The Inside Scoop: Government Job Search After Graduation
By Julie Santangelo, Class of 2006
I MUST tell you about the fabulous work I've found. But first, of course, I must describe the series of follies that resulted in my taking this unexpected dream job:
After two months of high-paying contract work at a law firm in Walnut Creek, I turned down a GREAT permanent job offer to be a criminal research attorney for the San Mateo County Court system...because, 24 hours prior, I had committed to the firm with the understanding that they intended to hire me full-time unless my performance was substandard. They knew I gave up this job for them, and then I discovered that they had never intended to hire me in the first place.
Meanwhile, the rest of my far-flung county government job applications were finally starting to get processed. This was my system: First I went to the cacourtinfo.gov website and, weekly, religiously, went to the internet cafe to search for suitable court jobs in every single county in the state. I applied to each of those jobs--including appellate and supreme court jobs. After looking at each county's court, I would then follow the link to each county's government website and look for legal jobs in the county itself--mostly county counsel and DA jobs. If there was no link to the county government website (often the case with small counties), I Googled the county to find it. I applied to many of those, and I would NEVER have found this job if I hadn't because they did absolutely zero recruitment other than posting the job on their website and putting an ad in the local paper. Then I went to the state government website and applied to state government attorney jobs. Each of these applications took on average 2-3 hours to complete and involved very tedious, stringent paperwork requirements. Some of them took half a day to complete and involved hellacious interview and written test processes. The worst of them involved online applications utilizing bad software that erased your entire application if you did not finish in 30 minutes--with no option to save.
I eventually received an opportunity to interview in Calaveras County for a deputy county counsel job where most of my time would be spent litigating juvenile dependency cases (child abuse and neglect cases). The other part of my job would be HIPAA compliance work. I had honestly forgotten that I applied for this job, but I was able to find my index card proving to myself that I had in fact applied. Unfortunately, I could no longer find the job brochure that told me what I would be doing there if I got the job (including the HIPAA part). When I went to the website, alas, the brochure was gone.
Too embarrassed to explain that I had misplaced the job description, I showed up cold at a panel interview involving open-ended questions and hypotheticals, the first question being, "What do you know about HIPAA compliance?" My response was to blush, chuckle and say, "I'm pretty sure this is not what you want to hear, but, um, what's HIPAA?" The assistant county counsel who asked me that was smirking. Everyone else was dead silent. The rest of the questions seemed to go fine.
As I was heading out of the parking lot afterwards, the boss passed by me in his car. He said, "Do you want to grab some lunch?" I was scared and embarrassed and did a stupid thing. I
hesitated before saying "Well...surrrrre, I suppose I can do that. I'm hoping it's a good sign to be asked for lunch, no?" And then I giggled nervously. Instead of laughing with me, he noticed my initial hesitation and said, "No, that's OK. You need to get going. Don't worry about it." I now failed my second test and I was ready to grab some Kleenex and make a quick exit.
I went to lunch at the Mexican place on Main Street. After placing my order at the counter, I turned to sit down and guess who was there—by himself at a table...yep, the boss. Cursing my luck, I figured the only thing to do was to grab my lunch and enthusiastically join him. I was scared, uncomfortable, found him intimidating, and tried my best to charm him into accepting "weird Berkeley girl" into Calaveras County. Before I got up to leave, he asked, "Do you really want this job?" I said, “Yes. I do. I would really love a job that allows me to specialize right off the bat in child abuse and neglect work. DA jobs don't let you specialize for years. So this is really exciting to me....and (wink wink) I've been told I'm a fast learner. I'll figure out HIPAA."
Figuring maybe I actually had a chance despite my idiotic mistakes, I did intensive intelligence gathering. I went around the town and talked to people ad nauseum.
Three days later I was offered the job. My bosses knew nothing about dependency practice so I'd have to go it alone—with zero experience. I asked for the following three things: 1) a period of time to shadow my predecessor, 2) a library comprised of practice guides and books that I researched online, 3) to be sent to a Denver intensive training in trial advocacy for child welfare law practitioners that happened to be scheduled the week before my start date.
I got these three things, and it's been absolutely AWESOME ever since. It turns out my boss is fantastic, and my co-workers are very much like me (law firm escapees--all from good schools--who value their free time and wanted to do honest government work.
My work hours are generally 40-50 hours a week, I'm not afraid of court anymore, the benefits are fabulous, three weeks of formal paid vacation plus a lot of other days off, two or three paid training conferences a year in nice parts of the state, low starting pay but a huge jump in salary after a few years when you get to "assistant county counsel" level. And, for the exact same rent I paid for my one-bedroom apartment in Berkeley, I rent a large 2 BR, 2BA, new house on top of a hill with an office, 2-car garage, cathedral ceilings, open floor plan, and giant porch on 2.5 oak-forested acres with a gorgeous unobstructed view of the Sierra foothills. I can spend any weekend I want with my friends in Berkeley or hiking in the high Sierra.
Please don't forget to mention "juvenile dependency law" or—more generally--"child welfare law" to those students out there who are deeply interested in helping kids but would prefer the security and better pay of a government job to a non-profit. I didn't know this specialization existed and am SOOO happy I found out about it. I would describe the work as quasi-prosecutorial but more laidback, more cooperative...and, best of all, only bench trials.