Post-PILC Fair Internship Search

Help! It’s February and I’m just starting my public interest internship search. What should I do?

There are many reasons that students find themselves looking for public interest internships after the PILC Fair. In fact, the majority of students report their summer internships in February or March, and there are still plenty of great opportunities available. 

If you are already engaged in an internship search through the PILC Fair or other avenues, you are probably on the right track and should continue your job search, and reach out to PILC for help if you need it.

If you are just starting your public interest job search after the PILC Fair deadline, your search may need some adjustments. Not only are you working on a shorter timeline, but you will likely need to broaden your thinking about the type of job you’re looking for. Not to fret! Following the steps laid out below will put you in a strong position to secure a public interest job this summer.

 

Conducting Your Post-PILC Fair Internship Search

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STEP 1: Take Stock

You can secure a great public interest summer position, even if you start your search after the PILC Fair. At the same time, depending on your interest and experience, you may need to expand the types of jobs that you are open to. Remember, regardless of your postgraduate goals, you can get excellent and relevant experience in almost any practice area or field; try to embrace the variety of options available.

 

You might also consider spending your summer outside of NYC. There may be more opportunities in your areas of interest if you broaden your geographic scope. Even if you want to stay in NYC after graduation, spending a summer outside of the city can give you valuable perspectives and be a unique addition to your resume.

STEP 2: Identify Any Primary Interests

The earlier you start your search, the more thoughtful, comprehensive and strategic this step will be. While a later search requires more flexibility and openness, this is still a useful step to ensure that your substantive preferences are top of mind as you are reviewing potential opportunities. Review PILC’s Practice Areas & Legal Issues guidance to identify areas of public interest work that would be most interesting to you.

STEP 3: Create an Internship Application Tracker

An application tracker is incredibly helpful at any stage of your search, but is particularly important later in the process, as you want to be as broad as possible, and deadlines and turnaround times may be quick. Most people find a spreadsheet to be the best format for this. You can use PILC's job tracking spreadsheet template to make your own.

STEP 4: Find Internship Listings

Two incredibly useful resources for finding public interest internships are PSJD's Job Search and PILC’s CSM Summer Internships Board. If you don’t yet have a PSJD account, create one now. In addition to PSJD & CSM, there are a number of other practice-area specific job listing resources that you may want to look through.

 

Use these listings to start filling in your job tracker. As you do this, you may want to cross-reference with the PILC Intern Reports, to get more information about other students’ internship experiences and application advice.

 

If there are specific issue areas in which you are particularly interested, you could also look on individual organization websites to supplement your search. If you don’t know any specific organizations, use PSJD’s Employer Search to identify organizations that address the particular legal issues in which you are interested that didn’t have internship listings on PSJD or CSM. Go to the organization websites and look around to see if they have any internship postings. This will usually be found in their “careers” section, but may also be under “volunteering” or its own dedicated “internships” section.

STEP 5: Prepare and Submit Applications

Once you have found one or more opportunities to which you want to apply, you should start preparing your application materials, even as you continue to search for other listings.

Update Your Resume

If you haven’t already updated your resume for public interest specific work, this is a good time to do it. PILC offers in-depth guidance on drafting your public interest resume.

 

Particularly if you don’t have a lot of public interest experience, you want to make sure that your resume reflects any public service-related activities that you have engaged in. This might include volunteering or community service work during college, tutoring, involvement in student groups and organizations, etc. To the extent that any of this work involved holding a leadership position and/or working with individuals, you might want to include that under your “Experience” section. 

 

In describing your prior experience, highlight work that would be transferrable to public interest work, and limit less relevant substantive descriptions. For example, if you worked in a private sector office and managed large financial accounts, focus on the specific tasks that utilized relevant skills (organization, analysis, prioritization) rather than the quantities of money that you handled.

Draft Cover Letters

Once you have at least one position to which you want to apply, you can start drafting your cover letter. We generally recommend that you draft cover letters for specific jobs, rather than spending time creating a generic cover letter that will likely need substantial adjustment later. Depending on the types of positions you apply for, you may have a few different drafts which you can then adapt for similar positions.

 

Public-interest cover letters are very different from private-sector. While private sector employers are generally more focused on your resume and GPA, public interest employers are invested in knowing who you are and what you will bring to their organization, even as an intern. The good news is that there is a straightforward format and process that will help you craft a strong letter. PILC has extensive guidance on this structure and process, including a two part video that effectively walks you through it.

 

The basic structure is four paragraphs:

1. Introduction: "I’m a 1L at NYU Law and am writing to apply for…" Say something about why you are interested in working in this type of work, and ideally include something specific about this organization/office/program that you are interested in. 
2. Your relevant interest & expertise: This paragraph should talk about who you are, when/how you became interested in being a lawyer and/or working/developing experience in this particular subject matter. DO NOT SUMMARIZE YOUR  RESUME. Lead with a strong topic sentences that captures the theme of the paragraph. You can talk about personal connections to the issue, pre-law school experiences, student activities and/or reading group at NYU Law to the extent they shaped your interest/experience, but don't get into specific skills in this section.
3. Your relevant skills: This is where you discuss the specific and relevant skills that you bring. For public interest jobs. Research, analysis and writing skills are good options for nearly any position. Talk through specific research/writing projects to demonstrate your skills rather than just describing them. You can discuss substantial non-legal research & writing projects, but prioritize your LEGAL research, writing and analytical skills. You can discuss your lawyering and/or doctrinal classes, and reference other prior experiences to the extent they enriched your skillset. Again, lead with a strong topic sentence about the strong and growing legal skills that you are discussing in the paragraph.
4. Wrapping up: Express enthusiasm for the role in the first sentence of the last paragraph, and let them know that you are looking forward to the opportunity to discuss your interest and experience with them further.

Seek Resume & Cover Letter Feedback

PILC is happy to provide feedback on your resume and cover letter drafts. This is generally best done by email, rather than through an appointment, unless you have specific questions that you want to talk through. If you want to set up an appointment with a PILC counselor to talk about your internship search, send an email to pilc.appointments@nyu.edu with your upcoming availability and they will set something up, but make sure that you've gone through the steps outlined here before you meet with us.

STEP 6: Interviews & Offers

Once you have an interview scheduled, make sure to review PILC’s guidance on interview prep and follow-up, including considering doing a mock interview if you have time.

 

If you have multiple interviews, or are still waiting to hear about interview offers from your top choices and have an interview or offer for another opportunity, you should review PILC’s guidance on navigating competing offers and preferences, keeping in mind that the later it is in the season, the higher the risk to you if you choose to decline a current offer and hold out for something else.