i could get used to this

I may have forgotten to follow up about the three interviews I had for spring semester jobs. Two were with law firms and another was with the city. I got the city one, and I love it.

The rejection I received from the small law firm was the nicest rejection I have gotten. The guy actually called me to tell me that I didn't get the job, but explained to me exactly his reasons for choosing someone else. Even  during the interview I felt like this was someone I could work with. I definitely felt the collegiality of the small law firm culture. Although I would have liked to have worked for them, it may have been a little far. It's in Annapolis, and driving their a few days a week would be hell. A very long and congested one at that.

The bigger law firm, like most other established private firms, did not call back. The interviewer was surprisingly nice, but I felt like he did not want to become too invested in the interview. I mentioned this a couple of posts back, but this firm was not one that practiced in the field that I was interested in, so perhaps it was a good thing that I wasn't going to be stuck doing something that I didn't enjoy. Actually, that's a very good thing.

However, I got the semester job with the City working on land use issues, and I have fallen in love with it. I had said earlier that I felt somehow uncomfortable with the marble flooring and the sparkling nameplates I found at the larger firm above. This place, for the obvious reason that it's the city government, is not on same bandwidth. Instead, city hall is architecturally beautiful, but the interior looks like an apartment building from the early 90s. Not-quite-white walls, warm lighting, unpolished windows, and a lot of brown folders - the ones with the string attached to them. I love it - it feels like we're doing something valuable.

More importantly, the work I'm doing is extremely interesting. The specific practice group I work with is the Land Use Practice Group. They work on eminent domain (takings, condemnation, expropriations, whatever you wanna call it), zoning and planning (variances, special exemptions, conditional uses, etc), and environmental assessment (environmental impact statements, building codes, etc) in the context of urban real estate development. That... is exactly what I want to do! I could get used to this!