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Does anyone have insight into the Chicago ATR office? I will be applying for DOJ Honors next year, but because I am geographically limited to Chicago only (my husband is taking a job there), I will only be applying to the Chicago ATR office.

Two questions:
1. I don't have an academic background in antitrust or anything beyond undergrad macroeconomics, but am nonetheless very interested in the topic. Is that a huge barrier to my ability to handle the work? If not, any suggestions for how to get around that lack of background in the application?
2. Will it be odd that I'm only applying to a single office and division from the whole of the DOJ Honors program? Again, if so, suggestions to deal with that?

Assume for simplicity's sake that my application is otherwise very competitive, and these are my only issues.

Also generally interested in thoughts about the Chicago office, even if unrelated.

Thanks.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 29, 2021 11:23 pm

Two questions:
1. I don't have an academic background in antitrust or anything beyond undergrad macroeconomics, but am nonetheless very interested in the topic. Is that a huge barrier to my ability to handle the work? If not, any suggestions for how to get around that lack of background in the application?
2. Will it be odd that I'm only applying to a single office and division from the whole of the DOJ Honors program? Again, if so, suggestions to deal with that?

Thanks.

I don't work in the office yet, but I did recently get an offer with them through the honors program. Here is the (limited) insight I can give you from my experience:

1. I don't have a background in antitrust or economics. I wasn't able to take an antitrust law class in law school either (you should if you can, though). I can't speak to whether it will hurt me in handling the work, but the office is evidently willing to teach competitive candidates with a strong interest. That was the impression I took from my interview as well. I think demonstrating a strong interest in what they do and a basic understanding is more important than experience. Unless you've interned with them, most honors candidates would probably lack experience beyond maybe a class in law school.

2.It strikes me as odd only in the sense that I suspect most prosecutor wannabes shoot as many shots as they can given how competitive the program is. That said, I don't think it would be a bad thing if you told them you really wanted to prosecute antitrust violations because (good reasons) and you're limited to Chicago because of family (but also you're super pumped to live/work there or whatever). I think most offices want to hire people who consider them their top choice. In your case, there would be no question that is true.

Good luck!