By Susie Spies Roth
Northwestern University School of Law
On Campus Interviews, known to law students the world over as "OCI," begin next week at Northwestern University School of Law. By the time this column appears, OCI will be a distant memory, and my students will be navigating the labyrinth that is the callback process.
Though I am not a member of Northwestern's Career Center, I have found myself providing anecdotal advice to my students as they bid on firms for OCI, which involves answering questions about all aspects of my life as an attorney at Sidley Austin.
Throughout these conversations, I have found myself anticipating the inevitable round of conversations I'll have as the students prepare for their summer associate jobs.
To ensure that I'm ready to go when the summer-associate-gate hits, I've decided that the one piece of advice I'd want all of my students to heed is the following: Every day you spend as a young associate in a law firm (summer associate or actual associate), remember that you are a commodity for sale, and you want your law firm to continue investing in you.
Take a cue from your friends who have MBAs (read: did far more math in grad school than I would ever endeavor to do, which was counterbalanced by a jealousy-inducing array of world travel): market yourself! Become your own brand manager! Make everyone want to buy what you're selling!
This sounds easy enough - the concept that one should market oneself in order to progress in one's career.
But, in practice, how does that really happen? How should your one-woman marketing department implement a strategy to guarantee that your brand of power bar is at the front of your law firm's shelves?
It sounds easy because it is easy: recognize that EVERYTHING is a marketing opportunity.
To give the most obvious example, every assignment you hand in must be your absolute best work. Law firms often toss around the concept of handing in a "draft," and all too many young attorneys take that as tacit permission to hand in something of "draft" quality. This is false.
Your work product is your most obvious marketing material because its permanence allows others to refer to it when delivering your annual review. When you send something to a partner or more senior associate in your firm, that motion (or brief, or contract, or memo) must be your absolute best work, every time.
No typos, no mis-cited cases, no incomplete sentences, no missed deadlines, no partial submissions, no logic flaws, no laziness. Those senior attorneys reading this column will inevitably agree with me that the aforementioned "problem assignments" appear in their in-boxes with less-than-ideal frequency.
But, though your work product is your most prominent promotional material, the law firm microcosm is no different than any other aspect of your life - it's the little things that count. One of my colleagues at Northwestern Law, who knows far more about business and industry than I do, recently mentioned the marketing-guru mantra that "it takes seven contacts to make a sale." This theory is completely transferrable to the young-associate-as-commodity model of law firm employment I'm currently advocating.
As a junior associate, you want partners to know you, like you, respect you, and, therefore, desire to work with you again and again. Imagine that it's your first day on the job: You meet a partner during the office tour your mentor is giving on your first day. Contact One. You e-mail the partner later to say that it was nice to meet her, and that you are thrilled to begin your career at the firm. Contact Two. Subsequently you see the partner in the cafeteria and chat about the weather. Contact Three. You run into the partner on the elevator on your way into work. Contact Four. You see the partner in the gym later in the week. Contact Five. You stop by the partner's office to ask whether she has any active cases for which she might need additional assistance. Contact Six. You again run into the partner, this time on your way out of the office. Contact Seven. The next day you receive a call and begin your illustrious career of working with the partner on cases. Seven contacts equals success! You've made a sale!
But there are much simpler ways for you to market yourself in the office. Another colleague of mine made the astute observation that even the question "How are you?" does not mean, literally, "How are you?"
Not that the people for whom you work do not care about your well-being - some of them might. But rather because, in answering that question, you are able to let the inquiring partner know that you are busy, engaged and in demand. "I'm great - working on a really interesting case with Partner Bob, defending my first deposition in two weeks, and my case with Partner Beth is about to go to trial!"
All of a sudden, your brand is the gold standard. Your power bars are flying off the shelves.
Everyone wants to buy the box of Wheaties with your face on it. Mikey likes YOU. Don't let your friends who went to business school have all the fun. Begin building your brand today, and before you know it, you'll be the Prada of junior associates.