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Anonymous User
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Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Welp...

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 25, 2014 7:13 pm

...last of my big/midlaw hopes extinguished today...this was the last firm from OCI...had callback, second interview...all of which I thought went well, but...

been mailing...mostly silence, rest dings...(to be expected, I know)...

:evil: :roll: :evil: :roll: :evil:

so goddamned depressed right now, and trying hard not to be....

Anonymous User
Posts: 428535
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Welp...

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Oct 26, 2014 12:15 am

Anonymous User wrote:...last of my big/midlaw hopes extinguished today...this was the last firm from OCI...had callback, second interview...all of which I thought went well, but...

been mailing...mostly silence, rest dings...(to be expected, I know)...

:evil: :roll: :evil: :roll: :evil:

so goddamned depressed right now, and trying hard not to be....
I know there is nothing that people on this board can say that will make you feel better, but just so you know, I know a lot of people (think double digits) in your situation, and I go to a T14. With how random the legal hiring process is, I can only say that I think that OCI is one of the most arbitrary things I have ever been through and I wouldn't lose self-esteem or kick yourself because you got unlucky in a really shitty process.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428535
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Welp...

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Oct 26, 2014 12:32 am

You are not alone op

Anonymous User
Posts: 428535
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Welp...

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Oct 26, 2014 12:33 am

Echoing the previous post, I can tell you that you shouldn't take this personally.

TLS doesn't know shit when it comes to WHY people strike out. Besides grades, many here assume "you must have a shitty personality". I know many people at my school (T14) who don't have offers yet. Most of them are charming, charismatic, and articulate, and in the end, it's just a crapshoot. Sure, there are some people who are completely awkward... but striking out can happen to ANYONE.

I think the baseline assumption here is: if you have decent grades at a T14, unless you get unlucky, you'll snag an offer. I say that's false.
Rather, the baseline is an average candidate will not get an offer until they hit a home run in an interview ("home run" meaning they have an interview where everything goes RIGHT). This means that within that 30 minute time frame, they have to make a great connection with the interviewer, for all 4-5 interviews, and not say anything that will ding them. That mean it requires more than the interviewer to say "he/she was alright". He/she must LIKE you enough to go to bat for you. And that's a hard thing to do, especially with 4 people in a row. Even if the applicant somehow manages that, most of the time, they're still competing with anywhere from 5-20 other people for 1 or 2 spots. Hence, even if everything goes right, the firm has to like you more than the other candidates.

You never know how far you got in the process. I know someone who struck out and when they asked career services, career services made a call to some of the firms he/she interviewed at. Turned out, he/she was the final pool of candidates for a good number of his/her callbacks, but just never was able to lock in the offer.

It happens. Everything is on a "curve", since you're competing with everyone else. The problem here is, the curve is all or nothing and you don't know how close you came.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428535
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Welp...

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:26 pm

Thank you each, and thank you all.

It truly is a crapshoot. I am lucky enough to have folks in my life to remind me of that. (Including you, anonymous internet friends.)

I hated this process all along, of course, but managed to keep my head up (ish) about it until I got 3 rejections, bam bam bam, from my last best hopes.

For the next few weeks, I'm putting ~90% of thoughts of job search stuff on hold, since grades still matter, and I'm behind... :?

Again, thanks for the kick in the attitude.

KBO.

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