A poster on JDUnderground submitted these tips which look pretty good to me.

Advice for job hunters whose grades don't put them at the top of their class.   

1. I failed California once then passed the second time. I learned my best way to study the second time around. Learn your best way. If you're weak on writing, get a tutor..it's an investment.

2. The Georgia bar sucked. Obscure, weird questions.

3. Not all law is bad, not even toilet law. I went to a second tier school, average to below avg grades. Needless to say, I was not recruited by Biglaw nor did I want to be. I didn't even practice for the first five years. Then I decided to give it a go. Answered an ad, got hired doing an area I knew nothing about. I ended up liking it and the people.

4. The people you work with are KEY. You may find you can handle any mindnumbing work as long as you like the environment.

5. Get out there and network. Go to seminars, do CLEs, show them your interested and motivated. I did this when I moved to a new state, 2 contacts, 2 interviews, 2 offers.

6. Small to medium size firms don't pay as much (of course) but you can have a life and make decent money. I started out low on the payscale in WC to pay my dues (defense). Within a few years I was at six figures working 8:30-6pm. Not bad. I'll take it. Now I'm going to be working 4 days a week so I get to spend some time with my child.

7. Be proactive when trying to get out of doc review hell (see #5). I did that crap at MoFo in Los Angeles. It was horrible, I'm scarred to this day.

8. Realize that a lot of small to med size firms are looking a lot at personality and fit rather than grades. They realize you have a brain. in a small to med size firm you are in close quarters. You can be trained but your personality can't be changed. If you are abrasive or arrogant, people are most likely not going to want to deal with you.

Finally,
9. Unless you want to work at Biglaw (in which case all that matters is grades and school so nothing else can really help you), grades are not the end all be all. After you get some experience, it is a distant memory. No one has ever asked me about my law school grades.

Good Luck.

I just graduated last year, and I work as a prosecutor (my first and current job). So far (just a few months into it), I work fairly decent hours (anywhere from 8-9:30 am until 5:30-6:30 pm), but there are some night and weekend intake hours. My duties are case management (investigating cases, making plea offers and sentencing recommendations, interviewing police officers and witnesses, and collecting evidence to prepare for trial); standing in court parts (arraignments and regular court sessions that cover the stuff in between arraignments and trials); and case intake (reviewing cases with police officers and writing up the formal charges). The salary is about 1/3 what my friends at firms are making. The advantages are: interesting and varied work, interaction with different kinds of people, and meaningful work. The disadvantages are: little administrative support, night and weekend hours, difficulty taking vacation because of hectic schedule.

I got the job by doing an online search and applying as instructed by the website (resume and cover letter and then several rounds of interviews).

I don't have any unique advice, but this post echoes a lot of advice I got and followed during my job search.

(1) describe your first job and your current job (job duties, working hours, advantages and disadadvantages, starting pay, have  you been promoted?) 

 BigLaw associate, draft documents, review diligence, etc; 8am-6:30pm and a little at home in the evening; adv= big organization, good training platform; disadv = big organization; $160K; not yet but I've gotten three raises since I took the job

(2) describe how you got your first job and your current job (networking, answering ads, sending resumes broadcast, etc.) 

 On Campus Interviews

(3) give tips to new graduates who are currently job hunting. 

  Go with a head hunter; get any experience you can and then search again when you can say that you have one year or more of experience

(4) evaluate the job market (good, bad, awful ...)?

  Pretty good if you are from a good law school; awful if you aren't

(5) how much money do you owe as student debt and what is your reaction to the postings of L2L (if you are familiary with same)?

   $120K; not familiar

This thing with the law school is not that easy. In my city the law school is very easy. Every year there are about 400 students that finish law school and don`t have where to go. They are too many, and the job`s are a few.

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