I'm now "elsewhere" (as I promised I'd soon be in my post this morning). And I've now had one callback interview. And like you might guess, a callback interview is a lot like an on-campus interview, only the windows look out onto something different and the desks are covered with papers. Actually, that's my most interesting observation -- there's an awful lot of paper on these people's desks. Piles and piles and piles of paper. I don't know what any of it was -- maybe the first 437 drafts of a full-length screenplay, I don't know -- but there was an awful lot of it on the four desks of the people I interviewed with. Even more paper than all the paper lying around the office of the Environmental Law Review at school. Really! Anyway, the callback left me with good feelings about the firm and little in the way of actual insightful observation. I actually came up with what seems like a decent question to ask at these things -- although I didn't actually ask it exactly to any of the interviewers today. Basically: "So obviously I'm looking at a bunch of firms this week -- you've been through this process before; what do you think I should be looking for this week as I visit these offices that won't necessarily be obvious?"

The only problem with that question is that I expect the answers will all be pretty much the same. "It's the people. And here at we really do have special people. We all get along, we hang out after work, they're my friends, I enjoy being here. You're going to work hard anywhere, but what really matters are the people." And they'd be right, of course... but I get to meet a handful of people, and I'm sure they don't send the monsters to interview... so I feel like it's a good thought in principle, but I'll probably like everyone I meet.

Now if someone were to say, "Look out for large stacks of paper on people's desks..." well, then we'd be getting somewhere.