School OCI 50% pre-select, 50% lottery - Any chance of job? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey all,

So our school's OCI let's employers pre-select 50% of their schedule, and does lottery for the rest. I only snagged one pre-select interview out of 50 or so firms that are coming. What are the chances that I could get a Summer Associateship off of a lottery interview when I'm competing against pre-selects?

[Anonymous User]

Hey all,

So our school's OCI let's employers pre-select 50% of their schedule, and does lottery for the rest. I only snagged one pre-select interview out of 50 or so firms that are coming. What are the chances that I could get a Summer Associateship off of a lottery interview when I'm competing against pre-selects?

how close to being "pre-selected" would u imagine you are? if you think everyone they pre-selected has a 3.6+ and you have a 3.2 probably really unlikely. if you think you are just outside then maybe if you wow them you could end up with an offer. also depends on the firms- some firms are much more open to taking a look at lottery candidates and some arent...

[Anonymous User]

Hey all,

So our school's OCI let's employers pre-select 50% of their schedule, and does lottery for the rest. I only snagged one pre-select interview out of 50 or so firms that are coming. What are the chances that I could get a Summer Associateship off of a lottery interview when I'm competing against pre-selects?

how close to being "pre-selected" would u imagine you are? if you think everyone they pre-selected has a 3.6+ and you have a 3.2 probably really unlikely. if you think you are just outside then maybe if you wow them you could end up with an offer. also depends on the firms- some firms are much more open to taking a look at lottery candidates and some arent...

Well I don't know who did get pre-selects with the firms I'm hoping to hit with lottery - but I have good work experience and the firms are either in my hometown market or a nearby market which (I'd imagine) not many top-grades students want to be in.

[TTH]

My school allows firms to pre-select even more of their slots, and I know one or two people who got jobs off of lottery interviews. But really, I always approached it as "they've already looked at me and weren't interested."

If nothing else, it's good interview practice.

[dixon02]

This is all fairly irrelevant. At this point, it should be pretty clear to you that OCI should be taken as nothing more than a best case scenario and is unlikely to result in a job. You should be mass mailing like crazy and operating under the assumption that anything that comes out of OCI is just a bonus.

[Anonymous User]

My school allows firms to pre-select even more of their slots, and I know one or two people who got jobs off of lottery interviews. But really, I always approached it as "they've already looked at me and weren't interested."

If nothing else, it's good interview practice.

Well that's something to be positive about, at least.

This is all fairly irrelevant. At this point, it should be pretty clear to you that OCI should be taken as nothing more than a best case scenario and is unlikely to result in a job. You should be mass mailing like crazy and operating under the assumption that anything that comes out of OCI is just a bonus.

Yeah no worries, I'm doing that too - but a couple of firms I REALLY wanted are at OCI, even though they aren't in the major market in my state. So I'm hoping all hope isn't lost.

[Anonymous User]

Hey all,

So our school's OCI let's employers pre-select 50% of their schedule, and does lottery for the rest. I only snagged one pre-select interview out of 50 or so firms that are coming. What are the chances that I could get a Summer Associateship off of a lottery interview when I'm competing against pre-selects?

Definitely treat it like you got it as a preselect. While many (maybe even most) employers treat lottery interviews as lost causes, some are still willing to hire lottery interviewees (especially when the credentials are still within range). I ended up converting a lottery interview into an offer and am summering there right now.