The 3L Desperately Seeking Perfect Boss on Craigslist Has an Interview

Perhaps treating job seeking like online dating isn’t such a bad idea. Many readers were skeptical when a New York-based 3L posted a Craigslist ad seeking employers who matched his criteria for a perfect boss. To “be considered for this opening as [his] new boss,” he wrote in the ad, employers had to satisfy 21 requirements — such as not being a lunatic, jerk, or screamer — and be willing to pay for his services.

One ATL reader wrote:

Boy, today’s generation of law students really do feel entitled. The real world is really going to smack this guy around.

In fact, some members of the “real world” actually liked the ad. The law student has an interview this week…

We reached out to the 3L. He posted the humorous ad to vent his frustrations with his last job — a $20/hour job “working as a Law Clerk for an octogenarian solo practitioner who had more than a few screws loose”:

About two weeks ago, in one of his dementia moments, he became obsessed with the word “probably” out of thin air, and demanded that I look the word up in multiple dictionaries. He then demanded that I copy out the definition from one of them by hand, like I was in kindergarten. I told him no, because he had a lot of important deadlines to meet that were not going to be met and we had no time for this, especially because his mostly indigent clients were facing very serious legal problems. So he fired me on the spot, for only that reason. There went my summer employment plan.

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The employers he’s encountered in his subsequent job search haven’t been much of an improvement. In his last interview, before posting the ad, the 3L was asked:

(1) “Are you married?”
(2) “What is your ethnicity? Your last name doesn’t sound like a Jewish name.”
(3) “Do you own a Kippah you could wear to work?”

He asked this one after already confirming that I was not Jewish.

On top of that, the job paid $8/hour. As many of you know, it’s a tough market. Says the perfect-boss-seeker:

The ad was a quasi-joke that I wrote to amuse myself and my friends… But at the same time, it wasn’t really a joke. I would gladly pursue any lead that responded to the ad and met my qualifications! It seems like most all of the good firms do not want to pay a law student, even one with solid experience, and the employers who do want to pay are these bottom feeders that, shall we say, do not meet my criteria! Pretty much all of the things on my list were things that I have ACTUALLY experienced in the last couple years in the workplace, just trying to support myself while getting through law school.

To his great surprise, he actually got responses. Maybe it’s a tough market for employers too?

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I have in fact received three emails in the last day in response to the ad, much to my shock and surprise… One potential employer wants me to come in [this] week for an interview, so who knows, if they meet my criteria this little experiment of mine might actually work!

The 3L has now deleted his ad on Craigslist. Maybe he found his perfect match.

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