USC and Others to Increase % of Pre-Select OCI Interviews Forum

[071816]

Starting with our Early Interview Week program scheduled for August 5-8, the Career Services Office will adopt a new system for assigning interviews for all on campus interview programs. These changes are the direct result of feedback we have received from employers, the current state of the legal employment market and interview assignment policies at several peer law schools.

Law schools using a 100% lottery system to schedule interviews have received critical feedback from employers in recent years stating that their interview schedules often did not include the students they were most interested in interviewing. As a result, employers have been forced to schedule additional interviews beyond their formal schedule often times leading to a long and frustrating day for the interviewer. Our goal in providing employers with the ability to preselect a small percentage of students on their schedule is to alleviate employer frustration and create a more positive overall employer experience duing their visit to USC.

Under our current interview assignment system all student interviews are assigned via a lottery process with no employer pre-screening. Under the new system, 70% of student interviews will continue to be assigned via a lottery process. However, employers will now have the ability to preselect students for interviews for 30% of their interview schedule. Here’s an example of how the new system will look:

A typical interview schedule consists of 20 interview slots. Under the new system, 6 interview spots on the schedule will be reserved for students preselected by the employer while the remaining 14 interview spots will be assigned via a random lottery.

Several prominent law schools have already provided or will begin providing employers with the option to preselect a certain percentage of students in an effort to better meet employer needs in this challenging job market, including Virginia (70%), Vanderbilt (50%) and Texas (30%).

The Career Services Office is currently updating the policies, procedures and deadlines associated with Early Interview Week and will distribute the updated student OCI Handbook in April. In addition we will be hosting several programs in April designed to help students prepare for OCI in light of these changes.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Career Services Office.

[wbrother]

Seems chill. Obviously as 0L I don't know anything, but it seems like 100% lottery produces more bad than good.

[09042014]

Seems chill. Obviously as 0L I don't know anything, but it seems like 100% lottery produces more bad than good.

It's only bad when firms don't want to even interview median students at the TTT in question.

[wbrother]

Seems chill. Obviously as 0L I don't know anything, but it seems like 100% lottery produces more bad than good.

It's only bad when firms don't want to even interview median students at the TTT in question.

I bet there are some firms that don't want to interview median students at T20s and and t14s too. If I can only schedule 20 interviews...

[09042014]

Seems chill. Obviously as 0L I don't know anything, but it seems like 100% lottery produces more bad than good.

It's only bad when firms don't want to even interview median students at the TTT in question.

I bet there are some firms that don't want to interview median students at T20s and and t14s too. If I can only schedule 20 interviews...

But since enough firms do, the below median students aim for the firms that do. And the high grade students aim for the highly selective firms.

[wbrother]

Seems chill. Obviously as 0L I don't know anything, but it seems like 100% lottery produces more bad than good.

It's only bad when firms don't want to even interview median students at the TTT in question.

I bet there are some firms that don't want to interview median students at T20s and and t14s too. If I can only schedule 20 interviews...

But since enough firms do, the below median students aim for the firms that do. And the high grade students aim for the highly selective firms.

Are students really as self-selective as they should be though? I'd imagine that was what firms were complaining about? I don't know enough about the process so any insights are appreciated.

[09042014]

It's only bad when firms don't want to even interview median students at the TTT in question.

I bet there are some firms that don't want to interview median students at T20s and and t14s too. If I can only schedule 20 interviews...

But since enough firms do, the below median students aim for the firms that do. And the high grade students aim for the highly selective firms.

Are students really as self-selective as they should be though? I'd imagine that was what firms were complaining about? I don't know enough about the process so any insights are appreciated.

At top schools, yes they. They have good reason to be. They only get so many interviews and wasting them on bids outside their realistic range hurts the student.

At TTT's, there are no low range firms (or at least not enough). So students are forced to bid on firms who don't really want them.

I think 70% lottery is still a good system. But pure pre select is TTT as fuck. It basically fucks everyone to make sure the top students can get a job. Non-TTT's don't gotta worry about their top students getting jobs.

[wbrother]

Oh yeah, pure pre-select at good schools seems bad for everyone. Firms and students alike. Pure lottery is probably better than pure pre, but a mix is good. What would your ideal ratio be?

[071816]

Are students really as self-selective as they should be though? I'd imagine that was what firms were complaining about? I don't know enough about the process so any insights are appreciated.

I think most people are, but there are always going to be some people who a) don't know wtf is going on or b) don't care and just sign up for every single interview that they possibly can regardless of if they meet the firm's grade cutoff. If a firm has a super high grade cut-off, most people aren't going to bother bidding on the firm and, as a result, a bunch of spots will be open for that particular firm. In a 100% lottery system, people who don't know what's going on or who just want to sign up for everything they possibly can will pick up these open slots even though the firm probably doesn't want to interview them. I think a 70/30 system should do a good job of allowing firms to ensure that they interview at least some of the people that they want to interview, while still giving students flexibility/the ability to sign up for as many interviews as they possibly can.

[Myself]

.

[09042014]

Oh yeah, pure pre-select at good schools seems bad for everyone. Firms and students alike. Pure lottery is probably better than pure pre, but a mix is good. What would your ideal ratio be?

As lottery as firms will accept.

[071816]

Oh yeah, pure pre-select at good schools seems bad for everyone. Firms and students alike. Pure lottery is probably better than pure pre, but a mix is good. What would your ideal ratio be?

As lottery as firms will accept.

Yup. And it seems pretty clear that firms aren't down with 100% lottery at USC anymore. So 70% it is.

[071816]

sup

[TheThriller]

If I am reading this correctly, Vandy will have a 50-50 preselect/lottery type OCI?

[dixiecupdrinking]

It's very telling that they justify this entirely based on employers' feedback and don't even try to claim it's what's best for their students.