The Waiting Room

In the midst of packing up the house and getting it ready for sale, I am still looking for a job. It has been a slow process.

Now, I know the economy is in the crapper, and I know it is really slow in the academic market. And I also realize that I do have another career to fall back on if need be. Really, I am not whining.

I just hate waiting...and hearing the sound of crickets.

I try not to take the silence personally. Really, I do. I started thinking about when I was in the position of hiring someone. A few years ago, I had to hire someone to do legal research for me. It was a very complex custody issue and with all the other stuff I had to do, I just didn't have time. So, I put an add in the career services bulletin at Alma Mater Law School. I wanted a third year law student or a recent grad who had some course work in family law. Within days, I was bombarded by resumes. By the time my deadline hit, I had about 25 resumes sitting on my desk, all begging for the chance to work with me.

As I plowed through the resumes, I could discard a few because the candidates just didn't have the coursework. Extensive course work in tax without any background with family law would not cut it.

Then I had to go through about 15 resumes that met my minimum standards I looked at their background, did they have experience working for someone? Where did they do their undergrad or graduate work? What were their goals for after law school? Did they have a life outside of law school? Could they hit the ground running or would I have to supervise them? Most importantly, why did they want to work for a solo practitioner who could not pay them much money or offer them any future employment? What did they expect from me?

I was able to discard those who had a ton of big law firm experience; I think they were just looking for resume fodder. I also discard those that just seemed "needy and desperate". If I could speak to them directly, I would explain to them that such language does not help the cause. And I discarded others because I just didn't get a feeling from their cover letter that they really wanted the job. There was nothing there that made me excited about them.

Finally, I was able to knock it down to five potential candidates that I thought would fit with my not so typical style. After interviewing, I ended up hiring a young woman who was maybe five or six years lounger than me, who had a similar academic background, clerked for a family law attorney and was interested in learning as much as she could.

It ended up being a great relationship. She did a fantastic job on the research. I let her help me with the trial prep for the case and let her sit with me during the trial. She even accompanied me to some of my other cases outside of family court. She was an absolute gem.

When I look back at what it took to find such an extraordinary person, I realize that it was no easy task. It wasn't anything personal with the candidates that didn't make it. I am sure they are fine individuals who landed on their feet. Who knows if I had hired one of the others if they would have worked. Maybe they would have...maybe not.

Now that I am back on the potential employee side again I realize that hiring someone is no easy task. It's not personal or anything like that. I know that I am awesome. And there is someone out there who thinks I am awesome too. It's just finding the right match.