struggling to make the switch from in-house to in-firm

[nobeersonlytears]

i come to you humbly with tear-stained glasses and defeat in my heart

i just received a post-interview rejection from somewhere i really had my sights set on, i put a lot of preparation into my interview but alas. such is life at the circus. 

at least im lucky that my in-house 1L job offered to hire me back for 2L summer, but im just not getting the kinds of work i want. there arent any opportunities for litigation or pertinent research since theres only 1 supervising lawyer. a lot of the time i feel like im just being assigned busy work. im trying not to be bleak because i know theres still others that dont even have a backup like i do, but i didnt imagine that my law school experience would look like this. im also generally worried about compensation because its not too high and i have a lot of student loan debt, and i just cant help but feel like this is another nail in my financial coffin.

i know i may be catastrophizing but im actually at a loss of what to do. i can imagine that i could network a lot over the summer, but how do i make the switch from 2 summers of in-house to in-firm articling? my grades are average (B) so im not expecting to wow anyone there, but ill try my hardest to get them up this semester. i just dont know what to do anymore 😞 

[LMP]

If you're not picky you shouldn't have trouble landing a firm for articling. There are a lot more oppertunites than during the other recruits and they are far more litigation oriented. 

[Dinsdale]

At this point, return to your in-house job for 2L summer.  Start focusing on the articling recruit.  Is your in-house employer even going to invite you back for articling? (I ask because it doesn't sound like they have much work for you to do).  What sort of private practice firm are you hoping to land in? (big/small; full service/boutique, etc.).  I agree articling positions will be plentiful in some types of firms, but no so much in large Bay St. firms, whose goal is generally to fill the articling class from the 2L summers and avoid the August recruit altogether.

[JohnnyCochrane68]

How are you thinking about compensation? It's common to have pay jumps as you make lateral moves every 2-3 years. A lot of people want to get inhouse - think carefully about how limited your options at your job really are, whether other people can give you work, whether you can do stuff on the business side etc