I was at one time a student in the LLM program at AU. They have some good teachers and good qualities. They have some career advice and services. But I feelthey did not do enough to help me transition to the career I desired. Sending out job postings is not enough. It was very disappointing to me when I asked for help. I know I am not the only one to feel this way. Another student who was in a different track felt the program wasn't worth it because they were not helping get her career where she wanted it. She left half way through. It costs a lot of money. I am not sure looking back it was worth it. I probably would have gone somewhere else in hindsight. Very disappointed.

I did not realize that law school career services was supposed to hand you a job. I guess I should have complained when I figured out that you are on your own. If you are getting an LLM simply to get a job (unless in tax), you are in it for the wrong reasons.

VoiceofReason,

Thank you for your ill-advised post. Lucky for me, I know I am not the only one who feels the way I do after attending and spending GOBS of money at American LLM. Most definitely, I know that LLM programs are offered for careers. That is why they have career services programs in the LLM program. That is your first clue sherlock that it is an essential function and reason why people go there! Not too hard to figure out Voiceofnoreason. They did not do a good enough job when I believe they could have. I am Disappointed. And I say with genuineness, that I won't recommend it to anyone else to spend this kind of money. And again Voiceofnoreason, I am not the only one who feels this way. Have a great day.

I can agree with you on one point. I also know far too many people who were disappointed with the end result of their LLM experience. It is a cash cow with little ROI for the student, yet they still flock to get the degrees. Did not mean to offend.

Thank you voiceofreason. Well put about the ROI.

It is not only AU, it is Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, Georgetown, George Washington, Michigan, UVA, DUKE, NYU. Just because you got an LL.M. from one of these programs, does not mean you will get a job period, not to mention one that you specifically wanted.

That being said, I met and do know people who graduated from AU's LLM program who found work and are at the World Bank, IMF, big firms, back in their countries working for their governments, teaching at universities, while there are AU graduates that did not find jobs. I also met graduates from Georgetown, George Washington, NYU, Duke, UPenn, etc., who, like you, were disappointed in the end because they did not land the job they were hoping for, or any job for that matter.

I think that a lot of LL.M. applicants are naively optimistic that by getting an LL.M. from a reputable school, even top schools like NYU and Harvard, that they will be able to find work no problem. That is a complete misnomer. For jobs in the US, at least, LL.M. students are at the back of the line. J.D. students get dibs on jobs, that is a fact, unless the LL.M. graduate's undergraduate legal education, language skills, previous experience, etc. really makes him/her a star prospect. Generally speaking, JD grads of top American law schools simply get preference, be it for government jobs, law firms, NGOs, non-profits. You may think it is unfair, and in some instances it may very well be, but that is how it goes.

The other issue is the legal job market. It still is relatively weak. It is not the legal job market of the 80s and 90s, when you could graduate from a bottom tier law school, with average grades, and be able to land a legal job within a few months of graduation. There was a glut of work, in the private sector, in the state govt, local govt, in the non-profit sector. Today, the situation is not as bad as it was five years ago, but the legal job market is still pretty weak. Simply put, the supply greatly outweighs the demand, too many candidates for too few jobs. The job market tanked, really, not too long after 9/11, so you have, essentially, a decade of great output of newly minted attorneys without enough jobs to absorb even half of them. You find JD grads from elite schools like Georgetown, Berkeley, George Washington, Emory, USC, UCLA, Washington U, Coumbia etc., doing remedial work like document review, temp work, and non-legal work, just to pay the bills. If a JD from Georgetown, with decent grades, has a hard time finding a job, an LL.M. has zero, zip, zilch chance, unless, as I said, there is a very specific job looking for someone that is fluent in X,Y, &Z languages with such and such experience, and you just happen to meet all the criteria. Job wise, at least in the US, LL.M. students are not the ones filling up the interview schedules during on-campus interviews, the ones being considered for positions at USAID, US Int'l Trade Commission, etc.

As for career services, they are a total joke at, pretty much, any university. If you think that career services at Harvard will find you a job, then I have a 5 bdrm flat in Chelsea that I can sell you for a very good price. Again, I think that is a misnomer that students fall for. Career services at most schools organize on on-campus interviews, which are mostly geared towards JD students only, and mostly JD students who are in the top 15%. Everyone else is pretty much on their own, as far as finding work is concerned.

Just to echo Voice of Reason, virtually all LL.M. programs are cash cows. As for the benefit to the student, it is, I would argue, relatively minimal. It will only help, minimally, if you have two identical candidates on paper, and one happens to have the extra LL.M.

The other, and more beneficial, aspect of being an LL.M. student is, that is also gives you the opportunity to network, and it is a lot easier to network, apply for internships and externships/volunteer positions, as a student, rather than as a graduate. For some reason, people are more sympathetic, more open to giving opportunities, to someone that is still a student rather than someone that has been out of school for a while. I know some AU LL.M. grads from DC that found their initial jobs, while in the program, through their school's clinics, networking events, internships, volunteer positions, and by reaching out to practitioners at places like OAS, IMF, World Bank, CEELI, and other non-profits focusing on everything from human trafficking to environmental issues. DC is great for that. There are plenty of organizations that will take you on as a volunteer, and that volunteer position can turn into a job or can allow you to make contacts in that field, in other organizations, that could eventually lead to a job. When I lived in DC, occasionally, I used to go to Georgetown, George Washington, AU, for their programs. They would bring some really fascinating people to speak sometimes and afterwards you could chat with them, exchange business cards.

Because the job market is so tough, you have to be a lot more proactive and persistent about finding work. No one is going to find it for you, not the school, not the career services, no guidance counselors, and it is that much more difficult or LL.M. students, for the reasons mentioned above. It is easy to blame the school, and most people do, but you have to remember that the school is not there to find you a job. It is there to offer coursework, to issue a degree if one satisfies the requisite coursework requirement for a degree, and to offer some resources for the students, but it will not find you work, and just because you have a Harvard degree does not mean that the employers will be knocking down the door to give you offers. That being said, I am not unsympathetic to your situation. I realize it is not easy, and can see how one can be disappointed. Keep your chin up.

The only person who should be disappointed is thyself for allowing the career services to aide and abet thyself in a trivial quest for employment. Nonetheless, your statement carries volume, but, evidently, at the end of the day, you should have been aware of the law school and their stats. Law schools viz. publications with rankings co-operate in luring schemes to preempt applicants, despite the legal job market being poor, to apply. Aforementioned education has become a proverbial cashcow for eager students who wish to window shop for a so-called quality education.

The only person who should be disappointed is thyself for allowing the career services to aide and abet thyself in a trivial quest for employment. Nonetheless, your statement carries volume, but, evidently, at the end of the day, you should have been aware of the law school and their stats. Law schools viz. publications with rankings co-operate in luring schemes to preempt applicants, despite the legal job market being poor, to apply. Aforementioned education has become a proverbial cashcow for eager students who wish to window shop for a so-called quality education.