Awkward

My current employer wants me to work at least 10 hours a week, but my current school universe of classes, interviews, and law reivew really only lets me work on Fridays, so I only roll into work once a week. Well, the go-go life of a 2L law student can change very fast, so that you can almost be a completely different person from one week to the next.

I had just such a transformation during last week. Two Fridays ago, I was dejected because I had been on literally dozens of interviews for patent law clerk positions, and all I had to show for it was some very kindly-worded letters on very pretty stationary telling me, basically, that I sucked¹. In my mind, not only was I not getting job offers for next summer, but I was sure that my current corporate employer would suddenly discover that it didn't have the budget to keep me on.²

Then, during the following week (that would be last week), I got the call that changed my outlook completely. Yes, me, your lowly blog author, received an offer from a local Intellectual Property Law Firm... but not just any firm, but the one firm that I really wanted to work for. So, last Friday, I "got" to tell my current employer that I received an offer to a law firm. I did this mostly because I had several questions I wanted to know about in making my decision whether to accept the firm offer or to remain in-house at the company (i.e., How likely am I to get an offer for full time employment if I stick around, assuming you still like my work and my grades stay good? If I take the firm offer, can I come back (either as a part time clerk during next year, or full time if I don't like the firm)?).

Yeah, that was weird. I've never actually been "in demand" before,³ so it is odd to be working for one company that supposedly likes me and my work, and having an offer with another company... and then freely discussing that offer with your current company. Weird.

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¹ Well, not so much suck... just suck for their firm. It wasn't that I was bad, I just wasn't good enough.
² At least that would be the "official" reason, but the real reason would be that they just didn't like me, and didn't want to prolong the pain.
³ Not that I am in demand now, necessarily, but for the sake of this post, let's assume I am.