What are they for? Can you use them to get more general advice from a professor whose personality you mesh with and/or career trajectory you want to follow? Or is it just for course specific discussion, for things that may not fit into class, but are not too closely related to the finals, because there’s this almost religious deference to pretending until mid-December that there are not going to be finals? Sorry I got carried away.
The point is, if you want to talk to a prof about his/her career, success tips, or just generally brown-nose, is office hours good for that?
Yes. You can ask whatever you want, and most professors will he happy to help.
Of course, if they seem a bit disinterested by your first question, go back to Rule Against Perpetuities.
It is absolutely good for that, and I don’t think any professor would discourage you from coming and discussing your goals/interests, and asking to hear about your professor’s experiences. Professors can be invaluable resources for this kind of advice.
Go in with some substantive questions the first time. If you have no questions regarding the covered materials, come up with a few that are tangential to the material. Gunner type questions that you would never ask in class, but that you can ask in office hours.
After that, feel free to talk about your interests/goals/their experience. Some professors are more receptive to this than others. Just try and have a few substantive questions for them as well, just in case.
I got really close with my favorite professor when I was a 1L and ended up getting a letter of rec and some really good advice about the legal profession from her. If you have a professor that is approachable and you really want to get to know about their work I suggest using office hours (assuming there is not line). Also, if you don’t have that interest, don’t go in trying to suck up and pretend that you do.
my friend went to office hours last week of our younger, cool professor. she asked a couple of class related questions then they just chatted. then he offered to take her and her other friend out to lunch. i’m totally going to his hours this week.