The Interview
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Travis
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Todd
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Todd: So you're in law school, Travis.
Travis: Yes, I'm in law school.
Todd: Normally, how do you get a job after you finish law school?
Travis: Well, the law school that I'm at is considered to be a top-tier law school and so my law school has a lot o power to get companies to actually come to my law school and interview with students at the school. And the way my law school does it is every year in the summer, the last week of summer before school starts, they get about 700 firms to come for about one week and interview students on campus and it's called early interview week. So during this early interview week, basically the school rents out an entire hotel and every firm will be there for about one day and so, it's like every day you have about 150-200 firms on any particular day. Each with their own room in the hotel and so the students will wait in a common area and when it's their time to interview they'll go to a hotel room and knock on the door and go inside and interview with that firm and they'll get maybe 20 or 30 minutes with that firm. And then afterwards if the firm likes them the firm might actually invite them to go to lunch or to go to a dinner that night and they'll be selected so maybe every day, a firm will interview as many as 50 candidates but only invite maybe 5 or 6 of them to go out to dinner with them that night. So this lasts about 4 or 5 days and at the end of that, other than being really tired. Hopefully, you've gotten a couple of job offers, well not job offers but basically an offer to come back to a second interview which will hopefully, eventually lead to a job offer. So, for the students it's quite difficult. Over the course of a week some students will interview with as many as 25 firms, over a four or five day period so they can be interviewing anywhere from five to as many as ten firms in a single day. So if you're interviewing 10 firms in a singe day, each 30 minutes long, you're going to be there a long time. At least 5 or 6 hours of straight interviewing, going from one room to the next room to the next room, to the next room to interview with a firm.
Todd: Sounds pretty exhausting.
Travis: It's really exhausting and I'm not looking forward to it at all.
finish
How do you get a job after you finish law school.
When you 'finish' something you complete what you have to do. Notice the following:
- I'll come over right after I finish work.
- When will you finish the project?
top-tier
The law school that I'm at is considered to be a top-tier law school.
Anything described as 'top-tier' is considered to be very good at what it does compared to similar institutions. Notice the following:
- Our school competes with some of the top-tier schools in terms of
classes offered.
- They are going to be one of the top-tier teams at the tournament.
rent out
During the early interview week, the school rents out an entire hotel.
The way 'rent out' is used in this example is similar to 'rent' or to pay to be able to use a thing or place. Usually we use 'rent out' to say that we have something that we want to rent to someone else. Notice the following:
- Is there a place around here that rents out bicylces.
- The hotel has offered to rent out ten room at a discounted rate.
common area
The students will wait in a common area, and wait for their turn to be interviewed.
A 'common area' is a place where people from different rooms or areas can come and relax. Usually it has sofas and maybe a TV. Notice the following:
- We just got a new television for the common area in our house.
- It's strange that the apartment has no common area for us to hang
out.
firm
Over the course of a week, some students will interview as many as twenty-five firms over a four or five-day period.
A 'firm' is a partnership or association of a group of people who give the same services, such as lawyers or accountants. Notice the following:
- How many lawyers are at your firm.
- Our firm always has a big holiday party every year.
Vocabulary Quiz
common area • firm
