I am from a TI NLU and my grades are pretty bad. If I want to get hired or get decent internships how should I compensate for my lack of grades? will publishing in reputed national journals/blogs help or do I need to focus more on moots? I am in my 2nd year so I still have time to improve my CV. Please, help me out and also mention what do firms want while hiring.
Prepare for CAT/GMAT and do a MBA, doesn't matter where. If you are not in the reserved category and if IIM is beyond your reach, there are many private B schools.
Hi, I had bad grades as well. Grades don't matter as much as a good understanding of first principles and a willingness to put your head down and put in the work. That being said, they may pose a barrier at the point of entry, so you may need to demonstrate why you should get the internship offer in spite of that. This could be done in one of several ways: a) the usual co-curriculars such as papers and moots b) focusing on a particular area that you have an affinity for and chasing it or c) if you have the privilege, through references.
On (b), I once met a student in the course of a talk at some college, and his energy and obvious passion for the subject were evident. A couple of years later, I got an email from him, that he had been rejected by the firm's internship department but that he would love to work with my team. I scheduled an interview, eventually hired him, and he ended up being one of my best associates till date. So keep at it, and don't give up. Having said that, grades make things easier, so since you're only in your second year, you may want to consider working on them while you have time. Cheers.
you still have sufficient time to improve your grades. in any event, your best bet lies in trying for a ppo as opposed to campus recruitment, in the former the focus on your grades is less. This is not to suggest that you have no chance in campus recruitment, if you are in a tier 1 NLU, you will most probably land a job in tier 2-3 law firm and good in house positions as well. im in a tier 1 NLU and people belonging to the bottom 15 got jobs in tier 2 and 3 law firms. i dont think you have much to worry about but still but your best effort in improving your grades.
If you’re in your second year, there’s still a year and half (at the very least) before your CV will go before recruiters looking to hire. There’s enough time to make small improvements and start working towards better grades.
Thereafter, my approach would be to explain to a prospective recruiter that while your first two years was something that was difficult to adjust to and therefore took time to acclimatise yourself to the grading / teaching system, and that your recent sem semesters demonstrate that you’ve been working hard to improve. At the end of the day while grades are imp to these firms, what’s more imp is demonstrating that you’re a candidate that willing to learn and stick to with the firm.
Publications and articles are a good way to mitigate bad grades, but since you are in the 2nd year you have plenty of time to improve your grades. You can always explain the bad grades on difficulty transitioning from school life to college life. At the end of the day it is about being able to sell a particular narrative about yourself at the interview stage. Even if you don't get a T1 law firm straight out of law school, don't lose heart. You can always join a T2 or T3 firm who are not as fixated on such parameters. You can always jump after working for a year at such a place. The way the market is right now anyone with warm blood in their veins with more than a year of experience is getting hounded by recruiters from T1 law firms.
Firms want people who can do their jobs for them. So it's important to know what jobs they do for their clients and to accordingly prepare for such a role. Therefore, find the practice area you want to get into and target all your internships in that practice area. If you are able to demonstrate experience in a particular practice area, then your overall grades won't have a material impact on your chances.
If you are not sure of the practice area you want to go for - then focus on improving general skills like (i) hard work, (ii) diligence, (iii) deep research, (iv) verbal ability, (v) reading comprehension, (vi) analytical ability, (vii) critical thinking. Use project submissions as opportunities to hone above skills. If you do well, you could get a paper published as well on the same (or a deeper level) topic of your project submission. With this strategy, your grades are going to have a more material impact on your chances.
Bhai T1 firms like SAM and CAM give a lot of importance to grades, try to keep it above average atleast. Average grades can be compensated by internships, research papers and mooting. For instance, I come from Gnlu-24 batch (you must be knowing this batch, infamous for its toxic culture which a lot of students have recently called out here itself) and almost everyone has good GPA in the batch due to the online exams being conducted. So, good publications and internships have become very important.
Improve your grades. It is still not too late. Work hard on your grades and salvage them as much as you can. Moots and publications are good but won't get you anywhere unless you back it up with good grades. Moots in particular can harm your preparation for exams or clash with exams so be careful about that.
Finally, be strategic in going about the hiring process. If you're not in the top 25-30 ranks, start trying to intern in T-1 firms that are not uber rank centric. CAM is very rank centric followed by SAM and L&L. AZB and Trilegal are generally a little more lenient wrt rank. L&L used to be rank centric when I was in college but post split no wants to go there so not sure how L&L and Saraf approach recruitment now. Worst case focus on JSA and do long term internships, be persistent and it should come through. Finally, once you get in your grades will stop mattering and you will be able to shift to another firm easily with 9-12 months exp.
I am in my 2nd year so I still have time to improve my CV. Please, help me out and also mention what do firms want while hiring.
On (b), I once met a student in the course of a talk at some college, and his energy and obvious passion for the subject were evident. A couple of years later, I got an email from him, that he had been rejected by the firm's internship department but that he would love to work with my team. I scheduled an interview, eventually hired him, and he ended up being one of my best associates till date. So keep at it, and don't give up. Having said that, grades make things easier, so since you're only in your second year, you may want to consider working on them while you have time. Cheers.
Thereafter, my approach would be to explain to a prospective recruiter that while your first two years was something that was difficult to adjust to and therefore took time to acclimatise yourself to the grading / teaching system, and that your recent sem semesters demonstrate that you’ve been working hard to improve. At the end of the day while grades are imp to these firms, what’s more imp is demonstrating that you’re a candidate that willing to learn and stick to with the firm.
If you are not sure of the practice area you want to go for - then focus on improving general skills like (i) hard work, (ii) diligence, (iii) deep research, (iv) verbal ability, (v) reading comprehension, (vi) analytical ability, (vii) critical thinking. Use project submissions as opportunities to hone above skills. If you do well, you could get a paper published as well on the same (or a deeper level) topic of your project submission. With this strategy, your grades are going to have a more material impact on your chances.
For instance, I come from Gnlu-24 batch (you must be knowing this batch, infamous for its toxic culture which a lot of students have recently called out here itself) and almost everyone has good GPA in the batch due to the online exams being conducted. So, good publications and internships have become very important.
Finally, be strategic in going about the hiring process. If you're not in the top 25-30 ranks, start trying to intern in T-1 firms that are not uber rank centric. CAM is very rank centric followed by SAM and L&L. AZB and Trilegal are generally a little more lenient wrt rank. L&L used to be rank centric when I was in college but post split no wants to go there so not sure how L&L and Saraf approach recruitment now. Worst case focus on JSA and do long term internships, be persistent and it should come through. Finally, once you get in your grades will stop mattering and you will be able to shift to another firm easily with 9-12 months exp.
Regards,
Someone who has been through this.