Public Interest Job Search Strategies

1. Self-Assessment

In charting your career path, you should start by determining your values, needs, and aspirations. Recognize your own strengths and abilities. Analyzing past experiences and current interests will help you understand what fulfills you, so that you can ultimately find gratifying work. With so many public interest options, but limited job search time, you can target potential employers in a realistic manner, based on the results of your self-assessment.

In addition to helping you find professional satisfaction, self-assessment has a very practical application. When interviewing for public interest positions, it is imperative that you demonstrate your commitment to and passion for public interest work. The process of self-assessment should help you articulate your desire to work in the public sector more effectively. You must also demonstrate what you can offer the organization or agency. In a tight market, the more time you spend figuring out what makes you stand out from the crowd, the better your chances for success will be. Therefore, your mental work in thinking about your skills, values, and goals and how they relate to public interest careers will prepare you to sell yourself at an interview. Your prior public interest employment and activities will allow you to showcase relevant skills, knowledge, and commitment.

Public interest employers are likely to seek a wide range of credentials and qualities for summer and permanent employment. For public interest job seekers, experience, commitment, and personal qualities are the basic components of the “package” that is presented to a prospective legal employer. Employers want to know that you are committed to public interest work and that you are concerned about the issues they handle and the clients they serve. Although the phrase “building your credentials” makes the process sound mechanical and perhaps superficial, it is not. The challenge of building one’s professional credentials can be an exciting, educational experience.

As in all types of job searches, your résumé for a public interest job is a snapshot of your education, experience, and special skills. For public interest jobs, you must convey a strong interest and commitment to the job. Be sure to include other previous public interest experience. While direct experience in a public interest practice area is not a prerequisite, most employers look for a demonstrated commitment to public interest generally and, if possible, to their issue or the clients they serve. In addition, you must show that your education, employment, and volunteer work have allowed you to develop skills and experience that relate to the duties of the position. Direct service organizations, for example, are looking for people who have experience interviewing and working with clients. For more information on resumes, review the CDO’s resume advice page.

Your cover letter is an essential opportunity to demonstrate who you are and to convince an employer that you are passionate about their issues/clients/advocacy and qualified for the position. Public interest employers generally read cover letters and often think of it as an additional writing sample. Take the time to make the connection between your past experiences and current career goals without just repeating the information on your résumé. A public interest cover letter is typically a full-page in length.

Your cover letter should include who you are (I’m a first-year student at Yale Law School), what you want (seeking a summer internship) and whether you have funding. If you spoke to a past intern or met someone from that office at a presentation, do include that information in your cover letter. Public interest employers are less concerned with grades and more concerned with what relevant experience you have had and your genuine public interest goals. For more information on cover letters, review the CDO’s advice webpage on cover letters.

The interview is your chance to impress the public interest employer. Interviews for summer placements are usually less formal than those for permanent positions. Some consist of a short telephone conversation on the phone and some public interest employers even hire 1Ls volunteers on the basis of the résumé and cover letter alone, but most employers will want to speak with candidates to assess their fit for the office and its work

The key to a good interview is to prepare: research the organization and its current work, talk to students who have worked there, and practice answering interview questions. Knowledgeable questions about the current work of the organization are bound to engage the interviewers. These questions should also help you decide whether the organization fits with your interests and goals. CDO conducts a program on interview techniques and a mock interview program to help you refine your interviewing skills. In addition, CDO counselors are available to answer specific questions. Consult the CDO interview page and participate in CDO’s mock interview programs offered throughout the year.

Public interest employers typically are not able to reimburse you for travel expenses to the interview. If you cannot afford to travel to an interview, do not be discouraged but instead ask for a telephone interview. If you are a 2L, 3L or LLM, CDO’s TRI PI (Travel Reimbursement for Interviews in the Public Interest) program provides for some reimbursement of interview expenses for those seeking public interest work. For more information, visit the TRI PI program website.  

Like every sector of the job market, the public interest sector fluctuates. However, if a particular arena of the public interest market is in decline, another may be doing well. Public defender offices often hire a “class” of recent graduates and some legal services office in major cities have had a recent influx of funding to support hiring new attorneys for eviction defense. The key to surviving a tough market is flexibility. Consider the following strategies.

Short-Term Post-Graduate Opportunities. Find clerkships, fellowships, or other short-term post-graduate opportunities. These jobs can make you more desirable to public interest employers and give you valuable skills for later use.

Government Opportunities. Work for an expanding federal, state, or local government. The government depends less on fundraising than nonprofits do and often has a consistent hiring process from year to year. The government sector, however, can fluctuate, particularly during times of economic downturn, and some local or state governments will hire while others will downsize.

Look into Less Populated Areas. Consider legal aid, public defender, or local prosecutor jobs in less populated locations.

Find a Job that Requires Similar Skills to your Ideal Job. For example, if you would like to be a housing attorney with the Legal Aid Society of New York but it is in a hiring freeze, you may want to look into housing advocacy/tenant group jobs, other direct services organizations working with individual clients and build litigation skills, or find policy or public advocacy position in the housing area. All these options will make you a more desirable candidate when the freeze is lifted.

Join an Official “Volunteer” Program. Work at the Peace Corps, at one of Equal Justice Works summer programs, or a similar volunteer program.

Join the ABA and State and Local Bar Associations. You can serve on committees in these bar associations that touch on your particular public service field. In addition to networking, you will have the opportunity to do good work and stay on top of emerging trends.

Do Pro Bono Work. If you can’t find paying work in the nonprofit or government sector, consider volunteering with your favorite nonprofit while you continue to search. This provides great experience, hopefully a good reference, and valuable networking opportunities.

Consider Working at a Public Interest Law firm or a Private Law Firm to do pro bono work.  Such a position can provide you with interesting work and increase your legal skills for a later job hunt.

Start Your Own Nonprofit or Private Public Interest Firm. This requires a significant time investment but is possible.