by Sarah Einhorn (GGU JD 12)
Recently I accepted a position as an Associate Deputy Public Defender in the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office. I interned with this office in the summer and fall of 2011, and later as a post-bar law clerk, all the while hoping I would get a PD position. Throughout this process, I have done a lot of second guessing, picked apart a thousand conversations, and regretted a thousand things that I had done or forgotten to do in my various interviews. I also received a great deal of advice throughout this process. I found three recommendations to be the most helpful:
Show up to everything. While I was still an intern in the fall of 2011, a post bar (who was later hired) told me, “Show up to everything. Get your face out there.” I am incredibly intimidated by anything related to networking, but I tried my best to follow this advice and show up to Christmas parties, MCLE trainings, happy hours, and basically anything people would invite me to. While at first I felt out of place, it really helped me get to know people in the office, as well as local criminal defense attorneys.
Be persistent. What is there to lose? When I was applying for the post bar position, I was not in the first group that was hired. When I found out that offers had gone out and that I had not received one, an attorney suggested that I go and speak with the person in charge of hiring, just in case he still had positions open. I felt awkward about it, but the attorney pointed out, “At this point, what is there to lose?” So I wrote a thank you note and went to the recruiter’s office. We had a nice talk. He called me with an offer a couple weeks later. I don’t know if this had anything to do with his decision, but the advice to be persistent was excellent in this situation.
Don’t give up. I was also not among those hired in the first round for the Associate Deputy Public Defender positions. When I found out, I reminded myself of the advice I had heard over and over from LCS, from supervisors, from professors, and from my family - don’t give up hope. The very next week, completely out of the blue, another position opened up and I was offered my dream job.
I realize that these recommendations are variations on advice that you have heard a million times before. But we keep hearing this advice because it is true - you have to get your name out there, you have to bug people even if it feels awkward and weird and in stark contrast to fundamental aspects of your personality, and you absolutely can’t give up.
