what now Forum

[Anonymous User]

struck out of oci despite having more preselects than anyone else i knew of. mass mailed a little under 700 offices. nothing

lower t14. slightly above median. patent bar eligible. no journals or moot court

im still sending applications but at this point is anyone still hiring outside small firms?

[Anonymous User]

Similar boat as you but 2 years ago

What's your background/major/work experience? Are you gunning for IP?

IP firms will post throughout the year, though it may be scarce. You just need to keep a lookout. Most 3L OCI firms at my school were IP firms. If you are gunning for IP and you haven't yet already I'd try to take the patent bar before 3L OCI.

Things will be slow starting now but in-house hiring picks up next year. There are a ton of IP positions in-house so keep an eye out on those.

Oh. Fix your interviewing. That's your problem most likely. How many screeners/cbs did you have?

[Anonymous User]

Similar boat as you but 2 years ago

What's your background/major/work experience? Are you gunning for IP?

IP firms will post throughout the year, though it may be scarce. You just need to keep a lookout. Most 3L OCI firms at my school were IP firms. If you are gunning for IP and you haven't yet already I'd try to take the patent bar before 3L OCI.

Things will be slow starting now but in-house hiring picks up next year. There are a ton of IP positions in-house so keep an eye out on those.

Oh. Fix your interviewing. That's your problem most likely. How many screeners/cbs did you have?

my major is a hard engineering but not mechanical, chemical, electrical, or computer science. No advanced degree. My work is experience is I worked for an DC IP boutique (trained in DC worked overseas) for my 1L summer job. I also taught a general physics lab course. Im also in a pro bono patent prosecution clinic as well as wrote patents for my engineering innovations when i was in undergrad.

I did gun for IP. in fact, i probably applied to almost every patent position in the country. I applied to every firm listed as having an IP practice group in NALP for all the major cities. i also applied to everything on patentlyo and all the firms that come interview for Loyola PLIP.

as for my interviewing I dont know. A lot of my interviewers laugh with me and i'm pretty good at getting the interview to a comfortable, personal level. I had about 20 or so screeners from OCI. a skype interview from mailing. another ip boutique firm visited me at school to interview me for a long 90 minutes. Seemed very interested but also said "our firm has never hired anyone with <your> undergrad major." I had 2 more phone interviews with a large firm from resume collect. second phone interview was over an hour. no callbacks

t-14 + patent bar eligible + above median + 700 mass mails = no callbacks

[Abbie Doobie]

i think you need to slow down and start thinking about why what you are doing isn't working instead of who you should target next. do you have resume issues? is your cover letter sending the wrong message? are you bad at interviewing?

career services offices generally suck, but in this case they should be able to help you identify the low hanging fruit type issues you are having. the ip market isn't in that much of a slouch and you don't look repulsing on paper, so something has to be going on. fix it before pressing on further.

[Anonymous User]

I guess you're civil/structural engineering or something along those lines

I'm not completely sure what the answer to this is, but if I had to guess (and I might be totally wrong), a couple things come into mind:

1. Your UG major is what's holding you back. Patent pros usually requires engineering or "softer" science + grad degree andthere may or may not be a chance that your type of engineering bg isn't cutting it without a grad degree. I'd look into getting a better answer for this question. This might be a good chance to network and ask alumni at IP firms what they think (and they'll probably help you). Maybe it's not a problem but since one firm has stated something about your UG major, it might be an issue for other firms as well. If so, you might be better off gunning for IP lit, which is more forgiving of technical backgrounds.

2. Your interviewing is likely a problem. You probably look good/ok on paper since you're getting interviews from mailing (though only a few), prescreeners, etc. However, the fact that you have no callbacks means you need to improve. I was in this situation (50+ screeners and only 2 callbacks) I thought I was getting alone well with my interviewers as well, and I was, but there were certain things I needed to improve. Oftentimes you can't judge how well/poorly you interview. however, id say noone here can give you advice since they haven't seen how you interview. Work with close friends and career services to help you.

I'd take the patent bar if you can. It might not seem like much but it does show you're serious about this work and might make a difference 3L OCI. Go back to PLIP next year again and maybe hedge your bets by bidding on some IP lit.