Law Schools

Maybe We Don't Talk About Our Erotica Preferences In A Summer Associate Interview

'I write gay sex,' is not what you expect to hear during an interview.

By  
on

It’s August and that means, well, a lot of things, but for rising 2Ls it means the start of interview season. Yes, it remains a bit bonkers that you begin the interview process for a job you’ll have at the end of your 2L year before that school year even begins, but that’s law school for you. (COVID caused a blip in the schedule, but it’s back to the regular programming this year.)

With the dawn of a new interview season, it is worth remembering that things can go very, very wrong. Not that I’m trying to psych you out or anything but, yeah, it gets rough out there. Anyway, Alison Green of Ask a Manager is collecting stories of workplace mortification, and there’s a story of a law school interview gone awry that is super cringe. In fairness, in the story it’s mostly the interviewer that’s the oversharer, but, it isn’t a good look for anyone.

Take a look:

“Back in law school I was interviewing for a summer position at a state Department of Justice. My interviewer and I weren’t really gelling and I think we could both feel it…nothing horrible was happening, but the energy was down, and we didn’t really have much of a connection.

At the bottom of my resume, I’d added that I’d published a book, so as a way to build camaraderie my interviewer told me that she was an author as well. I was excited that we had something in common, so I asked what genre. She paused, laughed awkwardly, then gestured to what I realized were pictures of book covers with shirtless male torsos on the bulletin board behind her. She said, ‘Well, I write romance…erotica…’ There was a long pause as she tried to struggle her way out of the explanation, but since I just kept smiling and nodding what she ended up blurting was, ‘I write gay sex.’

Since I could tell she was instantly mortified with herself, and I wanted her to know it was OK since I enjoy a good erotica myself, and I didn’t want it to seem like I was judging the M/M aspect of it, I earnestly replied, ‘That’s my favorite kind!’

And when she kind of laughed in amazement and covered her face with her hands, I DOUBLED DOWN: ‘No, seriously! It is!’”

Yikestown.

You can check out other mortifying (though not law-related) stories at Ask A Manager.

Do you have an equally embarrassing interview story to share? If you survived or witnessed some horror story in action, let us know. You can email it to us (subject line: “Interview Horror Story”) or text us (646-820-8477). Maybe your story will console others.

Sponsored

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. 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).

Sponsored

Topics

,