Reminder: Stop Reading Tea Leaves; Start Mass Mailing Forum

[ManoftheHour]

8.5x11 glamour head shots attached to resume: yes? no?

r u hot? If yes, sending one = auto screening.

[Anonymous User]

fwiw, I only sent out - maybe - 70ish mass mails so far. Already got two screeners.
I do separate attachments to the recruiter (resume, CL, transcript) so that way they can forward some or all of my materials at their own discretion. thats their whole job.

[Anonymous User]

How do I get the list of all the vault 100 firms and their recruiter information? I see NALP used to have a feww mail merge excel file with this data, but that is no longer the case. Are people doing it manually? Can i download an excel file from somewhere or someone?

[ManoftheHour]

How do I get the list of all the vault 100 firms and their recruiter information? I see NALP used to have a feww mail merge excel file with this data, but that is no longer the case. Are people doing it manually? Can i download an excel file from somewhere or someone?

I do mine manually. It takes me like 4 mins per app (even with tailoring).

[BigZuck]

fwiw, I only sent out - maybe - 70ish mass mails so far. Already got two screeners.
I do separate attachments to the recruiter (resume, CL, transcript) so that way they can forward some or all of my materials at their own discretion. thats their whole job.

This guy/gal gets it. Make it easy on them by giving them seperate, clearly labelled files to access.

Trying to circumvent the process that has been established by firms when they request that you apply a certain way or when they hire a person to help them hire you just doesn't make any sense IMO.

If you have something unusual (like a close personal connection) then maybe try to circumvent the process to get at the top of the pile. But when it's just a normal mass blast? I think that if you try to get around the black hole you'll like find yourself at the bottom of it.

[Anonymous User]

Do all cover letters need to start with:

«Organization»
«Address1»
«Address2»
«City», «State»
«Zip»

Or can I just go straight to Dear «Contact_Name»?

[ManoftheHour]

Do all cover letters need to start with:

«Organization»
«Address1»
«Address2»
«City», «State»
«Zip»

Or can I just go straight to Dear «Contact_Name»?

I do

[Date]

[Recruiter]
[Firm Name]
[Addy 1]
[Addy 2]
[City, State, Zip]

Dear Mr./Ms. [Recruiter's Last Name]

[foundingfather]

8.5x11 glamour head shots attached to resume: yes? no?

r u hot? If yes, sending one = auto screening.

but yes

[hoos89]

fwiw, I only sent out - maybe - 70ish mass mails so far. Already got two screeners.
I do separate attachments to the recruiter (resume, CL, transcript) so that way they can forward some or all of my materials at their own discretion. thats their whole job.

This guy/gal gets it. Make it easy on them by giving them seperate, clearly labelled files to access.

Trying to circumvent the process that has been established by firms when they request that you apply a certain way or when they hire a person to help them hire you just doesn't make any sense IMO.

If you have something unusual (like a close personal connection) then maybe try to circumvent the process to get at the top of the pile. But when it's just a normal mass blast? I think that if you try to get around the black hole you'll like find yourself at the bottom of it.

That's what alumni are for. That said, I didn't do what that one dude recommends and apply directly through them (I think that's weird and way too forward). Applying through recruiter and then e-mailing alums, mentioning that you applied, and asking if they wouldn't mind talking about their firm for a few minutes with you can net extra interviews. (To be clear: them talking to you is rarely an actual interview but they can often get the recruiter to flag your app, and some partners do have the power to just tell them to interview you)

[BigZuck]

fwiw, I only sent out - maybe - 70ish mass mails so far. Already got two screeners.
I do separate attachments to the recruiter (resume, CL, transcript) so that way they can forward some or all of my materials at their own discretion. thats their whole job.

This guy/gal gets it. Make it easy on them by giving them seperate, clearly labelled files to access.

Trying to circumvent the process that has been established by firms when they request that you apply a certain way or when they hire a person to help them hire you just doesn't make any sense IMO.

If you have something unusual (like a close personal connection) then maybe try to circumvent the process to get at the top of the pile. But when it's just a normal mass blast? I think that if you try to get around the black hole you'll like find yourself at the bottom of it.

That's what alumni are for. That said, I didn't do what that one dude recommends and apply directly through them (I think that's weird and way too forward). Applying through recruiter and then e-mailing alums, mentioning that you applied, and asking if they wouldn't mind talking about their firm for a few minutes with you can net extra interviews. (To be clear: them talking to you is rarely an actual interview but they can often get the recruiter to flag your app, and some partners do have the power to just tell them to interview you)

Yeah, I think networking with alums probably has some value (although I didn't do it I can see it)

I think it's probably better if that all comes more organically and I don't super trust most law student's ability to pull this off seamlessly but yeah, go for it if you can.

I think we're in agreement on not just directly applying through an alum as an initial mass mail instead of applying through recruiting. That just seems like a bad idea to me.

[MCFC]

http://abovethelaw.com/2014/04/recruitm ... et-peeves/
So, it's an Above the Law article, and an anonymously sourced one at that. From last April. Still, I just read it first the time recently and I've been thinking about it a lot.

Some of the points seem pretty unobjectionable, but 2 is pretty contrary to TLS mass mailing wisdom (which, to be clear, I definitely sign on to).

2. We do not appreciate it when you send a follow-up email to inquire as to whether we have received your initial email. If we have not yet had time to deal with your first email, the second email is just annoying. Please trust that we will do our jobs and respond to you if you are of interest to the firm. If you are not of interest, the second email has no impact.

On that note, please appreciate that, despite our best efforts, not all candidates will receive a reply from the firm. In the era of email, when candidates can apply to 200 firms in an hour, please recall that someone is on the other end of that deluge. If you are of interest to the firm, you will be contacted. We promise. If 30 days have passed and you have not heard anything from us, please assume that we are not interested. While this may sound cold, this is a reality in view of the volume of submissions that we receive.

[BigZuck]

http://abovethelaw.com/2014/04/recruitm ... et-peeves/
So, it's an Above the Law article, and an anonymously sourced one at that. From last April. Still, I just read it first the time recently and I've been thinking about it a lot.

Some of the points seem pretty unobjectionable, but 2 is pretty contrary to TLS mass mailing wisdom (which, to be clear, I definitely sign on to).

2. We do not appreciate it when you send a follow-up email to inquire as to whether we have received your initial email. If we have not yet had time to deal with your first email, the second email is just annoying. Please trust that we will do our jobs and respond to you if you are of interest to the firm. If you are not of interest, the second email has no impact.

On that note, please appreciate that, despite our best efforts, not all candidates will receive a reply from the firm. In the era of email, when candidates can apply to 200 firms in an hour, please recall that someone is on the other end of that deluge. If you are of interest to the firm, you will be contacted. We promise. If 30 days have passed and you have not heard anything from us, please assume that we are not interested. While this may sound cold, this is a reality in view of the volume of submissions that we receive.

I never followed up ever and I tend to agree with whoever said that just because logically that makes sense to me(and I know that runs counter to the Hive's collective wisdom).

Just having worked in a few law firms in a support type role (albeit never on recruiting or anything close to that) most people seem to be pretty on top of their emails. They read, sort and prioritize everything and then relatively soon will act upon (or at least make a plan to act upon in the future) stuff that is important and then trash the rest.

But as always YMMV and how things work might be highly firm dependent.

[hoos89]

I got several screeners immediately after following up, including some as late as October after following up a 3rd or 4th time (granted, at least two of those were colored as "updating materials" but still). It's one of those "you literally have nothing to lose" things. If the recruiter finds it annoying, it's not like they can reject you MORE.

[Anonymous User]

Joining the mass mailing typo club. I just noticed today that my cover letter is missing an "a" for one sentence in the middle of a paragraph (as if it read "I am farmer" instead of "I am a farmer") and I've been sending out edited versions of this same cover letter for over a week. I feel so stupid. I'm hoping that either it hasn't been noticed by employers, or that when I follow up I can resend the documents with the cover letter typo casually edited out.

Dishonor. Dishonor on my whole family. Dishonor on me. Dishonor on my cow...

[Anonymous User]

Last year I accidentally sent out cover letters that I said I was interested in the firm's "2014" summer class (when it should have been 2015). Still got a ton of interviews, and I doubt the interviewers actually read the cover letter. An error like a missing "a" is likely to be overlooked. You could get dinged for it, but it's likely that many people won't notice.

[Anonymous User]

I started mass mailing last Monday, and continued throughout the past week.

Two OCI firms (I bid on them, but didn't get; I mentioned that in the email) got back almost immediately.
One firm got back to me 20 minutes after I sent the email, saying that I should drop by their interview room and see if the interviewer has some time for me. If not, they will find "an alternative arrangement," so I assume that this is a guaranteed screener.

The second firm (V30) actually called me after a few hours, around 6:30pm (I was surprised by that). Scheduled a screening interview outside of OCI.

These two screening interviews happened on Monday, so it gave me high hopes. But by the end of the week, I only got one more response (and it was rejection ), despite sending 50+ emails. So this process is really unpredictable, I think.

[hoos89]

50 e-mails doesn't really qualify as "mass" mailing. Send more.

[Kratos]

I started mass mailing last Monday, and continued throughout the past week.

Two OCI firms (I bid on them, but didn't get; I mentioned that in the email) got back almost immediately.
One firm got back to me 20 minutes after I sent the email, saying that I should drop by their interview room and see if the interviewer has some time for me. If not, they will find "an alternative arrangement," so I assume that this is a guaranteed screener.

The second firm (V30) actually called me after a few hours, around 6:30pm (I was surprised by that). Scheduled a screening interview outside of OCI.

These two screening interviews happened on Monday, so it gave me high hopes. But by the end of the week, I only got one more response (and it was rejection ), despite sending 50+ emails. So this process is really unpredictable, I think.

it hasnt even been a week yet since you sent shit in, give it some time

[Anonymous User]

50 e-mails doesn't really qualify as "mass" mailing. Send more.

Of course I'm not done yet. I just meant that I sent 50+ emails just this past week. I still have my internship going on and I've been busy with other stuff, so 50+ was all I could manage in a week.

[Anonymous User]

I started mass mailing last Monday, and continued throughout the past week.

Two OCI firms (I bid on them, but didn't get; I mentioned that in the email) got back almost immediately.
One firm got back to me 20 minutes after I sent the email, saying that I should drop by their interview room and see if the interviewer has some time for me. If not, they will find "an alternative arrangement," so I assume that this is a guaranteed screener.

The second firm (V30) actually called me after a few hours, around 6:30pm (I was surprised by that). Scheduled a screening interview outside of OCI.

These two screening interviews happened on Monday, so it gave me high hopes. But by the end of the week, I only got one more response (and it was rejection ), despite sending 50+ emails. So this process is really unpredictable, I think.

it hasnt even been a week yet since you sent shit in, give it some time

Yeah I understand. But I was so excited by getting two screening interviews that quickly

[ManoftheHour]

I'm really amazed firms send rejection letters via snail mail. Another poster said the firm could have just replied "lol, no" to my initial email.

[Anonymous User]

Mad props to DPW for the one sentence e-mail ding within a week of the mass mail. 10/10.

[Anonymous User]

If I dont think most firms know how well my school is ranked should I put that on my resume?

[acijku2]

If I dont think most firms know how well my school is ranked should I put that on my resume?

Every firm knows how well your school is ranked.

[Kratos]

If I dont think most firms know how well my school is ranked should I put that on my resume?

good anon