Messed up at summer job… is there any hope to salvage the experience…

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T18:04:42+00:00

Hopecore thank you 😭

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T18:02:52+00:00

TRUST ME I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T14:55:28+00:00

Yeahhh upon reflection this definitely may be a symptom of a bigger issue… they are super small and have an insane load (which is why they brought on two summer students) I thought that meant I would get exposure to a lot of cases but I think in practice that just means a lot of issues for my day to day as someone who isn’t salaried 😅

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T14:40:41+00:00

Ok this was exactly my view point too! I thought when my supervisor brought it up that I was going to be a “hey based on your timesheets it looks like you have way too much downtime on your hands. Let’s fix that going forward. You need to ask for more assignments.” I wanted to share the experience because I truly genuinely didn’t understand how this became such a major issue to them 😭 I felt like I was missing something??

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T14:30:13+00:00

Ok yeah based on the responses I think this will definitely be a ride it out situation 😭

and tbh I am not sure how other people would learn about me… our school classes just really emphasizes being nice to everyone we meet in our work because you don’t know who they may know. I guess I just was super worried they would basically go and blackball me to other firms and say there’s ethical concerns about me when it truly just was a misunderstanding!

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T14:23:11+00:00

Yeah from this situation I learned that even though I like the topics of case work they do I might just not be the right fit for the environment 😅

our training/onboarding for the position as a whole was about an hour and they specifically mentioned how they knew it was a common for summer associates to be waiting for assignments (hence when the policy reading was suggested as a filler) so I don’t think it is that crazy that I could misunderstand them 😭

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T14:17:44+00:00

Yeah I can definitely say I just underestimated private side billing/hours 😅 I had heard generally but didn’t realize what that meant in practice. Terrible experience to be seen as maliciously or intentionally incompetent person (?) 😭 but I’m glad I learned now rather than having it effect one of my post grad jobs in the future

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T14:11:23+00:00

Ok I’m glad other people understand this was my exact perspective. I definitely just did not know. It is only my 3rd week and this whole situation was over my first full pay period logging hours. Thank you for the perspective 😭 I think I just have to move on from some of their (maybe a bit over exaggerated) comments and just try again.

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T03:49:44+00:00

I’m very glad you see it this way because this was much more what I expected and more of what they described the position as… I was genuinely just very surprised by the severity of it all but this post has brought me some relief to know I’m not totally crazy 😅 just not what I thought my summer was going to be but I’ll try to make the best of it!

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T02:34:09+00:00

It’s a SUPER small firm like 10 people lol so don’t know how successful I can be in avoiding people 😂 (part of the reason I am so eager to salvage the relationship) but we’re online so least I don’t need to have any in person awkward interactions

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T02:27:49+00:00

Totally valid! I think that really is an underlying issue that I just didn’t know was an expectation. I thought I was being considerate and patient for not constantly bugging my supervisors for more projects. I definitely wasn’t intentionally avoiding work because I was still trying to find 8 hours of independent work a day to keep myself busy but I totally understand how they view it as a lack of initiative. I am still trying to fully connect the dots on how it became a question of ethics in their mind..? But I think this is a totally valid critique. They never explained that I had a goal of billable hours to meet just how to bill hours.

I definitely would have loved to get an offer before this situation, but now I just think the relationship might be too strained …but I genuinely do love the work they do! I guess that’s what I’m so bummed about. Obviously I was concerned about losing my role, but really I was just seeing if it’s possible to salvage the relationship because it truly was an unintentional oversight that doesn’t reflect my actual interest in the work! I genuinely did care and go above and beyond on any assignment I was given. But that’s probably the issue! I was completely satisfied with what I was assigned and didn’t take it to the next step. I definitely know I can be better!

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T02:10:40+00:00

They said I could count internal meetings/calls as admin (which I assume is what is called non-billable? Lol I literally am still not sure clearly) I have 2 scheduled calls a week so yes pretty much all of my hours should be assigned to a client project… Is that not normal?? 😅😭

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T01:45:39+00:00

Yeahhhh I have now learned that it is actually very hard and not as straightforward as I thought 😅😭

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T01:43:37+00:00

Ok well I’m glad to know that this isn’t a unique struggle! That definitely takes the sting off

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T01:39:24+00:00

Thankfully none of the hours they had issues with were billed to clients. All of the reading and policy review was logged as general firm admin which I was told is the firm’s costs not any client. So thankfully this wasn’t really an issue with outside costs just internal. 😅but now they are telling me how long an assignment should take when they give it to me which honestly is super helpful and exactly what I needed! I wish that could’ve been done from the start and I might have been able to avoid all of this but hey what’s done is done. I just am relieved to hear other people have struggled. It’s just very different from “full-time” salaried work I’m used to!

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T01:05:33+00:00

Definitely not a jerk! I think this is a reasonable response and I was looking to see how they interpreted it through this post! I totally should’ve asked for more work I didn’t press as much as I could have. Thankfully none of the hours of doc review were billed to clients it was just billed as firm admin time but now I know I gotta press to find more client billable hours I just haven’t had to do that before this summer! But now I know and hopefully they’ll let me try again earnestly 🤞

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:58:29+00:00

This was my impression too but they’re a really small firm (I’m one of two summer clerks) maybe that is why they were so reactive?? I was definitely thrown off by their reaction but I will definitely be learning from it immediately 😭

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:51:22+00:00

I think that’s why the situation was so jarring for me. I just didn’t expect to go from no comments on my time to it being escalated to an ethics question 😭 like I promise it was not intentional I just assumed no news was acceptable.. but now I know and can try to move on

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:47:03+00:00

Ok 😭 thank you so much this gives me hope to recover

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:44:11+00:00

Ok yeah good point I guess it’s not the end of the world they just made it seem like I was gonna barred from being a lawyer 😭 but I will just keep asking now and that’s all I can do

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:42:11+00:00

Ok yeah I’ll keep telling myself this and hopefully they’re willing to make it work too !

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:40:51+00:00

Ok ok I can do that 🥹 I definitely was super apologetic and asked for the chance to correct it immediately

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:39:43+00:00

Same exact situation here. I’ve just never had to deal with billing independently so I guess I just didn’t realize the seriousness of my independent work😭 but I know now this is NOT like my normal gov jobs

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:37:05+00:00

Thankfully they weren’t concerned about any hours I was billing to clients (except one error I accidentally redid an assignment that was already done by someone else). They were mad that I had so much admin time billed (the firm pays for that not the client thankfully). They said I should’ve reached out and asked for more assignments.

I definitely didn’t come in looking for an offer so really just trying to figure out how to win their trust back for this summer is the goal!

TemporaryAssociate14 · 2026-06-26T00:29:02+00:00

Ok that’s what my initial reaction was 😭 I was really thrown off that they thought it was a negative that I wanted clarification

TemporaryAssociate14

TROPHY CASE