Y’all should be bringing physical copies of your resume to interviews.

Right before 2L, I interviewed with a very well-regarded firm I liked a lot. Walked into the first interview, & interviewer looked at my resume, looked at me weird, and goes “what did you do this summer?”

I said “I was a summer associate at X firm in Houston.”

He tells me that isn’t on my resume & shows it to me. He is holding my resume from fall of 1L. I applied to this firm for 1L summer jobs, & recruiter mixed up my resumes in the system & gave my interviewers my 1L resume.

My 1L resume was put together in December of 1L, so it was just undergrad stuff—no grades or legal work.

I was kinda stuck in this interview and couldn’t just leave and flag down the recruiter. Thankfully, I had copies of my current resume with me to give to each interviewer.

This isn’t meant to be a humble brag, it’s just relevant to the story: I had a pretty impressive resume after 1L w/ high grades & solid summer position, & the tone of the room totally changed after I handed each interviewer my current resume. And each interview goes well.

Happy ending: I got an offer (but turned it down for my current firm), but I highly doubt I would have if I hadn’t had my resume on me. I almost didn’t bring it, bc I forgot to print it before coming to Houston for interviews. Ended up printing it at Staples.

The point of the story is technology can glitch, recruiters can make mistakes. Maybe it’s archaic and boomer to bring a physical copy of your resume, but don’t let someone else’s mistake cost you a job. Print it out and bring it with you.