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Have a few CBs scheduled in the upcoming weeks, and I am unclear about what the offer rate for callbacks are this year. Certainly don't think that the job is "mine to lose."

Anyone have any idea how many CBs are interviewed per SA spot?

Wildcats Anon wrote:Have a few CBs scheduled in the upcoming weeks, and I am unclear about what the offer rate for callbacks are this year. Certainly don't think that the job is "mine to lose."

Anyone have any idea how many CBs are interviewed per SA spot?

It depends.

33%...or 1 in 3

Depends on the firm, your interviewing abilities, your credentials relative to your peers, the timing of your callback, the relationship your school has with the firm, etc.

Being called back early is good though. And many major firms strive for 75%+ offer rates. There are exceptions who shoot for closer to 30% though, and almost every firm saw offers rates declining last year due to ITE. It used to be safe to say that averaged out maybe 2 in 3 callbacks resulted in an offer, but last year it was closer to 1 in 3. Unclear what the global average will be this year.

Regardless, the firm is spending a lot of money and taking a lot of time to interview you. They likely either want to hire you or want to want to hire you, so give it your all and act confident.

1 in 3 at my firm. Was higher in the past but the acceptance rate has gone through the roof so the firm cut back on offers.

Averages/medians on this on:
http://www.nalp.org/uploads/PerspectivesonFallRec09.pdf

Worse than it used to be. S&C offers something like 85% of the candidates they call back. At the other end of the spectrum, Davis Polk offers around 20% of the candidates they call back (but they call back more candidates than S&C). Most firms, ITE, fall somewhere in between--probably in the 40-60% range.

Is there any firm specific data? CLS provided data for last year, but it's hard to know whether that's atypical or not.

I've heard that last year's was significantly worse than boom time CB/offer ratios, but this is secondhand.

Is it safe to assume that if a firm is giving you a callback that involves flying you 3,000 miles across the country, your chances are better then a callback requiring you to walk down the street?

A partner at a large NYC firm told us at OCI that at his firm and our school, at least, roughly 25% of people get call backs, 50% of them get offers and 50% of those offers are accepted.

Not sure if these numbers are adapted for ITE but just thought I'd pass it along.

edcrane wrote:Worse than it used to be. S&C offers something like 85% of the candidates they call back. At the other end of the spectrum, Davis Polk offers around 20% of the candidates they call back (but they call back more candidates than S&C). Most firms, ITE, fall somewhere in between--probably in the 40-60% range.

30-50% is a more likely range ITE.

Things were absurdly bad my year (2008) because the crash came between OCI and my callbacks. Most of the firms went into panic mode and gave out very few offers later into the fall. There were some callback candidates who were basically DOA- class was full before they even interviewed.

I'm sure things will be a bit better now that things are at least more or less stable. I would guess about 40% is the norm, subject to wide variation between firms.

Just out of curiosity (any personal anecdotes would be greatly appreciated, anon or otherwise), what's the dynamic with firms that have small classes in a particular office (e.g. someone has a callback at the D.C. office of a firm, which hires 3 summers and is a branch office, versus 20 or 30 something summers for the New York headquarters)? Is the callback-to-offer ratio lower? Higher? Do local offices with small summer classes tend to adjust their callback numbers accordingly and callback fewer people? I'm in this situation at the moment and am curious to know what TLSers think/have experienced.

Anonymous User wrote:Just out of curiosity (any personal anecdotes would be greatly appreciated, anon or otherwise), what's the dynamic with firms that have small classes in a particular office (e.g. someone has a callback at the D.C. office of a firm, which hires 3 summers and is a branch office, versus 20 or 30 something summers for the New York headquarters)? Is the callback-to-offer ratio lower? Higher? Do local offices with small summer classes tend to adjust their callback numbers accordingly and callback fewer people? I'm in this situation at the moment and am curious to know what TLSers think/have experienced.

I second this. Also, how long does it normally take firms (specifically those with a smaller class size) to get back to you after your call back interview?

emoticons777 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Just out of curiosity (any personal anecdotes would be greatly appreciated, anon or otherwise), what's the dynamic with firms that have small classes in a particular office (e.g. someone has a callback at the D.C. office of a firm, which hires 3 summers and is a branch office, versus 20 or 30 something summers for the New York headquarters)? Is the callback-to-offer ratio lower? Higher? Do local offices with small summer classes tend to adjust their callback numbers accordingly and callback fewer people? I'm in this situation at the moment and am curious to know what TLSers think/have experienced.

I second this. Also, how long does it normally take firms (specifically those with a smaller class size) to get back to you after your call back interview?

I third this. Part of me thinks that the ratio could be lower because, if the class size is 4, calling back 10 times as many people is not as much of a burden as calling back 10 times as many people for a 40 person class. But on the other hand, I imagine that small DC branch offices don't have nearly as high of an acceptance rate as NY or DC headquarters, so the office would need to give out a ton of offers to fill the class.

The boutique I worked for over the summer had a class size in the 4-6 range and apparently called back a dozen people. It's a pretty solid boutique, so I'm guessing they had a high yield. Still, that's at least an offer rate of ~50%. In all likelihood, it's closer to 60%.

Based on the mofo SF callback sign up system:

68 callback slots (not sure if all get filled, but this is what they display as available).
last summer, they had 30ish SA. Hopefully more this years.

So basically 50-50.

Anonymous User wrote:Based on the mofo SF callback sign up system:

68 callback slots (not sure if all get filled, but this is what they display as available).
last summer, they had 30ish SA. Hopefully more this years.

So basically 50-50.

1) The system may not be showing all dates to all candidates (i.e. it's common for certain schools to be blocked into certain ranges)

2) The system may not show slots already taken

3) Their yield rate will be well under 100% - i.e. they will need to make many more offers than they will have summers

I can see the blocked off dates, and based on what the schedule looks like, I think its inclusive of all schools - its basically 4 slots a day, almost every day, through sept. No room for other slots.

Good point re #3...it must be more then 50-50.