Transfer Summer Employment Results (Summer 2011) Forum

[Anonymous User]

Over 90% of my transfer class has found biglaw employment for the summer at an MVPB.

[Anonymous User]

Transfers in particular are on trial in every single screener interview. "Why did you transfer? Doesn't that display a certain lack of loyalty? Why should we pick you over the students who were here last year? I have no way of knowing how you would have stacked up against them." It was rough.

As a counterpoint I had the opposite experience. I was asked about it in every screener, but it was generally a softball question. Some interviewers congratulated me and others wanted to hear how the process works or how many students transfer in/out.

While I got the question invariably in every interview (and I had the typical canned answer), I'd probably say that only about ~10% of them (between screeners/CBs it was about 80-90 different interviewers) brought it up with negative connotation and a few even grilled me about it. Alternatively, many specifically said that it showed initiative and determination to transfer. Moreover, at least a handful of my interviewers told me that they had transferred as well, and we commiserated for a while which was a nice tension-reliever. I think the hardest part is really just knowing that so many other qualified candidates from the transferee school are your competition, which feels daunting. The added layer of uncertainty about the market and fear that you made the biggest mistake of your life is definitely tough to handle while keeping your composure during the interviews (and trying not to slip by saying anything negative about the economy, etc...).

Then again, I didn't interview with any "elite" V1-V20ish firms (nor do I go to a top school), so maybe that's why I didn't catch any flack.

Funny story--after doing my "why I transferred" schtick one time, the partner was like, "come on, you transferred because you wanted to be at a better school and to get a better job, right?" (nervous laugh...brief awkward silence) I said, "when you boil it down...yes, that's the reason, but can you blame me?" To my surprise, the offer came days later.

[Anonymous User]

Original LS rank: t3
Original LS GPA/CR: Top 2%
Transfer School tier: MVP
OCI Screening Interviews: 16
Callbacks: 5
Callbacks accepted: 5
Offers: 1. Accepted at a V50.

[A&O]

"come on, you transferred because you wanted to be at a better school and to get a better job, right?"

I don't understand both what's wrong with saying this in the first place and why a law student would be chastised for doing this.

And RVP is full of shit. Interviews are exhausting. I had something like 30+ screening interviews in the span of four days when I did OCI. They were tiring.

[Anonymous User]

Old School: 60-70
New School: T6
Class Rank at Old School: Top 1%
Journals: LR at old school, secondary at new school
Callbacks: 9 (throughout v100, and 1 NLJ-250)
Offers: 1 V25, 1 market NLJ-250

[megaTTTron]

how grueling interviews would be

Free snacks, SWAG, and meeting a bunch of strangers for 20 questions about your favorite law school class and what you did your 1L summer = grueling?

If you've got like 20 screeners over a few days and you're still trying to get settled-into you're new surroundings, you don't live with you head in the sand and realize that there is a very high probability of not landing a jorb because you're a lowly transfer schmeeb, and you don't want to live in a trashcan after graduation while paying what little pittance you can scrounge up from passers-by to Uncle Sam...

I'd say the average 2L transfer would probably feel like the process would be "grueling."

edit: I was not the anon quoted above. Also, I wasn't trying to be a dick. Transfer OCI was a bitch. Prospective 1L transferees (and for the love of god hopefully not "prospective 0Ls") need to know that.

+1.

[Anonymous User]

"come on, you transferred because you wanted to be at a better school and to get a better job, right?"

I don't understand both what's wrong with saying this in the first place and why a law student would be chastised for doing this.

And RVP is full of shit. Interviews are exhausting. I had something like 30+ screening interviews in the span of four days when I did OCI. They were tiring.

Anon who wrote that - neither do I, but I obviously never wanted to shoot myself in the foot. I can't tell you how refreshing it was to hear that and to air the issue out during the interview. I always prefer to be frank about things, but during the job search/interview process I was just terrified of saying the wrong thing to get me dinged. As a 2L, the hiring process is just one huge black box and personalities, even in one firm, can vary immensely. As an added layer of uncertainty, transfer status could be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon the interviewer's disposition about transfers. Therefore, I would always wait until I could gauge whether the interviewer was more of a "chill out dude, lets shoot the shit" kind of interviewer or a "so explain to me what you consider to be your biggest weakness" kind of interviewer. The former ones were the best interviews and the latter were exhausting.

[Anonymous User]

how grueling interviews would be

Free snacks, SWAG, and meeting a bunch of strangers for 20 questions about your favorite law school class and what you did your 1L summer = grueling?

Not a transfer either, but just here to say that back-to-back interviews for days are collectively the most tiring thing I've ever had to do...OCI is torturous, long (sometimes went from 8-5), nerve-wracking, and you have to continuously BS because every firm asks you why their firm in particular.

[Anonymous User]

If you attended your old school on merit scholarship, I'd be cautious of putting "merit scholarship" on your resume. I had a partners tell me it was ridiculous to give up the merit scholarship, said it showed poor judgment. He also asked me how much I was paying in tuition a year now and then looked at me disapprovingly. I didn't get the offer.

In addition to that callback, I had a few partners at screening interviews ask me about it, and it was never in a good light.

[Anonymous User]

If you attended your old school on merit scholarship, I'd be cautious of putting "merit scholarship" on your resume. I had a partners tell me it was ridiculous to give up the merit scholarship, said it showed poor judgment. He also asked me how much I was paying in tuition a year now and then looked at me disapprovingly. I didn't get the offer.

In addition to that callback, I had a few partners at screening interviews ask me about it, and it was never in a good light.

How big of a scholarship did you give up? Also how far did you move up in the rankings?

[megaTTTron]

If you attended your old school on merit scholarship, I'd be cautious of putting "merit scholarship" on your resume. I had a partners tell me it was ridiculous to give up the merit scholarship, said it showed poor judgment. He also asked me how much I was paying in tuition a year now and then looked at me disapprovingly. I didn't get the offer.

In addition to that callback, I had a few partners at screening interviews ask me about it, and it was never in a good light.

That's interesting. I didn't put any scholarship information on my resume. Not a single interviewer said anything like that to me.

Like the above poster, I'd be curious to know how far up you transferred. Sounds like a dick move by the attorneys.

[Anonymous User]

I'm the guy who posted about the merit scholarship issue. I transfered from a mid-tier one to MVP.

[Anonymous User]

Old School: T2, 50s
New School: Top 10
1L Rank: Top 5%
Journals: None at old school, secondary at new
Screens: Approx 30
Mailings: Approx 15
CBs: 4 (2 V20s, 1 V40, 1 midlaw out of the NLJ250)
Offers: 1, V20

Happy to get what I got

[DeweyWins]

I posted on the topic in the transfer forum, but I'll repost here.
Old School: Ranked in the 50's
New School: CCN
1L Grades, class rank: 4.0, 1/~200
Journals: Invited to law review at old school, secondary at the new school
Screening Interviews: 25
Callbacks: 12
Callbacks accepted: 5
Offers: 3 (V100, V50, V15)
Accepted at the V15. FWIW, out of the 10 or so transfers I know here, all of them got biglaw.

[Anonymous User]

Original LS rank: T30
Original LS GPA/CR: Top 15%
Transfer School tier: CCN
Journals: LR at old school
OCI Screening Interviews: 16
Callbacks: 4
Callbacks accepted: 4
Offers: 1 (V50) -- love the firm and am very happy with the outcome

EDIT: For what it's worth, all of the transfers I know did very well