by Christina Stine (L’15)
And I’m not just talking about its power to keep you awake through your 8 a.m. classes or countless hours of studying during finals. I’m talking about coffee’s power to build your network and, as in my case, ultimately help you figure out what you want to do in your professional life.
When I came to law school, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a lawyer, let alone what kind of law I wanted to practice. *Gasp!* The only things I was sure of was that I wanted to be a problem solver, a persuader or mediator, and I wanted to work with people. (Hint: That doesn’t narrow the job search very much.) As a confused but hopeful 1L, I set out to find a career that would allow me to do just that – problem solve and persuade by communicating and working with people.
My career advisor, Carole Yeatts, and I came up with a few target practice areas and made a list of attorneys and alumni who practiced them. I emailed family law attorneys, trial attorneys, criminal defense attorneys. You name a practice area, I found a Richmond attorney who practiced it, and I emailed them. My emails asked for two things from these unwitting folks: 1. To let me buy them coffee, and 2. To let me pick their brains about what they did for a living. Luckily, people naturally like to help others, and they like to talk about themselves. So I ended up meeting with a lot of attorneys.
I always brought a legal pad to take notes, my resume, and business cards. After about 30 minutes, I left these meetings with a few things, but most importantly I left with one more professional contact in the Richmond community and a better-informed opinion of the area of law in which the attorney practiced. (On two occasions, I left the meetings with a job!)
Now it’s my 3L year, and that confused 1L seems like a different person. Instead of having a lot of unknowns about my desired career path, I know for certain that I want to be in the government relations field. Plus, thanks to those coffees I have several contacts in the industry, relevant experience from a job I got on a referral, and the comfort of knowing that I haven’t left one stone unturned during my job search.
In sum, my advice is simple: If you want to learn more about a certain career path, or if you want to grow your network (two things every law student should want), I encourage you to email and ask for coffee.
Would you like to share your tales from the trenches? Submit your stories to Carole Yeatts.