Monica Sandu ‘24
Staff Editor
Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend OPP’s D.C. Day, an hour-and-a-half-long networking event to rub (virtual) elbows with representatives from firms in the nation’s capital. D.C. Day, along with its twin event, New York Day, is part of a series of networking events put on by OPP to connect students with potential employers and build key connections for our upcoming job searches.
The event was scheduled to start on FloRecruit at 4:00pm. My last class on Tuesdays ends at 3:30pm. It takes me ten minutes to drive home.[1] I booked it back to my house, threw on my professional blouse and blazer,[2] and was able to log in with five minutes to spare. FloRecruit doesn’t let you log into the meeting until two minutes before the scheduled start time, so I got treated to a minute of awkwardly staring at myself in the test call window, adjusting my lamp, and trying to not look out of breath from my mad dash home.
Each session in the rotation had two participating attorneys and six students. Beware: nobody ever tells you how much your face cramps up when you keep a smile on for twenty minutes straight. Nevertheless, I took the time to observe how I felt during our interactions. Though the virtual nature made this more difficult, I found it most helpful to see what features the attorney’s emphasized first when answering questions. Some talked about how much they enjoy their colleagues, others talked about how satisfying the subject matter of their work was, and others still talked about their diverse client base and active lifestyle.
D.C. is a vibrant city, full of transplants from across the country who come together to create the capital’s unique character. Attorneys emphasized the fun of working in such a unique environment, which contributes to the collaborative nature of their firms as well as the social network they build outside of work.
The best moment of the evening came from the first firm I was paired up with, in which one of the representatives spent five minutes trying to figure out how to get the audio on FloRecruit to work so that he could hear all of us. It was a nice little reminder that yes, attorneys are people too.
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ms7mn@virginia.edu