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how much can this help you land a job, particularly at big firms?

theturkeyisfat wrote:how much can this help you land a job, particularly at big firms?

Depends who you know and how legit the relationship is. Even if you know someone, unless they're managing partner or something like that, it'll help you get in the door but you still gotta ace the interview.

90 % of life is showing up, and 73 % is having someone or two who like you when you show up.

NotMyRealName09 wrote:90 % of life is showing up, and 73 % is having someone or two who like you when you show up.

I think that if you are otherwise within the grade/school range of what the firm hires, knowing someone may be enough to get you an initial interview. And, possibly, if you get to the call-back stage and your interview goes just average or above-average, knowing someone may help you get an offer when you otherwise wouldn't.

You have to remember, though, that firm hiring decisions are made according to the input of a whole host of people- your initial interviewer, your call-back interviewers, anyone you may have spoken to or who may have observed your conduct (i.e. receptionists, recruiting, etc...), and a hiring committee. If you haven't put forth a probable case on your own for why you should be hired, then it's unlikely that knowing one person is going to help you too much. Even if you know the managing partner, you'd have to know him pretty well for him/her to expend the "political capital" to get you into a firm with subpar academic credentials, or make up for poor interviews.

2LLLL wrote:I think that if you are otherwise within the grade/school range of what the firm hires, knowing someone may be enough to get you an initial interview. And, possibly, if you get to the call-back stage and your interview goes just average or above-average, knowing someone may help you get an offer when you otherwise wouldn't.

You have to remember, though, that firm hiring decisions are made according to the input of a whole host of people- your initial interviewer, your call-back interviewers, anyone you may have spoken to or who may have observed your conduct (i.e. receptionists, recruiting, etc...), and a hiring committee. If you haven't put forth a probable case on your own for why you should be hired, then it's unlikely that knowing one person is going to help you too much. Even if you know the managing partner, you'd have to know him pretty well for him/her to expend the "political capital" to get you into a firm with subpar academic credentials, or make up for poor interviews.

This pretty much sums it up. Do you know the person well enough that they would risk embarrassing themselves on your behalf if you turned out not to interview well, or are late, or some other thing? And if so, are they in a position to make themselves heard, or do they not really have the juice to help you even if they wanted to?

didn't really help me that much

I'm also very interested in this. As an 0L, my current job puts me in constant contact with a bunch of librarians at firms across the country. I wonder whether knowing them might help one way or another.

I'm inclined to say that it does not. I let on to one of them that I was going to lawlschool, and they said that their daughter was still unemployed after graduating from a T20. This was a V100 firm...