Sometimes it feels like the universe just does not want you to get what you want. Sure, you may think you really want a particular Biglaw job, but events conspire to keep that brass ring out of reach.
Take this interview horror story from an ATL reader. He was ready for his Biglaw interview when a surprise appearance by his brother (a bizarre occurrence in and of itself) threw off his game. Unable to recover it time, he didn’t get the job:
Background: My brother graduated from law school three years before I did and was working for a small firm in Tennessee. Or so I thought he was.
While clerking for a federal judge in North Carolina, I was interviewing with some Atlanta firms. During one such interview with an Atlanta Biglaw firm, I was having the obligatory lunch with a couple of partners at a big Atlanta restaurant. Unbeknownst to me, my brother had left his Tennessee law firm and started with a different Atlanta Biglaw. Unbeknownst to me, he was doing his obligatory first-day-with-the-new-associate lunch at the same big restaurant. Unbeknownst to either of us, we were seated in adjacent tables, back-to-back.
About midway through the meal, my brother thought he heard a voice he recognized. He turned around and, to his surprise, saw me. He got up and said, “David, what are you doing here?” I replied, “Me? What the hell are you doing in Atlanta?” At that point, his very important partners got up from their table and introduced themselves. One of them kindly asked, “So, who are you interviewing with today?” Still flustered from the brother ambush, I managed an “uh, uh, uh.” After about 20 seconds of that, one of the partners I was interviewing with said, “We’re with [Biglaw name].”
I did not receive an offer.
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Fate is a helluva thing. Let’s hope some window was left cracked open when this particular door got slammed shut.
So, what’s your tale of woe? Or maybe you were on the interviewer side of someone else’s epic meltdown? If you have a funny, mortifying, or otherwise interesting interview story, we’d love it if you shared it with us. Please send it our way by email or by text (646-820-8477). We’ll read all the submissions and share our favorites in these pages. Thanks, and good luck to both the candidates and the interviewers in the current recruiting cycle.
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).