Maybe I'm just out of sorts today because I feel sick as hell from yesterday's rabies shot (last one! yay!), but now that I'm a week in, I can safely say that I don't like this job as much as the last one. It's a perfectly fine job, don't get me wrong - the people here are nice, and I can't deny that it's nice to have my own office (I kind of get territorial about office/desk space). The legal issues I've been working on are interesting, but all I've been asked to do is research, research, and more research, despite the fact that I'm the only legal intern here who has had a) more than one year of law school and b) actual labor law education/experience. Doing nothing but research on one small issue does nothing to help me understand what the case as a whole is about, and that bothers me - it's a lot harder to stay motivated to do actual work rather than dick around on the Internet (and blog). I'm not really worried about coming out of here without a writing sample, since I got a great one from job #1, but one of the other interns here has expressed concern to me that she won't have one, so I know it's a problem.

Plus, this is very much a sit-in-the-office-9-to-5 job - there's no going out to meet with clients, attend hearings, etc., which was one of my favorite parts of job #1. I'm really glad that this is job #2, because if I'd done this one first, I think I'd have had a very warped sense of what law practice is actually all about. Again, it's not a bad job, and maybe once I've been here a little longer I'll feel comfortable asking for more challenging assignments. Right now, though, I just get the distinct feeling that that's not the Way We Do Things around here.