16 OCI screeners over the course of two days Forum

[Anonymous User]

Did ten back to back. Had preprinted notecards with questions. Pulled them out for most. Have four callbacks so far. 'Parently didn't hurt me much.

I put on cards:
Info about interviewer I found interesting or confusing (what is an equity based security investment?) that would get em talking bout themselves.
Info about major pxtc areas or interesting cases
Anyone I knew at the firm (info calls to 3L summers at the firm = huge help in getting feel, plus you can answer why us with "honestly I wasn't sure and all the big firms seemed similar until I talked to X who said she was loving it and attending depos/etc)
Name of their edu or mentoring program
Any woman's initiative they had (I want to meet people who were partners bc I want to be one)

Wait, you read these DURING the interview?

Yup

[ilovesf]

Did ten back to back. Had preprinted notecards with questions. Pulled them out for most. Have four callbacks so far. 'Parently didn't hurt me much.

I put on cards:
Info about interviewer I found interesting or confusing (what is an equity based security investment?) that would get em talking bout themselves.
Info about major pxtc areas or interesting cases
Anyone I knew at the firm (info calls to 3L summers at the firm = huge help in getting feel, plus you can answer why us with "honestly I wasn't sure and all the big firms seemed similar until I talked to X who said she was loving it and attending depos/etc)
Name of their edu or mentoring program
Any woman's initiative they had (I want to meet people who were partners bc I want to be one)

Wait, you read these DURING the interview?

Yup

I guess it worked for you since you got CBs, but that sounds really awkward to me.

[Anonymous User]

Did ten back to back. Had preprinted notecards with questions. Pulled them out for most. Have four callbacks so far. 'Parently didn't hurt me much.

I put on cards:
Info about interviewer I found interesting or confusing (what is an equity based security investment?) that would get em talking bout themselves.
Info about major pxtc areas or interesting cases
Anyone I knew at the firm (info calls to 3L summers at the firm = huge help in getting feel, plus you can answer why us with "honestly I wasn't sure and all the big firms seemed similar until I talked to X who said she was loving it and attending depos/etc)
Name of their edu or mentoring program
Any woman's initiative they had (I want to meet people who were partners bc I want to be one)

Wait, you read these DURING the interview?

Yup

I guess it worked for you since you got CBs, but that sounds really awkward to me.

Sometimes it was. I embraced the awkward. Awkward plus real answer is better than bad answer which is also awkward? Also why i mentioned CBs, felt like I maybe bombed it, realized later I didn't. Or maybe 40% is bad...not sure.

[071816]

Did ten back to back. Had preprinted notecards with questions. Pulled them out for most. Have four callbacks so far. 'Parently didn't hurt me much.

I put on cards:
Info about interviewer I found interesting or confusing (what is an equity based security investment?) that would get em talking bout themselves.
Info about major pxtc areas or interesting cases
Anyone I knew at the firm (info calls to 3L summers at the firm = huge help in getting feel, plus you can answer why us with "honestly I wasn't sure and all the big firms seemed similar until I talked to X who said she was loving it and attending depos/etc)
Name of their edu or mentoring program
Any woman's initiative they had (I want to meet people who were partners bc I want to be one)

Wait, you read these DURING the interview?

Yup

Seems like a pretty TTTT move.

[fatduck]

Sometimes it was. I embraced the awkward. Awkward plus real answer is better than bad answer which is also awkward? Also why i mentioned CBs, felt like I maybe bombed it, realized later I didn't. Or maybe 40% is bad...not sure.

because pretty much the whole point of screeners, if we're to believe the various biglaw interviewers who have answered questions on tls, is to make sure you aren't awkward as fuck.

did you have epic grades?

[Perseus_I]

Sometimes it was. I embraced the awkward. Awkward plus real answer is better than bad answer which is also awkward? Also why i mentioned CBs, felt like I maybe bombed it, realized later I didn't. Or maybe 40% is bad...not sure.

because pretty much the whole point of screeners, if we're to believe the various biglaw interviewers who have answered questions on tls, is to make sure you aren't awkward as fuck.

did you have epic grades?

Hardly. Some preselect firms interview more than 20 students. Of those, maybe 4 (at most - not saying I am not one of them in certain situations) are socially awkward, and far fewer than 16 get callbacks. You also have to impress, not just survive and appear normal, with odds like that.

[fatduck]

Sometimes it was. I embraced the awkward. Awkward plus real answer is better than bad answer which is also awkward? Also why i mentioned CBs, felt like I maybe bombed it, realized later I didn't. Or maybe 40% is bad...not sure.

because pretty much the whole point of screeners, if we're to believe the various biglaw interviewers who have answered questions on tls, is to make sure you aren't awkward as fuck.

did you have epic grades?

Hardly. Some preselect firms interview more than 20 students. Of those, maybe 4 (at most - not saying I am not one of them in certain situations) are socially awkward, and far fewer than 16 get callbacks. You also have to impress, not just survive and appear normal, with odds like that.

that's what the resume is for

[Perseus_I]

Sometimes it was. I embraced the awkward. Awkward plus real answer is better than bad answer which is also awkward? Also why i mentioned CBs, felt like I maybe bombed it, realized later I didn't. Or maybe 40% is bad...not sure.

because pretty much the whole point of screeners, if we're to believe the various biglaw interviewers who have answered questions on tls, is to make sure you aren't awkward as fuck.

did you have epic grades?

Hardly. Some preselect firms interview more than 20 students. Of those, maybe 4 (at most - not saying I am not one of them in certain situations) are socially awkward, and far fewer than 16 get callbacks. You also have to impress, not just survive and appear normal, with odds like that.

that's what the resume is for

If it's preselect, the resume has already been deemed acceptable. From that point, I would imagine it's all about the interview. If someone tells me I am wrong, I will be very happy, as I just screwed up a ton of back-to-backs.

[ilovesf]

Sometimes it was. I embraced the awkward. Awkward plus real answer is better than bad answer which is also awkward? Also why i mentioned CBs, felt like I maybe bombed it, realized later I didn't. Or maybe 40% is bad...not sure.

because pretty much the whole point of screeners, if we're to believe the various biglaw interviewers who have answered questions on tls, is to make sure you aren't awkward as fuck.

did you have epic grades?

Hardly. Some preselect firms interview more than 20 students. Of those, maybe 4 (at most - not saying I am not one of them in certain situations) are socially awkward, and far fewer than 16 get callbacks. You also have to impress, not just survive and appear normal, with odds like that.

I wouldn't be impressed by someone reading questions off a card. I guess it's a good thing I'm not a hiring attorney.

[fatduck]

that's what the resume is for

If it's preselect, the resume has already been deemed acceptable. From that point, I would imagine it's all about the interview. If someone tells me I am wrong, I will be very happy, as I just screwed up a ton of back-to-backs.

i'm not an OCI interviewer, so i don't know for sure. but based on what i've read from itvbdorm and others, it sounds like the screener is a lot more about having a reasonably comfortable conversation and not being a total fucking weirdo than it is about referring to the firm's internal mentoring program by name. i'm not saying you can't impress your interviewers in a 20 minute screener, i'm just saying PULLING OUT NOTECARDS in the middle of an interview is not likely to be a net positive, no matter how specific and insightful your next question is.

[fatduck]

and as an aside, i wouldn't worry too much about being flustered/rushed at your interviews, man. with 25+ interviews, i'm sure your grades are going to carry you plenty far. also, because of your grades, your interviewers know you had a shitload of interviews, and know that the timing was brutal w/ 5 mins to run all over the place, so i doubt they're going to hold a little discombubulation against you.

[Anonymous User]

and as an aside, i wouldn't worry too much about being flustered/rushed at your interviews, man. with 25+ interviews, i'm sure your grades are going to carry you plenty far. also, because of your grades, your interviewers know you had a shitload of interviews, and know that the timing was brutal w/ 5 mins to run all over the place, so i doubt they're going to hold a little discombubulation against you.

I don't think interviewers are that smart/care enough to make that many deductions.

[fatduck]

and as an aside, i wouldn't worry too much about being flustered/rushed at your interviews, man. with 25+ interviews, i'm sure your grades are going to carry you plenty far. also, because of your grades, your interviewers know you had a shitload of interviews, and know that the timing was brutal w/ 5 mins to run all over the place, so i doubt they're going to hold a little discombubulation against you.

I don't think interviewers are that smart/care enough to make that many deductions.

the topic of how many interviews i had/running around between back to back interviews came up in more than half of mine, i'd say.

[Perseus_I]

and as an aside, i wouldn't worry too much about being flustered/rushed at your interviews, man. with 25+ interviews, i'm sure your grades are going to carry you plenty far. also, because of your grades, your interviewers know you had a shitload of interviews, and know that the timing was brutal w/ 5 mins to run all over the place, so i doubt they're going to hold a little discombubulation against you.

I don't think interviewers are that smart/care enough to make that many deductions.

the topic of how many interviews i had/running around between back to back interviews came up in more than half of mine, i'd say.

I guess, if it comes up specifically, would they actually note it? In one of them, an alum from my school whom I had met at a mixer the year before came up to say hello and the interviewers yelled at him to tell him I had to run to my next interview.

I still think the situation made me do other dumb/awkward things, like repeating myself 3 times, that couldn't be directly tied to being rushed.

I have callbacks from 2/15, and that's about all I expect at this point. Both of those came early on before I truly started to bomb. I think if I had only scheduled 8 with breathers in-between, I could have gotten callbacks at at least 4-5.

Maybe the lesson is to research firms heavily and drop the ones that are reaches, satellite offices, as well as firms in which you have no interest. I think you might even get more callbacks with fewer screeners that way.

[ilovesf]

I guess, if it comes up specifically, would they actually note it? In one of them, an alum from my school whom I had met at a mixer the year before came up to say hello and the interviewers yelled at him to tell him I had to run to my next interview.

I still think the situation made me do other dumb/awkward things, like repeating myself 3 times, that couldn't be directly tied to being rushed.

I have callbacks from 2/15, and that's about all I expect at this point. Both of those came early on before I truly started to bomb. I think if I had only scheduled 8 with breathers in-between, I could have gotten callbacks at at least 4-5.

Maybe the lesson is to research firms heavily and drop the ones that are reaches, satellite offices, as well as firms in which you have no interest. I think you might even get more callbacks with fewer screeners that way.

Probably all depends on your school and rank. Getting CBs from my school is not a guarantee, so I think it would be stupid to drop any interviews unless I really can't make it for some reason.

[McQueen]

Here is the situation. You reached out to an alum and had a great meeting. He then offered to help in any way he could (I suppose that could mean giving a heads-up to the OCI screener). How would you handle the interview with the screener? There are likely a lot of variables on how this particular interview could go, just wondering if anyone here has been in that situation or if you have something to contribute that might be enlightening, if so, let ‘er rip.

[fatduck]

Here is the situation. You reached out to an alum and had a great meeting. He then offered to help in any way he could (I suppose that could mean giving a heads-up to the OCI screener). How would you handle the interview with the screener? There are likely a lot of variables on how this particular interview could go, just wondering if anyone here has been in that situation or if you have something to contribute that might be enlightening, if so, let ‘er rip.

i had an interview with a pretty similar situation, except it was a family friend instead of an alum. in my case, he did give a heads-up to the interviewer, and i was asked about my connection. my strategy was to frame it as just looking for career advice/info about the firm, and avoid any sort of "asking for help getting hired" angle. that way you look good because you've shown some initiative in reaching out to someone in the firm and have tried to learn more about the firm before interviewing. if the alum is gonna help you out behind the scenes by putting in a good word or explicitly recommending you, let him do that on his own.

[paulinaporizkova]

Here is the situation. You reached out to an alum and had a great meeting. He then offered to help in any way he could (I suppose that could mean giving a heads-up to the OCI screener). How would you handle the interview with the screener? There are likely a lot of variables on how this particular interview could go, just wondering if anyone here has been in that situation or if you have something to contribute that might be enlightening, if so, let ‘er rip.

It's nothing to worry about. What fatduck says is true, but I think people aren't dumb - they know that you're contacting alums to help you get hired and they want to appease the person they work with so your third party recommendation will probably factor positively in to their review. But if the screener is going to ask you directly about it, then yeah spin it like you wanted some intel with the firm. Anyway you obviously don't need to bring up the prior meeting yourself unless it's along the lines of "XXX partner told me this about the firm and I like that" or whatever. In fact, weaving that in that might be a good tactic

[fatduck]

well yea, your connection may help you get hired and that's why you did it. i'd just avoid making it seem like you're putting pressure on the interviewer.

[Anonymous User]

that's what the resume is for

If it's preselect, the resume has already been deemed acceptable. From that point, I would imagine it's all about the interview. If someone tells me I am wrong, I will be very happy, as I just screwed up a ton of back-to-backs.

i'm not an OCI interviewer, so i don't know for sure. but based on what i've read from itvbdorm and others, it sounds like the screener is a lot more about having a reasonably comfortable conversation and not being a total fucking weirdo than it is about referring to the firm's internal mentoring program by name. i'm not saying you can't impress your interviewers in a 20 minute screener, i'm just saying PULLING OUT NOTECARDS in the middle of an interview is not likely to be a net positive, no matter how specific and insightful your next question is.

Parently conventional wisdom is against me. OP, your call.