Holiday time is upon us at Tulane Law School, and that means one thing - the end of finals and the beginning of holiday break for our students. As Tulane Law students head home to visit with family and relax after a challenging and busy fall semester, we at the Career Development Office are working busily to prepare for the spring. December is a great time for the career counselors to work on alumni spreadsheets, plan programs for next semester and work on employer outreach. We sent out a holiday e-card to over 2000 alumni today, wishing them Season's Greetings and encouraging them to be a part of our Team Tulane network, a group of alumni that volunteer to serve as student mentors. We also attended the New Orleans Legal Recruiting Association's holiday party last week, which was a wonderful chance to network with our local law firm recruiters, and of course, to brag about our wonderful law students!
Holiday break is also a great time for our students to network and further the job search. As our students travel to hometowns across the country, many will be attending a number of holiday receptions hosted by firms and local bar associations in a variety of cities. We have also encouraged the students to set up informational interviews with practitioners during the time away from campus. Informational interviewing is a great way to learn about the practice of law and make contacts with alumni working in fields and cities in which our students are interested. The break is also the perfect time to send out applications for summer employment. We were lucky to meet so many of our wonderful 1L students during counseling sessions these past two months, and no doubt many of them will be putting their newly-revised and perfected resumes to good use and applying to various summer positions during the time off from school.
Holiday break is a well-deserved treat for our law students. Although the career counselors at the CDO look forward to our time off with family and friends as well, we are already looking forward to a fun and productive Spring 2011. Happy Holidays to all!
Katie O'Leary
Assistant Director, Judicial Clerkships
Adam Maese
Assistant Director, Interview Programs