Hillbilly Elegy

chew with my mouth closed. Those at
our table talked about law and law
school, firm culture, and even a little
politics. The recruiters we ate with were
very nice, and everyone at my table
landed a job offer—even the guy who
spit out his sparkling water.
It was at this meal, on the first of
five grueling days of interviews, that I
began to understand that I was seeing the
inner workings of a system that lay
hidden to most of my kind. Our career
office had emphasized the importance of
sounding natural and being someone the
interviewers wouldn’t mind sitting with
on an airplane. It made perfect sense—
after all, who wants to work with an