It's A Small World After All

by Jared Solovay
Director of Employer Relations

A few years back, when I was practicing law at a firm in Chicago, I was sent to interview students at a local law school for summer associate positions. I met a parade of applicants that day, and took their materials home with me to decide their fates.

I happened to live near the law school, and discovered that one of my interviewees lived on the same floor of my building. To my dismay, she also happened to be throwing a raucous party 'til all hours of the night, complete with loud music, screaming, and the sound of beer cans being tossed around. This didn’t exactly seem like someone we’d want to bring in for callback interviews. Ultimately, in the interest of fairness, I decided not to factor this into my decision (after all, I wasn’t able to stand outside the apartment doors of all the other students I had interviewed), but some of my peers at other firms later told me they would not have been so even handed.

The point of this story is that when it comes to comporting yourself well in the eyes of employers, the journey goes far beyond those few minutes you spend facing off across that interview table. That goes for everyone you encounter at the employer (especially the receptionist), but also your classmates, professors, significant others, blind dates, and even that rude guy who cuts you in line at Starbucks. Time and time again, just as in that tale of the 2L and her drunken party, I’ve come to realize that the world is a lot smaller than it seems.

The same rule of circumspection holds true for your online presence. Employers will do their due diligence. I did when I was interviewing candidates. I know firsthand that other lawyers do too; when I applied for a lateral job later in my career, I was asked about something random I had written online years earlier.

If you have some strong views on recreational marijuana use, don’t Tweet about it, as one of my students did recently. Don’t post photos on Flickr of you doing a keg stand. Don’t blog about how much you hate small children or wish a certain end of the political spectrum would all go to hell. Or, at the very least, lock down your privacy settings so no one unwanted can see these things.

Whether it be in the real world or on the Internet, always put your best foot forward. You never know who’s looking.