Things on my mind....

Oh, brother, I can’t, I can’t get through
I’ve been trying hard to reach you
Cause I don’t know what to do
Oh, brother, I can’t believe it’s true
I’m so scared about the future
And I want to talk to you
Oh, I want to talk to you

You could take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be
You could climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody had sung
Or do something that’s never been done

Are you lost or incomplete
Do you feel like a puzzle
You can’t find your missing piece
Tell me how you feel
Well, I feel like they’re talking in a language I don’t speak
And they’re talking it to me

So you take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be
You could climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody had sung
Or do something that’s never been done
Or do something that’s never been done

So you don’t know where you’re going
And you want to talk
And you feel like you’re going where you’ve been before
You'll tell anyone who’ll listen but you feel ignored
And nothing’s really making any sense at all
Let’s talk, let’s talk
Let’s talk, let’s talk
- Coldplay
Talk
from the CD X&Y


I'm finding the job search to be slow going. Actually, all I've done so far is search websites to get a feel for the firms that are out there. I updated my resume on Monster.com, which lead to a flurry of headhunters calling me - all for accounting jobs, and all for nothing better than a simple financial analyst position.

This is the annoying thing about headhunters: they don't go beyond what's on your resume. If you say you're an accountant, you'll get accounting jobs thrown at you. Financial analyst? Yep, you guessed it. Oh, and forget about trying to get a bump in salary - most headhunters are hogtied to what you're currently earning.

The fun part of having a law degree is treating the headhunters like crap. Today, one called me, and admitted she didn't have my resume in front of her. "You wouldn't believe the number of resumes I have in front of me from Monster," she said. "Let me just ask you some basic questions. Do you see yourself as an accountant or a financial analyst?"

"Well," I said, "I've done both in my career."
"Ok, well, what are you looking for in a position? Do you like the nuts and bolts, or are you more abstract?"
"I like challenges, which is why I went to law school."

Suddenly, she remembered me. And the funny thing is that she went so far as to ask me to send her a resume. I told her if she'd send me an email, I'd be happy to send one back as a Word attachment. I haven't gotten that email yet, and I don't think I will anytime soon.

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Taking a moment to vent...

It's nice to see Bravo (finally!) rerun the entire 6th season of the West Wing. Now, I can catch up on episodes I.....well, no I can't, because those episodes seem to be airing when I'm not home.

And what's with those new commercials NBC is running? You know, the ones where a group of friends is supposedly sitting around talking about the NBC shows. "I hear Joey's even better this year!" one woman bubbles. Blah, I say. I hate this kind of 'water cooler' advertising. It's a sad attempt to pump up ratings for shows that suck, and portray it as if people really a) talked that way, b) talked about TV shows in that manner, and c) cared about anything on network TV, save for about 2 or 3 shows, none of which are on NBC.

Speaking of NBC, it was nice Toral got the hook on The Apprentice. Then she has the gall to say that she wouldn't hire some of the women to be her secretary. Nice, hon, considering you didn't do anything, and then when you had the opportunity to step up, you didn't make an effort. Methinks that you thought if you faded in the background, you'd hang around for a while. Kudos to your teammates for calling you out for being a lazy, arrogant person who thought way too highly of herself.

The search begins...

So now that I've officially passed the Bar Exam, I have to find a job. Toward that end, I've updated the resume on Monster.com (stagnant for four years). I don't expect much from Monster, but it's a start.

Next up is reviewing firms here in Illinois, and also trying to get a line on firms in California. The early results aren't promising; in looking at several websites, the firms here aren't looking to hire someone who didn't work in their office as a summer associate. I think that if there's anything that Loyola fell down on, it was providing a wealth of summer opportunities to students. Without a summer position, I'm afraid that getting hired is going to prove very difficult.

Of course, I can't blame Loyola entirely. Some of this is my fault, but I think it's driven by the fact that I was never a 'law school junkie'. You know the type - always at school, in the career services office. They know about openings in North Butte, Montana, six seconds after they're posted. They have the inside track on what's going on in firms, and leave you scratching your head, wondering how they find these things out. On the other hand, you know that the 'stros just dumped the Braves in 18 innings, and will fact the Cards in the NLDS. And the Yankees (known in Bahston as the Yankmees) have stretched the Halos (a/k/a the Angels) to a five-game series.

I have no real idea how to go about a job search, so I'm thinking this will wind up a scattergun approach. I gave BigLaw my resume, thinking that two years of affiliated work could maybe qualify me for a pity interview, but any hope of that had ice water dumped on it Friday. I wasn't a summer associate; they weren't really all that interested.

This is going to be fun.