2011 URM OCI/Interviews/Job Fairs Forum

[Oban]

Ok, so OCI and interview season is almost upon us. And I thought I'd make a thread where we can compile our OCI/Job Fairs/Mass mailing results.

My schools OCI interview schedules don't come out until next week, but so far I have several interviews lined up from mass mailing and a bunch granted from the job fairs.

[20121109]

Moved to LE forum.

[Grizz]

You know you don't have to be URM to go to these fairs, right? You can just be any 'ol minority. And that definition is streeeetched.

[Anonymous User]

Another point about job fairs, some require that employers report to them the callbacks offered. This is to ensure that employers do not just send reps to the fair with no serious intention of recruiting those participating.

As for posting results, I would like to wait a bit because my stats identify me easily.

As for advice that I have accumulated, I would say attend minority job fairs. Just do it. Especially if you are a URM at a top school with less than awesome grades. A lot of these fairs invite minorities from a wide-range of schools so your T14, T10, T6, or Twhatever will be more impressive at the fairs rather than OCI where everyone has the same school on their resume. Also, start networking as soon as possible. Attend the programming your BLSA, LALSA, etc. has that includes reps from firms. You can cultivate relationships which result in callbacks when recruiting season starts.

[jaydee2013]

I'm GLBT and registered for a diversity job fair... was this a wise decision? I just have a feeling that I'm going to show up and people will wonder "what is this white guy doing here?" Neither the job fair's website nor did any registration materials include ANY statement about what they define as diversity (GLBT, poor, true URM...), leading me to hope it may be a more flexible definition, but I haven't tried to use being GLBT to my advantage before - so I don't know what to expect.

[Aston2412]

I'm GLBT and registered for a diversity job fair... was this a wise decision? I just have a feeling that I'm going to show up and people will wonder "what is this white guy doing here?" Neither the job fair's website nor did any registration materials include ANY statement about what they define as diversity (GLBT, poor, true URM...).

If they don't specify you're fair game.

So far I've been to the Vault/MCCA fair and there were plenty of white guys there. I just assumed we were all a bunch of homos. Then one guy told me he had a girlfriend I was like, "Whaaaaaa?" I suppose he could have been B, but that never really occurred to me before now.

What fair did you register for?

[jaydee2013]

St Louis. I'm familiar with the city - decently liberal, but I worry that the definition of diversity isn't as expansive as it might be in NYC/LA/Boston////

[Anonymous User]

.

[Anonymous User]

I'm GLBT and registered for a diversity job fair... was this a wise decision? I just have a feeling that I'm going to show up and people will wonder "what is this white guy doing here?" Neither the job fair's website nor did any registration materials include ANY statement about what they define as diversity (GLBT, poor, true URM...).

If they don't specify you're fair game.

So far I've been to the Vault/MCCA fair and there were plenty of white guys there. I just assumed we were all a bunch of homos. Then one guy told me he had a girlfriend I was like, "Whaaaaaa?" I suppose he could have been B, but that never really occurred to me before now.

What fair did you register for?

Could be religious minority, Jewish or something more obscure. Really stretching diversity, but whatever. Definitely most of the white people at Vault/MCCA were obviously gay (myself included), and probably ~15% of the people there were white.

No one questions your diversity credentials at these things. In fact, in all of the talking I did to firms, not one even mentioned diversity without prompting, which I found sort of amusing.

[20121109]

Diversity fairs are hardly exclusive.

In fact, I know some BLSAs that actively advertise their annual job fairs to the non-URM community.

[Jdman83]

Sorry, I mistakenly posted the previous post annonymously.

So, a rising 3L here. Grades were high enough to place me within the cuff off gpa (that I have seen) for most firm interviews at 2L OCI (we have pre-select). However, due to a glitch on my part and personal circumstance that limited me to applying to only one market, I was not able to obtain Firm Gig 2L summer. Worked for SEC instead. Now, for 3L OCI, I have fixed the glitch and can apply to numerous market as well. I have couple of interviews with couple of top 10 firms coming up. ? is, how would you rate my chances and should I expect any realistic chances desipte the term "3LOLCI" lol. Again grades wise, I am fine. I am just trying to figure out how much my lack of 2L firm gig would affect me? thanks for any input!!

[Anonymous User]

Bumping. Several friends at HYS have offers in different markets: NY (V5), DC (V50ish, but great DC firm, and one of the tippy top DC firms) and TX. Grades range from way below median to above median/top third. MVP friend has a V10 NY offer, no idea about grades.

How is everyone doing with callback ratios at the various T14s?

[Anonymous User]

Bumping. Several friends at HYS have offers in different markets: NY (V5), DC (V50ish, but great DC firm, and one of the tippy top DC firms) and TX. Grades range from way below median to above median/top third. MVP friend has a V10 NY offer, no idea about grades.

How is everyone doing with callback ratios at the various T14s?

I'm at a T10 and we're still in the midst of interviewing, but thus far I've had 18 screener interviews, 6 rejections, and 8 callbacks. I still have a few more screeners to go on and a few firms to hear from, so we'll see how things pan out.