I hate job/school fairs

WCL had its annual externship fair today. For those of you who don't know, externship is basically the same thing as an internship. I have no idea why law schools use the different name, probably to make themselves feel special or something. Anyway, most 1Ls go for externshps for their first summer in law school because you can't get an associateship until your second summer (that's where you get paid bank, work for a firm, and hopefully get a job offer for after law school).

As an undergrad and beyond, I have been to multiple fairs: job fairs, internship fairs, law school fairs, career fairs... you name it, they have a fair for it. They're relatively typical: everyone gets dressed up, lookin' pretty, printed resumes on fancy paper to try to make a good impression on each company/school's rep. they go up, try to start a conversation, kiss a lot of ass, and go off on their merry way to the next potential employer/school. Meanwhile, after their 30 seconds of talking to that rep is up, the next person goes and does the exact same thing to try to make a positive impression.

To be quite frank, I see little to no point in these. The last one I went to was last November. It was a law school fair in LA because I missed the one ASU held. Unfortunately, they were identical. Besides getting to hang out in California for a weekend, it was basically a waste of a trip. I didn't learn a damn thing. And it's difficult to make any type of impression when 5000 other blood-sucking potential law students have the same goal. The biggest thing I gained from that particular fair was each school's guidebook, which I could have requested over the internet. I didn't make any great connections and it surely didn't help me get into tons of law schools.

So when today came around, everyone in school dressed up in their suits and jackets and skirts. I came to school in jeans with no intention of going and even trying. I went, picked up the list of employers, and left. It's not worth my time to try and BS with these people who won't remember me in five minutes. I won't remember their name and I'm not talking to dozens of other students. Why would they remember mine, and in the end, how much say would the on-campus recruiter actually say in any hiring decisions (Debi, if you ever read this, an answer would be wonderful!)?

It took a lot less time and I got everything I could have out of it in about three minutes. Now, I look through it, contact any agency that sounds appealing, and go from there, while avoiding the bum rush on each of these poor, helpless recruiters dealing with an onslaught of the hundreds of other law students.