40 Interviews, No Offer: The Cut Middle
A seven-year paralegal did 40 interviews in nine months with no offer while firms say they cannot hire. The middle of the org chart was cut, not the work.
A corporate paralegal with seven years of experience did 40 interviews over nine months and got hired by nobody. She is now working under her old rate as a contract administrator.
Same month, firms are saying they cannot find good paralegals.
Both are true, and the reason is not a talent shortage.
Firms cut the middle. Junior and mid-level roles came off the org chart first, because those are the tasks that look most like something a tool can do. Intake summaries. Records requests. Chronologies. Document coding.
The tool does do them. It just does not check them, own them, or notice when the output is wrong in a way that matters at deposition. That part was the job of the person the firm stopped hiring.
So the work does not disappear. It backs up onto the two people who are left, quality slips, and the firm concludes it needs better software.
The choice was never tools or people. It was always both, and the firms that figured that out early are the ones not posting the same job for the fourth time.
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