TAing

[ZukoJD]

An opportunity came up for me to TA a course and I'm a bit torn on whether to accept it. I'm particularly concerned about how this will impede OCIs. Is there anyone here who's served as a TA? Did you partake in the recruit? How much of a time commitment was it, and would you do it again? 

I'm also curious as to how employers view being a TA in law school. Is this something that's valued highly? Would I be foolish not to accept? 

[capitalttruth]

On 8/5/2022 at 4:59 AM, ZukoJD said:

An opportunity came up for me to TA a course and I'm a bit torn on whether to accept it. I'm particularly concerned about how this will impede OCIs. Is there anyone here who's served as a TA? Did you partake in the recruit? How much of a time commitment was it, and would you do it again? 

I'm also curious as to how employers view being a TA in law school. Is this something that's valued highly? Would I be foolish not to accept? 

I had an opportunity to do it, but declined. From what I understand, it is a bit of a time commitment on top of all of your other priorities. I'm also of the opinion that being a research assistant is a more valuable addition to your CV than being a TA is. Being a research assistant is seen as valuable experience for clerking, for instance, whereas being a TA doesn't seem to be as valuable. I figure being a TA is almost like a reward for doing well in law school. But as long as you have the grades, the opportunities will open up, so being a TA really doesn't matter.

[notnotadog]

8 hours ago, capitalttruth said:

I had an opportunity to do it, but declined. From what I understand, it is a bit of a time commitment on top of all of your other priorities. I'm also of the opinion that being a research assistant is a more valuable addition to your CV than being a TA is. Being a research assistant is seen as valuable experience for clerking, for instance, whereas being a TA doesn't seem to be as valuable. I figure being a TA is almost like a reward for doing well in law school. But as long as you have the grades, the opportunities will open up, so being a TA really doesn't matter.

Seconding this. In clerkship interviews, I've found my RA and RA-adjacent experiences come up a lot more. I also TA'd and that did come up, but mostly because I was a TA for a while at Lincoln Alexander and they were interested in what Canada's newest law school looked like.

[t3ctonics]

I was a TA for my second year of law school and I think it was worthwhile. It had zero impact on the OCI process for me, but that would depend on how the coursework aligns with OCIs.

The amount of time required varied widely depending on whether there were any assignments or papers to mark. I usually had "TA hours" once a week, where I'd set up shop in a meeting room and let the class know I was available to help with the material or answer questions. That was maybe 2-3 hours a week. Not all TAs did that, and most didn't do it every week.

In my busiest weeks of TAing, when I had papers to mark, I think I worked maybe 10-12 hours a week. That would depend on how fast you read, but it was definitely doable. Also, that was only a couple of weeks out of the whole year.

Second year was my busiest year in law school and that was tiring, but it wasn't just because of TAing. I was also working a non-law part time job a few shifts a week as well as doing law review. Both were a substantially larger time commitment than being a TA most weeks.

In interviews some employers asked about it, but they were more interested in my regular part time job, law review, and my law school extracurriculars (particularly one where I had a leadership role). I'd say it got about the same degree of interest as the customer service work I did before law school - briefly noted as a positive if it came up, but no more than a question or two.

I agree with @capitalttruthand @notnotadog that RA work would be more valuable experience if you have a choice between the two, but I have no problem recommending TAing on its own. I enjoyed helping first years, it wasn't a significant time commitment, and it gave me a little bit of extra money. The only downside I found was having to mark a couple of frustratingly bad papers.

[ZukoJD]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Seems like a pretty positive experience all around, though not super intriguing for employers.