Student engagement with career services offices is at an all-time high during on-campus interviewing season. For the first time in their law school careers, instead of focusing primarily on classes and grades, most students have the job search in the front of their minds! So, OCI is‘prime time’ for your career development team to build and strengthen relationships with 2Ls before they get immersed in classes again.

Take advantage of it! As 2Ls drop in to discuss OCI, steer the conversation toward career fit by exploring what they really want out of their legal career. Even if a student comes in asking how to draft a thank you note to a law firm, you can use this opportunity to ask what their dream job might be, after law school. Student visits that start with small questions about OCI details can result in getting them thinking about their careers in the longer term and encouraging them to create job search plans outside of OCI.

Often times, the anxiety that law students feel during OCI does not arise from a concern that they won’t get a law firm job, but instead stems from the feeling that they do not truly know what they want to do with their law degree. As a result, in many ways, OCI can be the best time to engage students about career fit. The LawFit Career Assessment can help you and your team maximize this engagement and make these conversations more effective.

Students who take LawFit complete a 20-minute online survey that explores their interests and strengths and gives them a sense of which practice areas are likely to be the best fit. Students receive an instantaneous 30-page custom report by return email. This report provides details about their strengths and what each practice area entails. It also graphs/ranks practice areas based on how well each one fits an individual student.

LawFit can help you provide the perfect antidote to Big Law Tunnel Vision: a broader and clearer view of what each student’s career success paths is likely to be!