By Neeati Narayan 

Life is an endless cycle of drafting and redrafting cover letters, CV’s, phone-calls and follow-ups right now. Where are these efforts being diverted to, you ask? Well, I have been trying to get a summer internship from the inception of 2013.

Fact is, I am a poor, contact-less kid in this huge, rude world. There’s no godfather in the legal field resting a “jugaadu” hand over my head. So I need to watch out for myself and need to get things on my own.

A great level of dedication is needed to draft the perfect CV and a cover letter, then mail it to the firms, then perform follow-ups without sounding like an obnoxious stalker. This is what transpired when I called up a Tier 2 firm:

Me– Hi. I need to talk to the head of the HR department.

Receptionist – We don’t have any department of that sort.

Me – All right, someone who deals with appointing interns?

Receptionist – Okay, I will redirect you to him.

—-After 3 minutes 40 seconds of waiting—-

Receptionist – He is not in right now. Call later. [Hangs up!]

So I try a different approach.

Me – Hi, I need to talk to someone who can help me with this legal problem which involves 40 Lacs worth of share investment deal? [-something on these lines-]

Receptionist – Sure ma’am. I will patch you to a legal consultant in a minute.

—-Infact, she patches me in within clocked 30 seconds—–

Me – Yeah, okay! Well, actually I am a prospective intern. I needed to do this because your receptionist SUCKS.

Associate – Um, you can get sued for this.

Me – Uh, no. I cannot get sued for this. I was expecting you to praise my cleverness and immediately offer me an internship at your firm. I mean, this is how stuff happens, right? YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!

Associate – I am going to disconnect this call right away to save both of us from any further embarrassment.

Me – One day, you are going to run after me, you know? To sign me up for this damned firm.

law student internship, law student life

Rejection is a part of your life when you are a contact-less law student. I have accepted this fact and am trying to not strangle all these law firms one by one. It is frustrating, really. I work hard on academics, take part in moot courts, take up various projects, do all this karma and get treated like this?

However, things are not that bad altogether and my faith persists irrespective of all these let-downs. I recently got a law-firm internship at a Tier 3 firm dealing with Intellectual Property Right on my own.

That felt really great and provided me with the moral support I really needed. This proves that if you put in the requisite (and more) hard work, show unshakable determination and possess the hunger to go out and ‘grab it by the neck’, you will get it. Bottomline, it is all worth it.

I am one of the most pessimistic people you will find out there but even I can tell you, all hope is not lost. Rest assured, there are people out there who do read your CV’s, comb through those hard-earned achievements and make an informed decision.

The world revolves on hope. We should too.

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Neeati is a Lawctopus’ Campus Journalist at Symbiosis Law School, Pune.

Image from here.

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26 COMMENTS

  1. brilliant one and i must share a conversation I had today with a law firm……

    me: hi, may I please speak to the HR or the concerned person who deals with recruitments and internship?

    the lady: NO! Talk to me …. I am the only authority!

    me: Um, Ok….. ma’am I was informed of requirement of an intern at your firm regarding which I had sent my CV

    the lady: So what do you want me to do? call you???

    me: Um, no but I wanted to know if there is a vacancy

    the lady: why should I tell you? are you taking my interview? I don’t even like your voice!

    call disconnected!

    what a time pass…… for her and strange conversation for me!

    PS : I too am a contact less poor law student! and my inbox currently has 33 rejections…. no vacancies bla bla bla…..

  3. Hi Neeati,

    This was very well written.
    I regularly follow your blog, so this doesn’t come as a surprise to me at all. 🙂
    Even I’m a first-year law student and am bound to suffer many rejections as I go along. Nobody in my family, for many generations, has been a lawyer. 😉

    Let’s hope things work out well for all of us. 🙂

    • Rahul!

      Thank you so much for the generous comment.

      My inbox is full of “Thank you for applying but….we have this beautiful policy bla-bla-bla”

      I am especially irritated when I see that they have hired 2nd year interns though contacts when they specifically disclose in the email that they don’t hire interns before their 3rd or 4th years.

  5. masterpiece…:) it’s one thing which every law student without any GODFATHER in the legal fraternity will go through..!!
    and your determination has reaped desired results
    way to go..:D
    all the best..:)

  6. Hey Neeati!

    I have been a keen follower of your blog since a long time. This article is brilliantly written and is humorous in the right essence.

    I hope you go ahead in life. Hard work has no substitute, jugaad is a very inferior thing. Good people do exist. All the very, very best.

    Rohit

  8. I’m not losing hope only because I’m not putting in five years into this law school only to be unemployed later. Cannot think of any better driving factor.

  9. Hahahahaha!

    Symbiosis’s Neeati, this was so funny. Though I am mad that you didn’t tell me about this personally.

    But OMG Neeati, being your BFF I love you. This was a fun read. =D

  10. True story! Point put up really well in a nice funny way. Need to know which law firms were these who you called 😛 Should have mentioned maybe! 😉 😛

  11. Nice one….!!!!
    One should make one self equipped with so much of credits and merits that one that they need to run behind us…
    Believers like we can make them feel that everything should not be done solely on the basis of jack… Merits matters and it pays some or the other day…!!!
    Signing off with hope for that day to come fast…!!!
    Loved and appreciate your work…!!!

    • Vaibhav,

      Thank you so much.
      🙂

      Indeed, merit does matter. It mostly comes to the rescue, but situations above mentioned in the article are frustrating in their own right. One is bound to be dejected. The victory lies in how immune you become to these rejections and strive ahead anyway.

      Cheers!

  13. Correct . But those who get interns only through jugaaad reach nowhere in the end. some people have 8-10 good internships all through jugaad but can’t even manage to get a job in the end. So I am happy that I don’t jugaad interns every time and rather hard earn those interns I have got till now 😀

    • Yeah, even I have seen that. But you have to agree, it is very frustrating right now. I mean future is a very contingent term, right?

      I live in present and this is just not right.

      But yes, a hard-earned internship makes you feel way better about yourself. True that

    • Yes Janaki,

      You are definitely not the only one. Lots and lots of people I know or don’t know are there too. Been there, done that!

    • Hey anon!

      I wish you would have given me a name to go along with this comment. Anyhow, thank you so much. All of us contact-less kids – One for all, all for one. =)

  16. I am completely agree with Neeti…it has become usual reply of these firms..n they are biased towards laws students from private colleges than NLUs.

    • Hi Hitesh.

      It is Neeati, for beginners. 😛

      Yeah, the firms have become unreasonable and corrupt. Even in their intern intake. That is what irks me so much!

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