If you are a premedical student looking to supplement your learning and enhance your medical school application this summer, check out the Student Doctor Network (SDN) activity-finder. The activity-finder allows you to sort through summer or next-term experiences, organized into the following categories: medical/clinical work experiences, volunteer/community service experiences, research experiences, and shadowing experiences. Then it provides a list of organizations and resources for you to consider by location.
Virtual Interviews Continue for Law Students Applying to Summer Associate Positions
Law360 just released its annual Summer Associates Survey. This year’s survey, with responses from over 1,000 current law students (predominantly in their first and second years), examines the process by which students match with summer associate positions at law firms, specifically the interviewing process, firm selection criteria by students, and the impact of COVID-19 on summer internships.
Interviews
On average, students reported applying to 17 firms for summer associate positions (with a median of ten). Through on-campus interview bids, students received an average of 5 interviews during early interview week (with a median of two). Overall, the average success rate of obtaining an interview was 34 percent, although 30 percent of applicants did not receive any interviews during early interview week.
Five law schools (of the 29 with data published) had success rates of students garnering interviews of over 50 percent. They were Harvard (66 percent), Columbia (61 percent), NYU (5800 percent), UCLA (54 percent), and UC Berkeley (53 percent). NYU students, on average, received the highest number of interviews per student at 15.7, followed by Columbia (14.0), UCLA (12.6), and Harvard (12.4).
The majority of respondents reported that all of their summer associateship interviews were remote, although at 69 percent, the number has decreased significantly from 82 percent last year.
Student Selection Criteria
Among the criteria for selecting a firm for a summer associateship, students ranked “practice areas available” as the most important (54 percent), followed by geography (51 percent), firm reputation (39 percent), and culture advertised (36 percent). Just about one-third (34 percent) viewed the option to report virtually to the associateship, with no need to physically relocate, as important or very important.
Student Support
Students were most likely to rely significantly on their law school’s career services office (26 percent) to navigate the law firm selection process. However, they also said they rely on alumni working in firms as associates (20 percent) and friends working at firms (19 percent) as key resources.
While about two-thirds of respondents (61 percent) said that their law school prepared them for on-campus interviewing with mock summer associate interviews, the remainder said they did not (39 percent).
Covid-19 Impacts
While the effects of the pandemic are still present for some 2022 summer associates, the impact is decreasing in scale. Almost all students, 92 percent, said that, if given the option, they would report to the office for their 2022 summer internship.
When asked how the covid-19 pandemic has affected their summer associateship programs:
One-third of respondents reported that they believe covid-19 has hindered their ability to network with attorneys at potential internship firms in a moderate to significant way, which is a sharp decline from 58 percent last year.
About a quarter of respondents, 24 percent, said they will be working in a hybrid role this summer (part virtual, part in-person), and 9 percent will work fully remote.
37 percent said that during their interview process, they encountered a firm that would allow them to report virtually to the internship while living in a different city, whereas the remaining 63 percent did not receive such an offer.
Student Concerns
Students’ biggest concerns going into their summer associate positions are an inability to connect with colleagues/mentors due to remote work (25 percent), not being up to the workload (25 percent), and not getting hired at the conclusion of the summer position (24 percent).
Find the full report here.
Employers’ Need for Junior Employees Spurs Highly Competitive Summer Intern Market
The Wall Street Journal describes the current recruiting environment as one with unprecedented student leverage. Firms are scrambling to onboard junior employees. According to corporate recruiters, the offers are so plentiful, and many so generous, that they are seeing an increase in students reneging on previously accepted internship offers. Some employers say that they are boosting intern salaries to remain competitive. Others are increasing communications with students who have accepted offers to maintain the relationships.
Private equity firms are expected to increase intern salaries again this summer. In 2021 the median monthly salary for private equity interns from Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford topped $11,000. This was a particularly notable spike for Columbia students who reported a 2019 median monthly salary of $9,000, and a solid uptick for Harvard and Stanford students who averaged just above $10,000 in 2019. The increases were likely due to pressure from investment banking and consulting firms, where interns made monthly median salaries in 2021 of $12,500 and $13,500, respectively.
In addition to increasing compensation, private equity recruiters are updating their tactics in response to the competitive market. Ann Anastastia, Vice President of HR for the Americas and Greater China at Advent International, tells the Wall Street Journal, “I have been in private equity for over 15 years and in HR for over 25, and I have never seen anything like this recruiting climate.” She will start the MBA recruiting process much earlier this year, kicking off in the fall as opposed to January. Additionally, the WSJ article notes that private equity firms are promoting themselves more on campus, and engaging directly with students on topics including compensation, work-life balance, diversity, and career development. “In the past, private-equity firms haven’t needed to do that,” said Deirdre O’Donnell, Director of M.B.A. Career Services and Advising at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.