The View From The Career Services Office

The Career Services Office should be the most important place on campus. It’s not like the Registrar can help you find a job; missing out on the Law And Interpretative Dance seminar will not impact your professional future.

Despite its importance, the CSO is a poorly understood place. Many students don’t know what the CSO is even supposed to do, much less how to take full advantage of what the CSO has to offer.

But ATL is here to help. We reached out to career service professionals at the Arizona State Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Harvard Law School, and Vanderbilt Law School. We asked them a few questions about what students should know about the CSO and how it’s there to help.

First thing’s first: Students should know what Career Services is there for. Here’s Nicholas Alexiou, Associate Director of Career Services at Vanderbilt Law:

My job is more about career advising than it is career placement. Unfortunately, I do not have a Roger Sterling-esque Rolodex which I can employ to get all of my students jobs. Instead, I am here to help put students on the right path to obtaining the job that they want. That being said, there are some instances in which I can connect a student with a firm that has a particular need well suited to that’s student’s interests and skills. However, that is not typical and if you wait for your CSO to find you a job, you might find yourself without one.

Ray English, Assistant Dean for Student Career Services at Arizona State, echoed the same theme:

At ASU, the CSO has three primary roles: 1) Create employment and networking opportunities; 2) Help students to develop the skills necessary to compete effectively (résumé, interviewing, etc.); 3) Provide career counseling and coaching (helping students figure out what they want to do and how to get there).

In a nutshell, we find employment opportunities for students and make sure they are prepared to take advantage of those opportunities.

Knowing what it’s there for only gets you into the office. Mark Weber, Director of Career Services at Harvard Law School, explained the benefits students receive when they fully take advantage of what the CSO has to offer:

Students who avail themselves of all our resources (including our advice blogs and emails, and programming, and career advising) invariably find themselves more aware of their choices, more adept at navigating the processes involved in pursuing those choices, and definitely less anxious and stressed generally about their job search and career prospects.

We’ve long argued that the CSO should be your first stop on campus. All three of these professionals disagreed with us. That doesn’t change our opinion, man. But, uhh, as Weber put it:

I don’t think it’s imperative that a student come by immediately upon beginning law school. In fact, I prefer to see students settle in for a bit and get comfortable with their classes, classmates, and the general experience of law school before meeting with a career advisor to discuss career options. NALP guidelines allow Career Service offices to begin meeting with 1Ls after October 15th, but even that seems early to me. I like to see students when they feel comfortable and ready to discuss their options without causing themselves any additional pressure or stress. As long as they are at least paying attention to the written material we regularly send out (emails, blog posts, etc.) and participating in the programming we offer throughout the semester, I think they can wait to meet with us until late in the fall semester, or the beginning of spring semester.

From English of Arizona State:

If a law school is following the NALP guidelines, currently Oct. 15 is the first day 1Ls can seek direct contact with their CSO. However, some schools, like Arizona State, require 1Ls to attend some type of professional development seminar. Arizona State also sends incoming students an assessment designed to start the process of figuring out where in the legal field they fit in. Finally, 1Ls should attend all general programming provided by their CSO.

Alexiou mentioned that the guideline had been softened for the upcoming year, but echoed the sentiment of settling in:

That being said, taking some time to settle into your new law school’s surroundings and getting your bearings before starting to intently focus on getting a job is not going to put you impossibly far behind. A simple rule of thumb is that if you are starting to outline (which you really don’t need to start doing on Day 1 of classes) and you haven’t contacted the CSO, rectify that quickly.

Fine. Go buy your Property casebook first. And know that the CSO will still be there when you figure out you can’t adversely possess a job.

In our next post in the Introduction to Law School, a series powered by Thomson Reuters, we will share what students can do once they find their way to the CSO.