The legal hiring field can be difficult to navigate, but GW Law students don’t have to do it alone.
The GW Law Career Development Office (CDO) provides students with a host of services, ranging from resume workshops to employer networking events and one-on-one career support, to help them find the right opportunity.
Last year, Zoe Jensen, JD ‘27 and a 1L at the time, knew she wanted to get a head start on her career journey so she scheduled an appointment with Associate Director of Career Counseling Erin Kelly to talk through her options.
That appointment led to a year-long search culminating in two job opportunities for Jensen, a 1L summer judicial internship with the Hon. Rossie D. Alston, Jr., and an upcoming 2L summer associate position at the Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman firm in Los Angeles. We sat with Jensen to talk about the experience of working with Kelly and her advice for law students looking to get a head start on their career.
Q: How did you find out about the CDO? What were your career goals when approaching them for help?
Coming into law school, I knew very little about what going into a law career looks like and what the steps are that you take to get to a firm. I didn’t quite know exactly what I wanted to do either. I’ve always been politics oriented, but I didn’t really know where the law was going to take me in that realm.
I heard people talking about the CDO quite early, especially in orientation. They were telling us, don’t worry about it quite yet but go meet with your Inns career adviser. I set up an initial appointment to get to know them and see what I should be doing as a 1L because I am a first gen law student and I came in straight from undergrad.
I made an appointment with Erin and we ended up really hitting it off because I felt like she really heard where I was coming from. Instead of shutting me down for trying to get on it early as a 1L, she embraced that and helped me formulate a plan and action steps and connected me with the people I should be looking at, also thinking outside the box, things that I could be doing.
Long story short, the majority of what I worked with her on was thinking about 2L summer. As a student interested in national security, I was doing OCI, I wanted to go to a firm, get into all of that, and she helped me throughout the year connect with certain people in certain places keeping public interest in the back of my mind, especially the Judge Advocate General (JAG) programs with the U.S. military.
Q: What was involved in the process of working with Erin?
Obviously it’s a grueling process and I didn’t realize how competitive it actually is. Every few weeks we would talk, even when I was in the chambers and I was working with a judge. During the middle of the day, I would just chat with her and be like, “Hey this is who I met with … I don’t know what to do … I had a call back.” Not only was she there to give me guidance on who to turn to next and how to fix my applications, she kept convincing me, “Just keep applying to places you think you would be interested in.” So I applied to a firm in Los Angeles, where my sister goes to school, and now I’m going to Pillsbury in LA.
So it ended up working out really well. She was wonderful to work with. If you find your right fit and you put in the effort and energy they can help you, but they’re not going to do it for you.
Q: What were some of the challenges throughout your big law search?
I didn’t have anyone in my family that was an attorney. So I wish someone would have told me that most people don’t get a big law job. It is so competitive for so many reasons and I always thought, “oh it’s my GPA bringing me down. I’m not going to apply here. I’m not going to try this. I’m not going to try that.” But I think staying at it, trying new strategies, not being afraid to tap into your personal network [are key to succeeding.]
Not being afraid to look outside of the DC legal market is also important. There are so many opportunities elsewhere. I do want to come back into government, but I’m working in government contracts [at Pillsbury], and the LA office works directly with the DC office. So there’s a lot of ways you can stay connected to what your end goal is, but not being afraid to apply to different things because that may be where you find your best fit.
Q: What advice do you have for other students as they look for career opportunities?
Tap into your individual networks early on. Don’t think your grades preclude you from certain places because it’s just not the case, especially if you’re thinking outside the box. There are a lot of awesome places to practice. DC is not the only one. It just may be that you’re supposed to be in that place.
Also, scheduling regular appointments with your career counselor, building a relationship with a career counselor so they can give you all the advice and even the piece of mind. Erin had my back with JAG, which I was initially considering, and connected me with a lot of people. I was very comfortable making that decision. She informed me very early on what that was and I had my application all prepared. Stick to the professionals and come up with your own plan and trust in that plan because there’s nothing that anyone else can do to do it for you.