Summer has begun, summer associate jobs have begun, and the annual spate of stories about how cushy and useless summer associate jobs are have also begun.

There's no doubt that a significant component of the summer associate experience is marketing – until you sign on permanently, firms can't afford to treat you like you have no other choices.

But I'm not persuaded by the theory that the big firm summer job is 10 weeks of goofing off on someone else's dime. My uncle, a former personnel executive, used to say that it's pretty easy to tell if someone can do the job; it's a lot harder to figure out if they will do the job.

That is very true. Every employee I've ever fired looked great on paper. They had to, in order to get hired in the first place. It was clear any of them could do the job they were hired for, it just turned out that they didn't.

Big firms love junior associates because they're a core profit engine for the firm. But they're expensive to hire and train. And turnover is already dreadful. And come on people, you're not being asked to do many things your first couple years that couldn't be handled by a good paralegal. If you got a callback, that means the firm was persuaded you can do the job.

The summer associate gig is designed to reveal if you will do the job. And that involves evaluating a lot of 'soft' factors, like how you get along with others, what your energy level for loads of boring work is like, whether you buy into the firm culture, etc. (These factors are often collectively referred to as 'fit', which is sort of an overused HR term, but apt.)

All these are arguably more important determinants of your longevity at the firm than your law school GPA. There's no other way to evaluate them then to have you show up and act like an employee. Summer associates: do you think that the other associates & partners you meet aren't talking about you, comparing notes, etc? Yes, they are, all the time.

As for the call for more 'substantive training' during the summer gig, I think this is misplaced. If big firms convert their programs into boot camps they'll be making their associates more capable, but losing the ability to evaluate fit.

How would the firm benefit? Or, for that matter, the summer associate? There's plenty of time to train later. If the associate washes out shortly after hire because they hate the firm culture – that's an expensive problem to fix, and avoidable.

25 May 06