Murtha Cullina

The inevitable trouble with screening interviews is that there is never enough time to say all that you want to say. I spent twenty minutes with a partner at Murtha Cullina today for a screening interview, and didn't even begin to scratch the surface of my resume (granted, he did not see it beforehand, nor did he have a copy). In all fairness, the interview was decent, as we were able to talk about my experiences in college with regard to rowing and being a tour guide (we never got past the education part of the interview).

However, I didn't feel like I made that significant of an impression. Half way through the interview (which means about 10 minutes), he started asking me if I had any questions with regard to Murtha. Of course, I spent a bundle of time asking him about his energy law practice (turns out the bulk of his practice rests on municipal law), his personal background (he started at Jones Day in Washington as a litigation associate, and ultimately decided he wanted to do corporate law, which brought him back to his home state of CT), and about the firm's international business practice (silly me - this type of information I can easily get from the website).

Needless to say, I felt like I spent the bulk of our time interviewing him, which I thought was rather strange. Nevertheless, there were a few positives. He did mention that his daughter is at Cornell, and spoke of her experience while visiting Colgate, which prompted my comment about being a tour guide. Furthermore, he asked about the challenges of law school (pigeon-holed in a 1 square mile block), my likes (intellectual challenge), and dislikes (transition from working to the 1 square mile block). I thought I handled the questions fairly well. Unfortunately, there just weren't that many questions to go around! The touchiest subject of them all was that he asked about my performance this past semester, to which I replied that it was not up to my expectations, but certainly not bad at all. Translation: grades were okay.

I also found it rather disappointing that he did not offer his business card (because someone else had received one). On a brighter note, he did request a writing sample, and that he wishes to see me soon (which I can only assume is something that he says at the end of every interview). I hope the writing sample is sufficient.

Regardless of the outcome, there are a few things I can take from this informal interview: I need to ask better questions above and beyond what is listed on the website. Moreover, I have to take control of the interview in a way that is not too intrusive. In other words, I need to highlight what it is that I want to say - and then actually follow through. I don't have particular high hopes, but at least it was somewhat of a decent learning experience. Cheers to six more interviews in the next two days.