Interview Stories

This Wins The Prize For Most AWKWARD Interview Ever

Nothing like a dash of casual racism to make things weird.

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Oh interview season. The hopes and dreams of an entire law school class are on the line as they desperately try to secure the perfect Biglaw job (spoiler alert: they all suck). But dancing with the law firm devil is a rite of passage instrumental in defining any modern legal career, and finding out exactly what you can and cannot tolerate is key.

One thing many justifiably find unacceptable is some casual racism. Like an interviewer drops a mention that they happen to hire mostly white guys. Not in response to a question about diversity (which, while potentially more inappropriate, at least makes sense as a matter of conversation flow) but just in a “hmmm… here are some tidbits about our summer program” kind of way. Now imagine if your interviewer says this and you are very much not a white guy.

Yikes. Well one reader dealt with that situation, handled it with humor and wound up with a better job on the back end.

Last year I was in an OCI interview with an attorney from [a mid-market firm] in Baltimore. It is pertinent to mention that the interviewer was a white male. So, we had a good conversation going and at about ten minutes in I asked him about their summer program, hoping to hear about the type of work, practice groups, the normal stuff.

So he responds by telling me the summer program is ten weeks, that summers move between practice groups and have the opportunity to work with as many people as they would like, they usually have two summer associates and somehow they’re usually white males… and then it gets AWKWARD.

Because in the middle of telling me about the summer program he ACTUALLY says they usually hire two white males… and I am a Mexican American woman. So he tries to recover by telling me that in the past they’ve actually had two black women as summers, but it is so derailed at this point that I just want to leave. I made a joke of it and said that they probably aren’t looking for me then. He hands me the swag, which was a coloring book, and I left.

Cut to the April after, I have successfully landed a BigLaw summer position and the school asks me to be on a panel to discuss the OCI process, give advice, etc. There are three of us, two women and a man, and I ask my male colleague which law firm he will be at for the summer and he says [the same mid-market law firm] and I just started laughing.

So, what’s your tale of woe? Or maybe you were on the interviewer side of someone’s epic meltdown? If you have a funny, mortifying, or otherwise interesting interview story, we’d love it if you shared it with us. Please send it our way by email or by text (646-820-8477). We’ll read all the submissions and share our favorites in these pages. Thanks, and good luck to both the candidates and the interviewers in the current recruiting cycle.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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