2016 OCI Strike-Out Thread Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any ideas for where to start looking for other careers?

Econ degree UG decent GPA, 5'11" and average

Airline pilot

Isn't it actually pretty tough slash takes a long time to actually become an airline pilot?

It's actually not a great career path anymore. Flights will be computerized in the next 10 years

[Anonymous User]

Not sure if I'm allowed to join, but I'm at Yale with all Hs, and my only call back is at a non-market paying firm in a secondary market. If nothing pans out tomorrow, I just really have to hope I somehow convert that into an offer . . .

This is either flame, or you're literally masturbating in interviews.

Not flame. Admittedly kind of an awkward person, but I don't think I'm the most awkward person here.

[TheoO]

Not sure if I'm allowed to join, but I'm at Yale with all Hs, and my only call back is at a non-market paying firm in a secondary market. If nothing pans out tomorrow, I just really have to hope I somehow convert that into an offer . . .

This is either flame, or you're literally masturbating in interviews.

Not flame. Admittedly kind of an awkward person, but I don't think I'm the most awkward person here.

Honestly, if you have the grades you say have, at the school you say you are at, you really really need to find where your personality is going wrong that you don't have firms coming at you like groupies.

That said, fuck it, clerk and become a law professor.

[FSK]

Yeah someone should have pulled you aside and put you on the SCOTUS clerk track. Totally flame.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah someone should have pulled you aside and put you on the SCOTUS clerk track. Totally flame.

Pmed confirmation. Please don't out me.

[FSK]

Yeah that's not flame, I feel bad for you. Get fixin your interview skills STAT

[Anonymous User]

Yeah that's not flame, I feel bad for you. Get fixin your interview skills STAT

Do you have any advice on that? OCI set up mock interviews with firms before OCI, and none of them gave me any substantive feedback. Just said I did well, which is obviously empirically untrue.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah that's not flame, I feel bad for you. Get fixin your interview skills STAT

Do you have any advice on that? OCI set up mock interviews with firms before OCI, and none of them gave me any substantive feedback. Just said I did well, which is obviously empirically untrue.

Maybe you're over credentialed and firms don't want to take the chance on you?

[Anonymous User]

Yeah that's not flame, I feel bad for you. Get fixin your interview skills STAT

Do you have any advice on that? OCI set up mock interviews with firms before OCI, and none of them gave me any substantive feedback. Just said I did well, which is obviously empirically untrue.

Maybe you're over credentialed and firms don't want to take the chance on you?

Most candidates that firms interview at this point in the process are qualified. Even if they didn't give you substantive feedback and said you did well, that isn't to say that they enjoyed the interview and could envision spending 60-80 hours/week with you.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah that's not flame, I feel bad for you. Get fixin your interview skills STAT

Do you have any advice on that? OCI set up mock interviews with firms before OCI, and none of them gave me any substantive feedback. Just said I did well, which is obviously empirically untrue.

Maybe you're over credentialed and firms don't want to take the chance on you?

Most candidates that firms interview at this point in the process are qualified. Even if they didn't give you substantive feedback and said you did well, that isn't to say that they enjoyed the interview and could envision spending 60-80 hours/week with you.

Sure, I understand that, but the question was what to do now? Practice interviews with firms didn't help. I've done them with friends, but those people DO like hanging out with me, so it's not really helpful.

[FSK]

Whats your answer for why cravath? Why corporate? Just write it out w/redactions. Maybe we can help.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I am hardly an interview expert, and there is already a fair amount of good advice floating around (emphasizing that you should be passionate/enthusiastic, it should be conversation, be prepared for the standard questions - that kind of thing), but I wanted to mention a couple of things that I think some people struggle with:

- never go negative about anything in your past (past job, past school, whatever past experience). Hated a past job? Talk about something you learned from it and pivot to something that drew you away from it, rather than it driving you away.

- an interview is not the time to be open and honest about everything; it's the time to express enthusiasm for what the interviewer wants you to be. Say you think you want to do transactional, but you interview with a litigation firm. Now is not the time to share your interest in transactional or express your reservations about lit. This is the time to find whatever part of you is willing to go to a litigation gig in the interest of getting a job, and letting that side of you talk. (This example's kind of simplistic of course.)

These may be obvious to everyone, but in case they aren't.

[Anonymous User]

Whats your answer for why cravath? Why corporate? Just write it out w/redactions. Maybe we can help.

Alright. This shouldn't be too specific, but don't quote.

I'm interested in litigation because I studied X in college, which is very research and writing intensive, and I really enjoyed both of those things. After college, I worked on political campaigns, and enjoyed the impact I had doing that, but missed the research and writing. I felt that litigation would let me combine those things, doing research and writing, but for something that actually has an significant impact on clients, like getting a class de-certified, or resolving an investigation (I try to focus the last part on the type of lit the firm does). My work over the summer confirmed

I'm really interested in X because of your really strong practice area in Y (tie it to my summer job if I can). I really like your assignment system because I think it will make the work environment more collaborative, with less fighting for work/ your free market system because it let's you build relationships with the partners, and develop more quickly based on the work you do.

I have a fairly noticeable speech impediment, which may not be helping me.

[Anonymous User]

Whats your answer for why cravath? Why corporate? Just write it out w/redactions. Maybe we can help.

Alright. This shouldn't be too specific, but don't quote.

....

I think this looks good - but if you can get through all of this without them chiming in then the interview isn't conversational enough. I would try to make it more of a conversation by asking questions. Maybe - I really like what I've heard about your assignment system because of X. Have you found that X is true? or - What have been your personal experiences with the assignment system?

[FSK]

Yeah see those answers make it clear to me that you don't know what litigation actually is and you don't really want to work for a law firm and you're just saying whatever CSO told you to repeat.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I'm sorry to be negative, and I have no personal experience with this at all, but I know there is a user who used to post here a lot who had/has a speech impediment, and he felt that it hurt him a lot in interviews/hiring (based on his qualifications v. results).

[Anonymous User]

Yeah see those answers make it clear to me that you don't know what litigation actually is and you don't really want to work for a law firm and you're just saying whatever CSO told you to repeat.

What would you suggest I say? I was told not to emphasize the adversarial parts, because it makes you seem like an unpleasant person to work with.

[Hikikomorist]

Yeah see those answers make it clear to me that you don't know what litigation actually is and you don't really want to work for a law firm and you're just saying whatever CSO told you to repeat.

What would you suggest I say? I was told not to emphasize the adversarial parts, because it makes you seem like an unpleasant person to work with.

Almost all of the litigators I've interviewed with seemed to take pride in the adversarial, zero-sum nature of litigation/described it that way.

[Anonymous User]

Whats your answer for why cravath? Why corporate? Just write it out w/redactions. Maybe we can help.

Alright. This shouldn't be too specific, but don't quote.

I'm interested in litigation because I studied X in college, which is very research and writing intensive, and I really enjoyed both of those things. After college, I worked on political campaigns, and enjoyed the impact I had doing that, but missed the research and writing. I felt that litigation would let me combine those things, doing research and writing, but for something that actually has an significant impact on clients, like getting a class de-certified, or resolving an investigation (I try to focus the last part on the type of lit the firm does). My work over the summer confirmed

I'm really interested in X because of your really strong practice area in Y (tie it to my summer job if I can). I really like your assignment system because I think it will make the work environment more collaborative, with less fighting for work/ your free market system because it let's you build relationships with the partners, and develop more quickly based on the work you do.

I have a fairly noticeable speech impediment, which may not be helping me.

I'm a litigator. These are good answers. Ignore the law students who don't know what they're talking about but love to give advice anyway.

This can be risky, but if you had a good connection with an interviewer, you could reach out and ask for feedback. Or, if you can figure out the logistics given that we're both posting anonymously, I'll interview you over the phone and give you feedback.

[FSK]

I feel like the speech impediment may be a significant factor. I have one (though its very minimal after years of speech therapy), so I understand how frustrating & demoralizing that can be. My advice is to just get as much practice as you can. You probably know now the kinds of questions. Get everything you know to ask you them (or reasonable variations) and practice your answers in a way that will help you minimize whatever impediment you have.

[Anonymous User]

On a different topic, how long do you think a strikeout needs to wait to make travel plans? Mass mailing would be a lot more pleasant a process if I was with my LDR, but I don't want to get a callback the day after I leave.

[Anonymous User]

You might consider taking out the "having an impact" language. With all of those Hs plus the political background, they might be worried that you won't do drudgery or that you will be unhappy working for a gigantic bank. I had something similar in my spiel, OCS suggested taking it out, and it seems to have helped.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah that's not flame, I feel bad for you. Get fixin your interview skills STAT

Do you have any advice on that? OCI set up mock interviews with firms before OCI, and none of them gave me any substantive feedback. Just said I did well, which is obviously empirically untrue.

I've done over 200 professional interviews and pride myself on my ability. Your story has struck a chord with me. If there's any interest, we can PM and have a phone call and I can give you as much advice as I possibly can. The good news is that your school and your grades will get you a ton of straight-to-callback interviews with Mass Mailing so it's not over for you. Interviewing is a skill, it can be practiced and you can get good relatively quickly, even despite your speech impediment.

Just to let you know that I'm not talking out of my ass: I'm at a lower T14 and I'm literally bottom 10% due to several factors. I secured 6 callbacks during OCI and have already received an offer from a V50 firm. Let me know if I can help you.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah that's not flame, I feel bad for you. Get fixin your interview skills STAT

Do you have any advice on that? OCI set up mock interviews with firms before OCI, and none of them gave me any substantive feedback. Just said I did well, which is obviously empirically untrue.

I've done over 200 professional interviews and pride myself on my ability. Your story has struck a chord with me. If there's any interest, we can PM and have a phone call and I can give you as much advice as I possibly can. The good news is that your school and your grades will get you a ton of straight-to-callback interviews with Mass Mailing so it's not over for you. Interviewing is a skill, it can be practiced and you can get good relatively quickly, even despite your speech impediment.

Just to let you know that I'm not talking out of my ass: I'm at a lower T14 and I'm literally bottom 10% due to several factors. I secured 6 callbacks during OCI and have already received an offer from a V50 firm. Let me know if I can help you.

I would love some help

[InterviewAccount]

I'm the OP of the interview help comment. Send me a PM.