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lavarman84

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by lavarman84 » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:16 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Had a screener with a very prestigious firm that has a reputation for working its associates very hard.

At the screener was a partner and an associate. For the first 15 minutes of the screener, the associate did all the talking and the partner was sending emails on his phone, barely noticed I was in the room. The associate was asking me a series of pre-planned questions "what was your favorite class?" "What was your least favorite class?" "What area of law are you interested in and why?" "Why are you interested in X market?" Etc. Kind of rote, and she didn't really follow up too deeply either. She was polite, but she was just getting through a list of questions.

About 15 minutes in she asks me "what about your prior work experience would make you a good associate at our firm?" (I am a former military officer). Obviously this question was my softball question that I looked forward to in every interview, and I had a specially crafted answer just for this specific, prestigious and hard working firm.

"Well," I said, "a big part of being in the military working hard, but also balancing work and life. I feel that's a skill that I have developed that will serve me well in law."

I thought I did pretty well on that question.

For the first time in the interview, the partner takes notice of me, and he was not pleased. This is what he said, pretty close to verbatim.

"Let me just stop you right there. Everyone has that exact same line. Everyone that we interview thinks that we are a hard working firm and that we are just gonna be so impressed with your ability to work hard. Guess what? EVERYBODY WORKS HARD!! Let me tell you something. We win a lot of our cases. We win more than we lose. But let me tell you something else. We don't win 100%, or 90% of our cases. Don't you think that if we worked 50% as hard as any other firm, we would win all of our cases? Sure, maybe we work harder than the other firms. But it's not that much harder. And that's what really gets me with law students and young associates. LAW IS HARD WORK!! I mean, look at me, I love summer. And I especially love July. July is like the Saturday of summers. Work slows down, and I get to go to the beach with my family. You know how many hours I billed in July? 350. I billed 350 hours in my slowest month of the year. Do you hear me complaining about how hard I work? You remind me of this associate in my office. I told him last Monday that on Wednesday he had to go to London for six weeks. And do you know what he said? He told me that wasn't reasonable. Are you kidding me? Like I said, law is hard work. If you don't wanna work hard, go sell insurance."

Right at that moment came the knock on the door from the next interviewer. Which, at the moment, was a happy blessing.

Got the callback. Was the very first callback I cancelled.
What a cunt. It's too bad that law students/young lawyers can't just rip people like this a new asshole when they act like that.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Graybrow » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:21 pm

lavarman84 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Had a screener with a very prestigious firm that has a reputation for working its associates very hard.

At the screener was a partner and an associate. For the first 15 minutes of the screener, the associate did all the talking and the partner was sending emails on his phone, barely noticed I was in the room. The associate was asking me a series of pre-planned questions "what was your favorite class?" "What was your least favorite class?" "What area of law are you interested in and why?" "Why are you interested in X market?" Etc. Kind of rote, and she didn't really follow up too deeply either. She was polite, but she was just getting through a list of questions.

About 15 minutes in she asks me "what about your prior work experience would make you a good associate at our firm?" (I am a former military officer). Obviously this question was my softball question that I looked forward to in every interview, and I had a specially crafted answer just for this specific, prestigious and hard working firm.

"Well," I said, "a big part of being in the military working hard, but also balancing work and life. I feel that's a skill that I have developed that will serve me well in law."

I thought I did pretty well on that question.

For the first time in the interview, the partner takes notice of me, and he was not pleased. This is what he said, pretty close to verbatim.

"Let me just stop you right there. Everyone has that exact same line. Everyone that we interview thinks that we are a hard working firm and that we are just gonna be so impressed with your ability to work hard. Guess what? EVERYBODY WORKS HARD!! Let me tell you something. We win a lot of our cases. We win more than we lose. But let me tell you something else. We don't win 100%, or 90% of our cases. Don't you think that if we worked 50% as hard as any other firm, we would win all of our cases? Sure, maybe we work harder than the other firms. But it's not that much harder. And that's what really gets me with law students and young associates. LAW IS HARD WORK!! I mean, look at me, I love summer. And I especially love July. July is like the Saturday of summers. Work slows down, and I get to go to the beach with my family. You know how many hours I billed in July? 350. I billed 350 hours in my slowest month of the year. Do you hear me complaining about how hard I work? You remind me of this associate in my office. I told him last Monday that on Wednesday he had to go to London for six weeks. And do you know what he said? He told me that wasn't reasonable. Are you kidding me? Like I said, law is hard work. If you don't wanna work hard, go sell insurance."

Right at that moment came the knock on the door from the next interviewer. Which, at the moment, was a happy blessing.

Got the callback. Was the very first callback I cancelled.
What a cunt. It's too bad that law students/young lawyers can't just rip people like this a new asshole when they act like that.
350 hours is his slowest month? Even he did 12 months of 350 that's 4200 hours a year. That's billing 11.5 hours a day, 365 days a year. I don't believe this guy at all. Fuck SullCrom

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rpupkin

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by rpupkin » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:22 pm

lavarman84 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Had a screener with a very prestigious firm that has a reputation for working its associates very hard.

At the screener was a partner and an associate. For the first 15 minutes of the screener, the associate did all the talking and the partner was sending emails on his phone, barely noticed I was in the room. The associate was asking me a series of pre-planned questions "what was your favorite class?" "What was your least favorite class?" "What area of law are you interested in and why?" "Why are you interested in X market?" Etc. Kind of rote, and she didn't really follow up too deeply either. She was polite, but she was just getting through a list of questions.

About 15 minutes in she asks me "what about your prior work experience would make you a good associate at our firm?" (I am a former military officer). Obviously this question was my softball question that I looked forward to in every interview, and I had a specially crafted answer just for this specific, prestigious and hard working firm.

"Well," I said, "a big part of being in the military working hard, but also balancing work and life. I feel that's a skill that I have developed that will serve me well in law."

I thought I did pretty well on that question.

For the first time in the interview, the partner takes notice of me, and he was not pleased. This is what he said, pretty close to verbatim.

"Let me just stop you right there. Everyone has that exact same line. Everyone that we interview thinks that we are a hard working firm and that we are just gonna be so impressed with your ability to work hard. Guess what? EVERYBODY WORKS HARD!! Let me tell you something. We win a lot of our cases. We win more than we lose. But let me tell you something else. We don't win 100%, or 90% of our cases. Don't you think that if we worked 50% as hard as any other firm, we would win all of our cases? Sure, maybe we work harder than the other firms. But it's not that much harder. And that's what really gets me with law students and young associates. LAW IS HARD WORK!! I mean, look at me, I love summer. And I especially love July. July is like the Saturday of summers. Work slows down, and I get to go to the beach with my family. You know how many hours I billed in July? 350. I billed 350 hours in my slowest month of the year. Do you hear me complaining about how hard I work? You remind me of this associate in my office. I told him last Monday that on Wednesday he had to go to London for six weeks. And do you know what he said? He told me that wasn't reasonable. Are you kidding me? Like I said, law is hard work. If you don't wanna work hard, go sell insurance."

Right at that moment came the knock on the door from the next interviewer. Which, at the moment, was a happy blessing.

Got the callback. Was the very first callback I cancelled.
What a cunt. It's too bad that law students/young lawyers can't just rip people like this a new asshole when they act like that.
Why? That partner deserves major credit for transparency.

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rpupkin

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by rpupkin » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:26 pm

Graybrow wrote:350 hours is his slowest month? Even he did 12 months of 350 that's 4200 hours a year. That's billing 11.5 hours a day, 365 days a year. I don't believe this guy at all. Fuck SullCrom
I think he meant that July is usually his slowest month (because that's when he goes on vacation with his family), but that he got slammed with an unusually busy month this July and had to work instead of doing what he normally does in the summer.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Graybrow » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:28 pm

rpupkin wrote:
Graybrow wrote:350 hours is his slowest month? Even he did 12 months of 350 that's 4200 hours a year. That's billing 11.5 hours a day, 365 days a year. I don't believe this guy at all. Fuck SullCrom
I think he meant that July is usually his slowest month (because that's when he goes on vacation with his family), but that he got slammed with an unusually busy month this July and had to work instead of doing what he normally does in the summer.
Ahhhhhhh. Well then he's just being honest then. Yeah, commendable on his part.

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lavarman84

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by lavarman84 » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:29 pm

rpupkin wrote:
lavarman84 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Had a screener with a very prestigious firm that has a reputation for working its associates very hard.

At the screener was a partner and an associate. For the first 15 minutes of the screener, the associate did all the talking and the partner was sending emails on his phone, barely noticed I was in the room. The associate was asking me a series of pre-planned questions "what was your favorite class?" "What was your least favorite class?" "What area of law are you interested in and why?" "Why are you interested in X market?" Etc. Kind of rote, and she didn't really follow up too deeply either. She was polite, but she was just getting through a list of questions.

About 15 minutes in she asks me "what about your prior work experience would make you a good associate at our firm?" (I am a former military officer). Obviously this question was my softball question that I looked forward to in every interview, and I had a specially crafted answer just for this specific, prestigious and hard working firm.

"Well," I said, "a big part of being in the military working hard, but also balancing work and life. I feel that's a skill that I have developed that will serve me well in law."

I thought I did pretty well on that question.

For the first time in the interview, the partner takes notice of me, and he was not pleased. This is what he said, pretty close to verbatim.

"Let me just stop you right there. Everyone has that exact same line. Everyone that we interview thinks that we are a hard working firm and that we are just gonna be so impressed with your ability to work hard. Guess what? EVERYBODY WORKS HARD!! Let me tell you something. We win a lot of our cases. We win more than we lose. But let me tell you something else. We don't win 100%, or 90% of our cases. Don't you think that if we worked 50% as hard as any other firm, we would win all of our cases? Sure, maybe we work harder than the other firms. But it's not that much harder. And that's what really gets me with law students and young associates. LAW IS HARD WORK!! I mean, look at me, I love summer. And I especially love July. July is like the Saturday of summers. Work slows down, and I get to go to the beach with my family. You know how many hours I billed in July? 350. I billed 350 hours in my slowest month of the year. Do you hear me complaining about how hard I work? You remind me of this associate in my office. I told him last Monday that on Wednesday he had to go to London for six weeks. And do you know what he said? He told me that wasn't reasonable. Are you kidding me? Like I said, law is hard work. If you don't wanna work hard, go sell insurance."

Right at that moment came the knock on the door from the next interviewer. Which, at the moment, was a happy blessing.

Got the callback. Was the very first callback I cancelled.
What a cunt. It's too bad that law students/young lawyers can't just rip people like this a new asshole when they act like that.
Why? That partner deserves major credit for transparency.
All his credit for transparency is outweighed by him being a gaping asshole. Sounds like the typical boomer who thinks all young lawyers are lazy because back in his day, *insert hardship story here*.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:36 pm

Yeah he wasn't claiming to bill 4.5k hours a year, just that he worked a lot more hours than he wanted to without complaining about it.

Also, it wasn't SullCrom.

Also, yes, I did in a way appreciate the transparency. It was for a non-NYC office in a market to which I have plausible ties. So, a non-zero chance I would've gotten an offer and ended up there, and accepted. After that screener though, that firm became my second-to-last choice, only ahead of unemployed.
Last edited by Anonymous User on Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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rpupkin

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by rpupkin » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:38 pm

lavarman84 wrote:
rpupkin wrote: Why? That partner deserves major credit for transparency.
All his credit for transparency is outweighed by him being a gaping asshole. Sounds like the typical boomer who thinks all young lawyers are lazy because back in his day, *insert hardship story here*.
Being a gaping asshole is part of the transparency. Guess what kids--there's probably a 75% chance that the firm you accepted an offer from has a partner (and perhaps several partners) that are like this guy. But most firms are smart enough not to send those types to interview students. Instead, firms generally send the lawyers who are good at painting a misleading picture about what it's actually like to work in big law.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by lavarman84 » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:46 pm

rpupkin wrote:
lavarman84 wrote:
rpupkin wrote: Why? That partner deserves major credit for transparency.
All his credit for transparency is outweighed by him being a gaping asshole. Sounds like the typical boomer who thinks all young lawyers are lazy because back in his day, *insert hardship story here*.
Being a gaping asshole is part of the transparency. Guess what kids--there's probably a 75% chance that the firm you accepted an offer from has a partner (and perhaps several partners) that are like this guy. But most firms are smart enough not to send those types to interview students. Instead, firms generally send the lawyers who are good at painting a misleading picture about what it's actually like to work in big law.
Like I said, it's too bad law students/young lawyers can't tell these asshole partners where to shove their musings.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by barkschool » Thu Aug 31, 2017 8:59 am

Anonymous User wrote:Recently had a callback at a v20-40 firm in NY. My first interviweing partner changed last minute without notice, so I probably looked totally unprepared and surprised to see this other partner I did not research about. Later, the 4th person to interview me got pulled into a meeting or sth and my interview with him got cancelled (but the third interviewer got an update on this during the interview and ended up spending more time with me). When I casually brought this up at the end the recruiting staff (whom I didn't get to see when the interview was over until I called her lol) was just like "oh sorry I forgot to tell you in advance."
Don't think this happens commonly at firms, and I am definitely starting to have second thoughts about this place.
I'm not sure you understand what this thread is for

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by lawbug123 » Tue Aug 07, 2018 4:19 pm

After a call back from an OCI interview, and after doing three other rounds of interview with other managers and partners, another managing director took us out for lunch. During the conversation, in which another girl entirely dominated the conversation, we started talking about Venice. Not thinking about the great gelato, the canals, the biggest merchant city for trades and all sort of great history stuff, in desperation, my only response that I could come up with was that Italy not only has the mafia, but it also has the pigeon mafia. -_-

Yep. I didn't hear back from them.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Aug 07, 2018 4:42 pm

so apparantly there was a typo on my resume my both me and my counselor missed. On a portion of my resume I wrote trials as trails. So at the end of the interview the partner underlines that part and says "this says trails you might want to change that before you hand it out to other ppl some ppl are crazy about that" this was a blessing, I've heard terrible things about the place and the unpleasant nature of their interviews so I'm glad I don't have to worry about a callback.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by SFSpartan » Tue Aug 07, 2018 4:55 pm

Anonymous User wrote:so apparantly there was a typo on my resume my both me and my counselor missed. On a portion of my resume I wrote trials as trails. So at the end of the interview the partner underlines that part and says "this says trails you might want to change that before you hand it out to other ppl some ppl are crazy about that" this was a blessing, I've heard terrible things about the place and the unpleasant nature of their interviews so I'm glad I don't have to worry about a callback.
Sucks that it happened, but sort of nice of them to tell you so that you can fix it.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Aug 07, 2018 5:10 pm

Anonymous User wrote:so apparantly there was a typo on my resume my both me and my counselor missed. On a portion of my resume I wrote trials as trails. So at the end of the interview the partner underlines that part and says "this says trails you might want to change that before you hand it out to other ppl some ppl are crazy about that" this was a blessing, I've heard terrible things about the place and the unpleasant nature of their interviews so I'm glad I don't have to worry about a callback.
That career counselor did a sucky job.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 10, 2018 12:18 am

CB at a general practice firm w/ a large IP practice:

Interviewer (first-year corporate associate): Your resume has too much science on it.

Me: Yeah, I am interested in patent litigation and [went on about how my background was relevant to the firm's practice].

Interviewer: Yeah, but your resume has too much science on it.

Me: ...well yeah, I'm interested in patent litigation and [rehashes answer about how my background was relevant to the firm's practice].

Interviewer: What's a phospholipid bilayer?

Me: (??? that's random) ... uh ... [rehashes intro-to-bio level description].

Interviewer: Okay cool, that's the only word I remember from science. I still think your resume has too much science on it. Scientists shouldn't be lawyers.

Me (at this point, annoyed): About 25% of the attorneys in this office would respectfully disagree.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 10, 2018 8:35 am

Anonymous User wrote:CB at a general practice firm w/ a large IP practice:

Interviewer (first-year corporate associate): Your resume has too much science on it.

Me: Yeah, I am interested in patent litigation and [went on about how my background was relevant to the firm's practice].

Interviewer: Yeah, but your resume has too much science on it.

Me: ...well yeah, I'm interested in patent litigation and [rehashes answer about how my background was relevant to the firm's practice].

Interviewer: What's a phospholipid bilayer?

Me: (??? that's random) ... uh ... [rehashes intro-to-bio level description].

Interviewer: Okay cool, that's the only word I remember from science. I still think your resume has too much science on it. Scientists shouldn't be lawyers.

Me (at this point, annoyed): About 25% of the attorneys in this office would respectfully disagree.
Yea interviewer was an ass for repeating that statement but he does have somewhat of a point in that lawyers argue the law. I remember approaching the Geneal counsel of a federal agency essentially asking for a position on their office selling my in-demand foreign language skills /deep political understanding of a geographic region their office is highly involved. His response was basically “that’s good to know and may have value, but we prioritize legal skills first and can have the analysts/experts do the rest of other stuff.”

Or maybe he was just throwing you a softball question asking about the legal experience/interest you might have.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 10, 2018 9:12 am

1. Partner at very prestigious firm while examining my resume asked if my gpa was top 10%. It’s not, which I told him. Just a bit of an odd interviewer overall. Still ended up getting an offer though.

2. Partner at another firm asked me what made me a minority after I talked about a diversity program I participated in. I have pretty fair skin but my last name is a very common last name for Latin Americans and I thought that question was a bit out of line anyways. Plus her firm was a major sponsor firm for the program yet clearly knew nothing about it. She was one of if not my most hated interviewer and I wanted that interview to end asap.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 10, 2018 2:38 pm

Interview with DA: "Did you ever face any criticism doing ROTC in college?" Me: "No. Not much. Though I did have a professor tell me that I contribute to the military industrial complex." DA: "What did you say?" Me: "I don't remember. I was 18. But now that I look back at my time in the military, I don't disagree with my professor." *Silence* DA: "Well thank you for your service. It looks like our time is up." (FYI don't say thank you for your service just to end a conversation with a vet)

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 10, 2018 2:41 pm

Partner at a big firm said: How do you know you want to work at a law firm?

Me: [Uhhhhhhhhhhh something besides money?] Varied work, fast-paced, long-term growth . . . .

Partner: But have you ever worked at a law firm? You worked at the government this summer and clearly had a great time. (Rising 2L who summered at fed agency)

Me: Ummmm

No offer :)

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:14 pm

Extremely rude interviewer at a prestigious, but "nice, humble" firm, where I was below their median but not totally out of range. Interviewer literally would not let me get out a sentence to answer each question before interrupting me with "yeah, got it" or "right" in a rude, disinterested tone. Kept checking her phone, clearly was not interested, but was teetering on disrespectful, asking questions in a very exasperated way. Towards the end, I asked, "I would love to hear what kind of candidate you've seen thrive at the firm."

Interviewer responded, "Oh, someone who gets along well with others- someone with sharp elbows wouldn't do well here." :roll:

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by JusticeJackson » Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote:so apparantly there was a typo on my resume my both me and my counselor missed. On a portion of my resume I wrote trials as trails. So at the end of the interview the partner underlines that part and says "this says trails you might want to change that before you hand it out to other ppl some ppl are crazy about that" this was a blessing, I've heard terrible things about the place and the unpleasant nature of their interviews so I'm glad I don't have to worry about a callback.
I actually don’t think this is a deal breaker and I think he probably did you a solid. Ive recommended hiring people that had a typo or two in their application where the application was otherwise solid. And this is like a “your fly is undone” move. Sure it’s a little awkward, but would you rather walk around all day with your pants unzipped?

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:27 pm

1

During OCI, I walked into a very hostile interview room. They were cold from the moment I walked in. I was personable and genuinely tried to connect to my interviewers but they weren't interested.
They asked me one "tell me about yourself" general question and I babbled on a little bit when I noticed that one of my interviewers was filling out my review right in front of me and circling that I was "average" for all categories. This was about 5 minutes in and I was stuck in a conversation with these people for 15 more minutes. I have a decent GPA and I am a good interviewer. I have no idea why this guy was such a dick.


2

I'm LGBT and out on my resume. I also am straight-passing/not a person that people expect to be LGBT. I had a screener with a Conservative firm with a Conservative city's office ask me through coded language if I was gay. Something like, "so what are you *doing* with [LGBT group on campus]?" She was extremely uncomfortable and so was I. Didn't get a CB :)

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by xjustyoursmile » Wed Aug 15, 2018 12:52 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I said these 2 things in interviews.

First OCI during 1L with biggest firm in my hometown. In fact, this was my first job interview ever. After a minute or two of small talk partner asks "so what has been your favorite part about law school so far?" After stammering around a bit I respond "well I like working hard, so it's mainly been being up in the library and gettin' down to business." No callback.

--

A few years back, Callback from OCI. Interviewer asks me about firm I worked for 1L summer, and what type of work they do. I respond by telling him the firm's 2 main practice areas. And then for some reason, I proceed to expand. I tell him that because the firm was smaller in size they have to take whatever business they can get at times-then I say "In other words, they have to shoot whatever Indian comes over the hill at the time." Offer.

--

Also, in an interview with a boutique lit firm, I was asked the question, "do you believe in criminal punishment and retribution or friendly rehabilitation?" Then I was asked "So are you comfortable taking out the trash and vacuuming the floors". . . this was in a skyscraper building that obviously had a highly trained property management staff.
I'd never give an offer based on that Indian comment.

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:51 pm

Anonymous User wrote:1. Partner at very prestigious firm while examining my resume asked if my gpa was top 10%. It’s not, which I told him. Just a bit of an odd interviewer overall. Still ended up getting an offer though.
if this partner spent a lot of time talking about clerking for a very famous SCOTUS justice I had the exact same experience (and also got an offer). extremely weird start to an interview

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Re: Bad Interview Moments

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:48 pm

Horrible CB with partner. On his computer the whole time, not looking at me. Asking strange questions and insulting my academic record (above median at a t-14). Looked at me for one minute without saying anything and ended the interview early.

He sent me an email later saying he enjoyed talking to me. No offer.

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