summer associate issues like assignments, offers, and, of course, lunch.
But no matter what the survey topic, two debates have consistently emerged in the comments:
1) Are summer associates an appropriate use of firm resources and associate time?
2) Are the LOLcat pictures accompanying the surveys absolutely awesome, or really annoying?
Of course, it’s not that surprising to see summer associates and LOLcats — two creatures linked by their youth, their frequent proximity to food, their occasional fluffy nature, and, alas, their occasional misspellings — prompting relatively parallel debates among ATL readers (especially since those similarities prompted the use of LOLcats as pictures for the summer associate surveys).
And now that the summer programs are over and the on-campus interview season has begun, both debates are in full swing.
On the substantive front, a number of firms are heavily weighing the impact of summer programs on firm resources (like cash), and many are now narrowing their on-campus recruiting or even scrapping summer programs altogether in some offices, as Kash covered over here.
Meanwhile, on the fluffier front, the LOLcat debate also surged last week. Check out some of the funnier comments, and take today’s survey, after the jump.


After simmering for months, the great LOLcat debate finally erupted into a thread of vicious anti-cat calls and anti-anti-cat calls, and even a call for anti-cat polling:

[10] What is with all the god damn cat photos? It’s what the secretaries (before they were fired) used to look at and laugh. What happens when the cat photos run out? Surely there’s no endless supply of retarded cat photos? Please?
Elie…your first task should be to phase out the cat photos.

[12] 4, 10 – Why do you get so worked up about the stupid cat photos? Do you really have so much undirected rage that you need to rant about something this pointless in blog comments? I personally think your posts protesting the cats are hilarious and make the cat photos worthwhile even though I otherwise wouldn’t care one way or the other.

[14] 12 – Why do you get so worked up about the comments criticizing the stupid cat photos? Do you really have so much undirected rage that you need to rant about something this pointless in blog comments?

Sponsored

[16] 14 – Yes.
12

 

[17] Love the cats

 

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[18] hate the cats.
cant the site do a poll here?

Um, ok.
Today’s ATL / Lateral Link survey will gauge your views on both summer associates and LOLcats.
On the substantive front, we’ll find out who thinks their summer programs were too big — and this will probably be the last survey about summer programs until next year.
On the fluffy front, we’ll find out just what kind of person hates kittens — and your responses may make this the last post involving LOLcat pics . . .
Update: This survey is now closed. Click here for the results.

Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this survey.