Finding success in LI's job market

Bay Shore resident Salaam Bhatti is a statistic, and he couldn't be happier. Employment in Long Island's legal field is growing, and he is proof of that.

After searching for months and sending out hundreds of resumes, the Touro Law School class of 2011 graduate got a job earlier this month at Rosicki, Rosicki & Associates, a Plainview law firm. He is working as a paralegal while he awaits admission to the bar.

Bhatti said his job search began in earnest on Aug. 1, the day after he finished the bar exam, which he passed. Newly married and with school loans that were coming due, he became anxious as the search dragged on. What's worse, friends who worked at law firms told him about the flood of applications into their offices.

"You kind of get desperate," he said. "You don't know how bad it is until you are actually in it."

While he continued to job hunt, he took two temporary office jobs to have money to begin repaying his student loans in December.

He caught a break when a former law school classmate unexpectedly contacted him. Bhatti asked him about the firm where he worked, and the classmate told him how much he liked it. Bhatti asked the classmate to give the firm's partners his resume. He was interviewed and hired.

"My wife was thrilled," he said. "We just needed to know that we could make those payments and live a contented life."