Final OCI results: 2011 Version Forum

[Anonymous User]

School: UNC
Market(s): East
Approximate class rank: 10%
Law review: No
Work experience: Summer work experience in a blue collar job
Anything else that might have an impact? immigrant, very very good looking
Screening Interviews: 25
Mass mails: Yes- mass mailed about 20 firms in Charlotte, NC.
Callbacks received: 6 - OCI; 2-Mass mailing
Callbacks accepted: 5 (canceled V15 & V60 call back)
Offers: Total 5: 1 V40, 1 V100, 3 non-vault firms.


I am very pleased with the results and got my #1 pick.

Are you going to stay in Charlotte?

[Anonymous User]

School: V
Market(s): DC/NY
Approximate class rank: 15%
Law review: No
Work experience: < 2
Anything else that might have an impact? Probably above average interviewer
Screening Interviews: 21
Mass mails: No
Callbacks received: 19 - OGI
Callbacks accepted: 8
Offers: 6 (3 V5, 3 V15)

Obviously happy with results. Turned down the others and accepted my first choice.

[Anonymous User]

Man, how do so many people on here have V5/V10 offers? Its so weird, since I have like 20 CB's, yet not a single one with V25 firms, though the majority are in the V25-V75 range. Not at all complaining, but I'm very curious as to the disparity. Obviously not a bad interviewer or else I wouldn't have the CB's that I was lucky enough to get.

OCI season has been pretty weird for me in this respect. I got double digit callbacks, only 1 with a V5 (rest with V25-V100). At the end of my callback season, I only received 1 offer and it was from the V5. I don't know if there was a yield protect-type thing going on with the rest of my callbacks (do law firms even do that?) or if I somehow suck at articulating my interests in some firms. I strongly suspect, however, that the real reason is that the V5 I interviewed with has a FAR larger summer program than every other firm I had callbacks at. So I think that might be the reason why so many people on TLS tend to have V5/V10 offers. The summer classes just might be bigger.

I had a very similar experience! Of the 9 CBs I went on (2 V10, 1 V15, 6V40+) I only received offers from the 2V10s and V15. I doubt this was due to interviewing since I cancelled 6 CBs.

The higher ranked firms have MUCH larger classes than the lower ranked firms. I think on average V10 have around 90 spots whereas the smaller firms have about 10. So if you interview at a V10 and have the credentials and don't fuck up the interview, the offer is probably yours. If you have a callback at a lower ranked firm, you're going to have to stand out in a positive way as they can afford to be really choosy - and since a lot of partners probably didn't have sterling credentials your sterling credentials won't help you stand out.

[KamaalTheAbstract]

Yeah a thread should be created just for the people who struck out. This thread is almost useless with the amount of ccn top 15% posts.

[Anonymous User]

School: UNC
Market(s): East
Approximate class rank: 10%
Law review: No
Work experience: Summer work experience in a blue collar job
Anything else that might have an impact? immigrant, very very good looking
Screening Interviews: 25
Mass mails: Yes- mass mailed about 20 firms in Charlotte, NC.
Callbacks received: 6 - OCI; 2-Mass mailing
Callbacks accepted: 5 (canceled V15 & V60 call back)
Offers: Total 5: 1 V40, 1 V100, 3 non-vault firms.


I am very pleased with the results and got my #1 pick.

Are you going to stay in Charlotte?

You working at BABC? haha

[Anonymous User]

The higher ranked firms have MUCH larger classes than the lower ranked firms.

Agree with this completely. I go to a T20 but that is basically the equivalent of community college when I attended the hiring dinner and was surrounded by T10 (and mostly H) students. I'll be the first to admit that I'm pretty sure I got an offer because the class was over 60+ people and "they had room" for me, ha ha!

[Anonymous User]

School: UNC
Market(s): East
Approximate class rank: 10%
Law review: No
Work experience: Summer work experience in a blue collar job
Anything else that might have an impact? immigrant, very very good looking
Screening Interviews: 25
Mass mails: Yes- mass mailed about 20 firms in Charlotte, NC.
Callbacks received: 6 - OCI; 2-Mass mailing
Callbacks accepted: 5 (canceled V15 & V60 call back)
Offers: Total 5: 1 V40, 1 V100, 3 non-vault firms.


I am very pleased with the results and got my #1 pick.

Are you going to stay in Charlotte?

You working at BABC? haha

Haha yea for first half of summer... creepy

[Anonymous User]

School: Bottom 30s-Top 40s
Market(s): Southeast/Mid-Atlantic
Approximate class rank: 10%
Law review: Yes
Work experience: Some entrepreneurial work with small business, worked for attorney during UG, 1L summer with small firm
Anything else that might have an impact? No
Screening Interviews: ~45-50
Mass mails: Yes- mass mailed (via email) about 30 firms in the region
Callbacks received: 15 - OCI; 4 -Mass mailing
Callbacks accepted: ~12-14 (most of them haven't actually occurred yet)
Offers: Total 5: 1 V50, 4 Regional Firms with 2 of them being extremely selective. I have offers from most CBs attended so far with the most recent ones still in flux. No rejections from CBs yet though.

[Anonymous User]

School: CCN
Market(s): DC/NY/LA
Approximate class rank: 5%
Law review: Yes
Work experience: negligible
Anything else that might have an impact? competitive athletics
Screening Interviews: 20
Mass mails: 1
Callbacks received: 20
Callbacks accepted: 12
Offers: 9 (1/2 LA, 1/2 DC, 7/8 NYC)

In my opinion, Vault rankings are ridiculous on a whole variety of metrics for someone interested in lit (particularly outside NYC). Likely accepting at "V50" boutique-ish firm, despite offers at several "V10", due to fit, practice area strengths, location, and overall feel of the firm.

[Anonymous User]

School: Stanford
Market(s): CA
Approximate class rank: top 10%
Law review: no
Work experience: no
IP background: no
Anything else that might have an impact? (diversity, etc.): no
Screening Interviews: 20
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 10
Callbacks accepted: 5
Offers w/vault ranges: 2 (V10, V50)
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback? 0

Taking the V50

[Anonymous User]

School: YHS
Market(s): CA, NYC
Approximate class rank: top half, probably closer to top third
Law review: Y
Work experience: N
IP background: Y
Anything else that might have an impact? (diversity, etc.): N
Screening Interviews: 22
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 5
Offers w/vault ranges: 4 (V10, 2 V20, V25)
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback? 4

Taking one of the V20s, but not sure which . . .

[Anonymous User]

School*: UNC
Market(s): North Carolina, Nashville
Approximate class rank: 20-25%
Law review: No, secondary journal
Work experience: Small jobs growing up, interned at firm as 1L
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact? (diversity, etc. or whatever, really): No. I am a short, lily white male
Screening Interviews: 35+ I lost count to be honest (26 through OCI). I never turned an interview down.*
Mass mails: 175+ I emailed a ton of places. Phone followups were what got me my interviews. I had a few recruiters comment on my "eagerness"
Callbacks received: 9
Callbacks accepted: 8 (4 from OCI)
Offers w/vault ranges: 4 offers (1 from mass mail, which I accepted), 0 rejections. I've already accepted 2 so my cycle is done. I have no idea about vault rankings
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback? many of them -- all from mass mail.
Thank-you notes sent: Yes, every time to everyone I met. I learned that emails were better though because the attorneys can respond and you can start a dialogue.

*I interviewed with a lot of firms that I knew I didn't want to work for in order to get experience and this tactic worked. By my 30th interview, it became automatic and my 4 offers so far are from my last 4 cbs.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah a thread should be created just for the people who struck out. This thread is almost useless with the amount of ccn top 15% posts.

Those are the people that are done so far. I am sure other schools and ranks will come in later.

[Anonymous User]

Credited response to the guy who said he first interviewed with firms that he didn't want to work at, and that helped him with his experience.

I did this as well and found it extremely valuable. Even just going to the attorney cocktail receptions or summer lecture series or debates, and learning to mingle/shoot-the-shit with people helped my OCI performance. I think talking/communicating effectively is something I learned more through the OCI prep and process than all of 1L. Turned out to help me with a job more than anything I learned in 1L.

[jeeptiger09]

School*: UNC
Market(s): North Carolina, Nashville
Approximate class rank: 20-25%
Law review: No, secondary journal
Work experience: Small jobs growing up, interned at firm as 1L
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact? (diversity, etc. or whatever, really): No. I am a short, lily white male
Screening Interviews: 35+ I lost count to be honest (26 through OCI). I never turned an interview down.*
Mass mails: 175+ I emailed a ton of places. Phone followups were what got me my interviews. I had a few recruiters comment on my "eagerness"
Callbacks received: 9
Callbacks accepted: 8 (4 from OCI)
Offers w/vault ranges: 4 offers (1 from mass mail, which I accepted), 0 rejections. I've already accepted 2 so my cycle is done. I have no idea about vault rankings
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback? many of them -- all from mass mail.
Thank-you notes sent: Yes, every time to everyone I met. I learned that emails were better though because the attorneys can respond and you can start a dialogue.

*I interviewed with a lot of firms that I knew I didn't want to work for in order to get experience and this tactic worked. By my 30th interview, it became automatic and my 4 offers so far are from my last 4 cbs.

Congrats! Mind PMing me? I'm also going to be in those markets, would love to get your thoughts.

[Anonymous User]

School: Lower T14
Market(s): CA, NY
Approximate class rank: >5%
Law review: Y
Work experience: N
IP background: N
Anything else that might have an impact?: Started out as a bad interviewer, but did so many interviews that I became good at it.
Screening Interviews: 35 (did diversity fairs)
Mass mails: 10
Callbacks received: 16
Callbacks accepted: 8 (turned down 1 V5s, and several V10s)
Offers w/vault ranges: 6 (V5, 2 V10, 2 V20, 1 litigation boutique), 2 rejections post CB
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback? 1
Thank-you notes sent: None

I am very happy with my results. Obviously grades played a big role and this will further skew this sample. However, to the extent these things matter, I worked on getting better at interviewing (which coming through the 1L job hunt was definitely something I knew I had to work on). I wrote down sample answers; I practiced; and I actually hustled to do interviews before OCI. I did a lot of research on firms at the bidding stage (so I was bidding big classes that had big practice areas with strong reputations in things I was interested in) but did not do more than minimal basic research for individual interviews. I had a list of 10-12 questions to help keep the conversation going and would make sure that answers to these questions were not available online. I also had 3 selling points about myself that, if I could, I brought up indirectly throughout the conversation. Other than that though, it really is about having a normal conversation. As a last note, for those that have strong credentials, my advice is not to be complacent. It is always better to be as refined as possible and have as many options as possible then feel like you left something on the table.

[Anonymous User]

School: T30
Market(s): Northeast
Approximate class rank: Top 1/3
Law review: No, secondary journal
Work experience: Freelance art, lived abroad
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact? (diversity, etc. or whatever, really): Language skills
Screening Interviews: 10
Mass mails: Around 30. Rejected or silence from all, but they were all big, competitive firms.
Callbacks received: 8
Callbacks accepted: 5
Offers w/vault ranges: 2, silence from the others
Thank you notes: Sent to recruiters & interviewers at all but 1. Got an offer from that 1.
***I'm delighted!***

[minnbills]

to the above anon: nice!

What do you attribute your success to?

[Anonymous User]

to the above anon: nice!

What do you attribute your success to?

Thanks a lot! I think the key is to be a good listener in your interviews. You can have a list of the perfect questions that you got from career services, but if you don't look interested, and respond with insightful questions or points, then it will be hard to impress the interviewer.

I think it was also helpful that I had some work experience, as this was the focus of most of my conversations with interviewers. I could tell that they were very eager to talk about something other than which courses I enjoyed.

[Anonymous User]

to the above anon: nice!

What do you attribute your success to?

Top grades and normalcy. Oh, and bribes.

[dedede]

School: MVP
Market(s): NY
Approximate class rank: Slightly below median
Law review: No
Work experience: 3 years. Impressive in a non-traditional sense.
Anything else that might have an impact? URM. HYPS undergrad.
Screening Interviews: 16
Mass mails: Maybe 10-15
Callbacks received: 3, including one from a mass mail.
Callbacks accepted: 3
Offers: 2 (1 V50, 1 V100)

I'm very happy with the offers that I have, but I feel like I should've gotten more callbacks than I ended up getting. My advice for anyone doing this in 2012: Ask questions that'll force your interviewer to think seriously about his or her career. If your questions can be answered without even a brief pause for reflection, then you're probably doing it wrong. I unfortunately didn't pick up on this until the callback stage.

[Anonymous User]

School: MVP
Market(s): NY
Approximate class rank: Slightly below median
Law review: No
Work experience: 3 years. Impressive in a non-traditional sense.
Anything else that might have an impact? URM. HYPS undergrad.
Screening Interviews: 16
Mass mails: Maybe 10-15
Callbacks received: 3, including one from a mass mail.
Callbacks accepted: 3
Offers: 2 (1 V50, 1 V100)

I'm very happy with the offers that I have, but I feel like I should've gotten more callbacks than I ended up getting.

???????

You were below median at MVP. There are people in your position with zero callbacks.

[dedede]

School: MVP
Market(s): NY
Approximate class rank: Slightly below median
Law review: No
Work experience: 3 years. Impressive in a non-traditional sense.
Anything else that might have an impact? URM. HYPS undergrad.
Screening Interviews: 16
Mass mails: Maybe 10-15
Callbacks received: 3, including one from a mass mail.
Callbacks accepted: 3
Offers: 2 (1 V50, 1 V100)

I'm very happy with the offers that I have, but I feel like I should've gotten more callbacks than I ended up getting.

???????

You were below median at MVP. There are people in your position with zero callbacks.

Yeah I know. I certainly don't feel like I was entitled to more, but I also think that if I'd interviewed as well during the screening stage as I did during my callbacks, I could have gotten at least 1 or 2 more. Don't really care at this point, though.

[monkey85]

dedede wrote:
School: MVP
Market(s): NY
Approximate class rank: Slightly below median
Law review: No
Work experience: 3 years. Impressive in a non-traditional sense.
Anything else that might have an impact? URM. HYPS undergrad.
Screening Interviews: 16
Mass mails: Maybe 10-15
Callbacks received: 3, including one from a mass mail.
Callbacks accepted: 3
Offers: 2 (1 V50, 1 V100)

I'm very happy with the offers that I have, but I feel like I should've gotten more callbacks than I ended up getting.


???????

You were below median at MVP. There are people in your position with zero callbacks.

Poster had an awesome hand of cards: 3 yrs WE (that were subjectively "impressive") that probably made for good convo, HYPS undergrad - more than enough to make up for below median GPA. Not surprised at all!

[Anonymous User]

.