Have to Miss OCI b/c Travelling Abroad Forum

[stillwater]

OP, you make me SICK

[NotMyRealName09]

So the OCI period for my school is August 5-14 and the trip is August 7-16, any way I can somehow kindly ask each employer to interview me on the 5th and 6th?

I don't think you want to let employers know you couldn't make yourself available for the one thing in your entire law school career you should be available for.

Your lack of judgment / awareness on this is, as mentioned above, sickening. How did you not know how important this was yet scored in the 5th percentile???

[biglawww]

You are probably going to get a job outside of OGI if you're top 5% at a top school. But you may not want to tell the firms you're missing OGI because of family trip. They want young associate to treat work > family.

It's your choice but I personally find it immature.

Hastings is not a top school

I didn't notice OP goes to hastings. in that case, there's only one choice. no other option.

[Myself]

.

[kaiser]

There is one week in law school that truly matters, since it is the launching pad for your entire career. If you miss that takeoff, your entire career trajectory is in jeopardy. You have a golden ticket into the factory right now with top 5% grades, and you would literally be pissing it away, because there is no guarantee that spots will still be open for you when you come back. You go to Hastings, and the top firms are only going to be recruiting so many students from there. This isn't a T10 school where you can send out some resumes and make some calls after OCI, and if armed with top 5% grades, will absolutely still get calls. Your window is much more narrow, and that window is the week of OCI.

You are foolish for even considering skipping. There is literally nothing you could possibly say that would justify missing that week. It doesn't matter if you have to piss away $10,000 bucks, offend every person in your family, inconvenience everyone imaginable, etc. None of that outweighs it. You DO NOT MISS that one week.

You haven't told us what the reason is that you are foolishly considering missing OCI. Well, you can be damn sure that firms will want to know where you were during OCI, and why you are contacting them after the fact. Will they buy into your excuse? Foolishness will go a long way toward negating the advantage that top 5% grades give you, in the eyes of the firms. So I really hope your excuse is valid (which I can't imagine being the case, as nothing justifies missing OCI short of being in a coma and physically incapable of attending).

[Myself]

.

[ilovesf]

As one Hastings student to another, if you don't go to OCI you're fucked. Likely fucked anyway, but why would you hurt your only chance. How could you schedule a trip during OCI? Why didn't you think about this earlier?

Also, if you're top 5%, I hope you are applying to transfer.

[kaiser]

As one Hastings student to another, if you don't go to OCI you're fucked. Likely fucked anyway, but why would you hurt your only chance. How could you schedule a trip during OCI? Why didn't you think about this earlier?

Also, if you're top 5%, I hope you are applying to transfer.

Yeah, and then he can tell his new transfer school that he won't be there for OCI...

[Lincoln]

You literally can make it, you clearly don't want to, but you definitely can.

It's your career, no one here has a magic answer. Mass mail and hope for the best but otherwise prepare for hundreds of thousands of lost income over your career. I hope the trip is worth it.

So, the point of these boards is to give advice to people who have not gone through this process before. I have not gone through this process before so I am trying to figure out the best solution to this problem. I'm not advocating for one position or the other; I'm just trying to see what I can do.

As a recent graduate, I'd say the only situation in which you should go on this trip is if you are dead-set on doing public interest; those employers often hire primarily outside OCI.

You would basically throw away 90% of your opportunity to get the job you want. Not a single employer will go out of their way to interview someone—no matter how good the grades—who thought his/her time was more important than that of the employers who forgo billable hours to have a chance to offer you a six-figure job.

[ilovesf]

You literally can make it, you clearly don't want to, but you definitely can.

It's your career, no one here has a magic answer. Mass mail and hope for the best but otherwise prepare for hundreds of thousands of lost income over your career. I hope the trip is worth it.

So, the point of these boards is to give advice to people who have not gone through this process before. I have not gone through this process before so I am trying to figure out the best solution to this problem. I'm not advocating for one position or the other; I'm just trying to see what I can do.

As a recent graduate, I'd say the only situation in which you should go on this trip is if you are dead-set on doing public interest; those employers often hire primarily outside OCI.

You would basically throw away 90% of your opportunity to get the job you want. Not a single employer will go out of their way to interview someone—no matter how good the grades—who thought his/her time was more important than that of the employers who forgo billable hours to have a chance to offer you a six-figure job.

Depends on what kind of PI. PD/DA in the area come to our OCI.

[Bronte]

I really want to know what is the nature of this trip that could cause OP to think it could justify missing OCI. Your sister is in a hospital in Prague with a brain tumor, and you're the only surgeon in the world who can perform the operation? Because that's about the level of "necessary" we need to be talking about here.

[NYstate]

You should retitle this thread: have to give up my possibly promising law career because of international family trip. Should I drop out?

[chuckbass]

I really want to know what is the nature of this trip that could cause OP to think it could justify missing OCI. Your sister is in a hospital in Prague with a brain tumor, and you're the only surgeon in the world who can perform the operation? Because that's about the level of "necessary" we need to be talking about here.

+1

[Geist13]

hahahaha, not sure where the I hate you type comments are coming from. That's a bit silly. Calm down.

Anyway, OP yes it is possible to get a biglaw job if you skip OCI, I actually know a 3L who did just that (skipped OCI intentionally and got hired in the spring of 3L). The thing is: that dude regretted his decision everyday for the 20 months between week 1 of 1L and when he finally got an offer. I don't know what could be so important that is not an emergency that would make you think you couldn't miss it (if it's something that's planned ahead, it can be done at another time).

You should attend OCI, it is very silly not to. If you choose to skip, don't expect a biglaw job.

I know how freaking absurd all this sounds. How irrational it is that making a decision that appears to be based on an appropriate balance of priorities (of course family > a few job interviews occurring two years in advance!) could put your career in jeopardy. But this is law school and legal recruiting. Nothing about it makes sense, everything about it involves incredibly skewed priorities and unjustifiable procedures; but that's the nature of the beast. Its stupid, everyone knows its stupid; but that's what you've signed up for (and the irrational nature of law school has probably played a large part in your success in thus far). You can choose to fight it and resent it, but this isn't the type of game where dissenters tend to win.

[Golden Bear 11]

Option 1: Don't go on the trip and go to OCI

Option 2: Transfer to Stanford and do OCI, which starts on August 19th

No idea if top 5% from Hastings is competitive for Stanford

Went to look on Stanford's website. Their transfer deadline passed.

So, yeah, go to OCI

[TaipeiMort]

This person can't be real. This has to be a flame.

In the small chance that this is a real person, I just want to tell the OP that he/she is making a decision that IMO, is worse (measured in dollar amount of future lost opportunity costs) than the following decisions (seriously):

1. Getting pregnant at 15;
2. Manslaughter-DUI;
3. Burning a 100k gift;
4. Posting an antisemitic rant to Youtube;
5. Assaulting a police officer;
6. Meth addiction;
7. Diving head-first off of a roof onto concrete and getting paralyzed.

My reasoning I guess is that all of these mistakes will not cost you the at least literally extra millions you are going to lose over the course of your career by choosing to kill off any chance you had at real job prospects. If you let some trip ruin that, you have psychological issues.

If it is serious, like bereavement of family member or medical procedure, write firms end of July to see if they would be willing to meet with you earlier. Then, on your own dime travel out to said markets and interview with them. But, this takes a real excuse and not something with the subtext: "I am afraid of/close with my family."

[laotze]

This person can't be real. This has to be a flame.

In the small chance that this is a real person, I just want to tell the OP that he/she is making a decision that IMO, is worse (measured in dollar amount of future lost opportunity costs) than the following decisions (seriously):

1. Getting pregnant at 15;
2. Manslaughter-DUI;
3. Burning a 100k gift;
4. Posting an antisemitic rant to Youtube;
5. Assaulting a police officer;
6. Meth addiction;
7. Diving head-first off of a roof onto concrete and getting paralyzed.

My reasoning I guess is that all of these mistakes will not cost you the at least literally extra millions you are going to lose over the course of your career by choosing to kill off any chance you had at real job prospects. If you let some trip ruin that, you have psychological issues.

If it is serious, like bereavement of family member or medical procedure, write firms end of July to see if they would be willing to meet with you earlier. Then, on your own dime travel out to said markets and interview with them. But, this takes a real excuse and not something with the subtext: "I am afraid of/close with my family."

TITFCR.

[Pokemon]

This person can't be real. This has to be a flame.

In the small chance that this is a real person, I just want to tell the OP that he/she is making a decision that IMO, is worse (measured in dollar amount of future lost opportunity costs) than the following decisions (seriously):

1. Getting pregnant at 15;
2. Manslaughter-DUI;
3. Burning a 100k gift;
4. Posting an antisemitic rant to Youtube;
5. Assaulting a police officer;
6. Meth addiction;
7. Diving head-first off of a roof onto concrete and getting paralyzed.

My reasoning I guess is that all of these mistakes will not cost you the at least literally extra millions you are going to lose over the course of your career by choosing to kill off any chance you had at real job prospects. If you let some trip ruin that, you have psychological issues.

If it is serious, like bereavement of family member or medical procedure, write firms end of July to see if they would be willing to meet with you earlier. Then, on your own dime travel out to said markets and interview with them. But, this takes a real excuse and not something with the subtext: "I am afraid of/close with my family."

Mostly correct except 6 and 7.

[2014]

Like Bronte, I'm really really dying to know what OPs reason is. I'm trying to think of the various family obligations one could have with an expected value of roughly a million bucks, and I'm drawing blanks here.

Great family wealth with a stipulation that to collect you have to go abroad at a fixed period?


Realistically it is probably like a $1000 plane ticket and parents who funded lawl school and are pressuring him. Time to sack up.

[kryptix]

If you don't have something through a job fair lined up by the time you miss OCI you will have pretty much a 5% vs 85% chance of being gainfully employed after law school. Explaining why you missed OCI in mass mailing is going to be very hard and I will be an uphill battle to get a slot. If you don't get one by mid October its pretty much over as 3l OCI almost never works.

Your one shot then is to hope you get a good clerkship which is a stretch even with those grades and you'd have to maintain them for the rest of law school. In other words you might as well drop out.

[Borhas]

So stupidly I got roped into travelling with my family internationally during my school's Fall OCI. I am a rising 2L in the top 5% of my class. What should I do? Will I be able to get a 2L position if I no-show to OCI? Can I do OCI from a remote location? Any advice is appreciated

Go to oci retard

[justinp]

180

[guano]

180

Hastings, not Harvard

[Stinson]

Where's that post where the person figured out the overall cost of missing out on Biglaw? Wasn't it like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars? Also if you're at Hastings just bear in mind that, there being 414 students per class, that is at least 390 people who would stab someone in the top 5% for being top 5% and not going to OCI.

[StylinNProfilin]

This must be one hell of a trip