Waddling Thunder has some advice for the 2L job search, and I don't know how I feel about it. He writes:

My instinct was to act [non-confrontational and polite] with law firms doing on-campus interviewing last year - to treat the representatives of law firms the way I treat people. Unfortunately, that was a mistake...

[Students have leverage and it] has to be used shamelessly. ... [I]f there's anything bothering you about a firm, or that interests you, or that you particularly want, you simply have to ask, and refuse to be fobbed off. Concerned that the firm's foreign office is s relatively stand alone former European firm, where you'll never work? Ask for them to send you there while you "decide". Does you firm balk at letting you split your summer with a public interest job you also want to try? Tell them that you're doing it - not imperiously, not arrogantly, but in a way that makes clear that this is what you want to do. Do you need some time off to do something over the summer, like, say, see your wife or girlfriend? Just tell them about it. It's important to you, and you'll be surprised how quickly they accede.

Good Jeremy: "No, no, no, no, no. This is terrible advice. This is what's wrong with the world today. People are too self-interested, looking for any angle they can get. A lot of people are sort of jackasses. This advice tells people to act like jackasses. Why do we want more jackasses?"

Evil Jeremy: "But WT is right. Law firms want students, they need students. We do have leverage. They probably *would* bend over backwards to accommodate demands that are, well, demanding. Why shouldn't law students take advantage any way they can? After all, it's not like the firms are so good and wholesome either."

Good Jeremy: "But even if you can get away with demanding demands -- sorry to steal your adjective there -- it really doesn't mean you have to. If you're measuring your own personal integrity against the integrity of a corporate law firm... well, it's kind of like measuring your IQ against the foliage. Do you really want to be the kind of person who fights for every last entitlement and works to procure every possible advantage?"

Evil Jeremy: "Actually, I do. Why not? Why shouldn't I get away with as much as I can? And it's not like I'm making the firm do anything -- they can choose whether or not to accommodate my request; WT is just saying it can't hurt to ask. If it's important to me to see the overseas office, what's wrong with asking for a trip there?"

Good Jeremy: "You'd be taking advantage."

Evil Jeremy: "And they're not taking advantage of me?"

Good Jeremy: "I guess... I mean... I don't know. It *sounds* like icky advice, but you're doing a much better job defending it than I'm doing articulating why. I guess you win this round, Evil Jeremy."

Evil Jeremy: "Perhaps I do, but, as a side benefit, I think you've helped me create a pretty interesting literary device that we could probably use more often, or at least until the gimmick wears thin."

Good Jeremy: "You may be right. Tune in next time, when Good Jeremy and Evil Jeremy battle the dilemma of whether or not to go to class on the Jewish Holidays even if you're not going to synagogue...."

Evil Jeremy: "Religion? Aw, man. I've got to go rent The Passion of the Christ."

Good Jeremy: "I really don't think that's worth seeing, frankly. Although the South Park spoof was pretty funny."

Evil Jeremy: "You like South Park?"

Good Jeremy: "Sure."

Evil Jeremy: "You need to work on your character development."