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Condensed version: a firm I'd be interested in working for didn't select me for OCI. I was probably outside the scope of what they were looking for based on grades: I'm middle of the class (t20), their OCI profile requests top 10% or so.

Now, seeing as how my resume/cover letter was probably never looked at because of my grades, would it be out of order to email the recruiting director anyways? Something along the lines of "I was not selected for OCI, but my interest in your firm is nonetheless strong and I wanted to know what steps I could take to meet you in a different capacity."

Is this out of line? I feel that - at worst - it's just a little annoying and needy, and I have little to lose when applying for firms that I have minimal chances of getting. Take the chance?

If you don't contact them, you have 0% chance of them hiring you. If you contact them, those odds increase to something greater than 0. I.e., there's no risk, so apply to them.

Most career services forbid this. So just make sure that what you're doing is in line with the school's policies so you don't get banned from OCI.

newyorker88 wrote:Most career services forbid this. So just make sure that what you're doing is in line with the school's policies so you don't get banned from OCI.

And plenty don't forbid this.

I think it would just be time wasted. They were presented with your resume, and had a full and fair chance to screen you, and they unfortunately decided that they would rather speak with other students. You would essentially be presenting them with the exact same document, so I don't see the point. Its one thing to express interest and be persistent when you are still in the pool of candidates and want to rise to the top, but quite another to express interest when the firm explicitly removed you from the pool of candidates. Sure, not contacting them at all gives you a 0% chance of anything happening with them, but I think your time would be better spent pursuing opportunities with firms you haven't yet been screened by. At this point, time is a valuable commodity, and I wouldn't squander it contacting firms that already said no when there are so many more possibilities out there.

Anonymous User wrote:I think it would just be time wasted. They were presented with your resume, and had a full and fair chance to screen you, and they unfortunately decided that they would rather speak with other students. You would essentially be presenting them with the exact same document, so I don't see the point. Its one thing to express interest and be persistent when you are still in the pool of candidates and want to rise to the top, but quite another to express interest when the firm explicitly removed you from the pool of candidates. Sure, not contacting them at all gives you a 0% chance of anything happening with them, but I think your time would be better spent pursuing opportunities with firms you haven't yet been screened by. At this point, time is a valuable commodity, and I wouldn't squander it contacting firms that already said no when there are so many more possibilities out there.

Fair assessment, but with the number of applicants from my schools I would be surprised if the recruiter actually looked at my resume. I'm fairly certain that she only had time to glance at class rankings as an initial screening measure, then looked into the specifics afterwards.

I could be wrong, but it seems probable. I appreciate the candor, but an email or two isn't a huge investment on my part.

Definitely send the email (just make sure your school doesn't forbid this), but also don't hold your breath waiting for a positive (or any) response. I tried rescheduling a preselect interview that I ultimately canceled and was ignored.

vamedic03 wrote:

newyorker88 wrote:Most career services forbid this. So just make sure that what you're doing is in line with the school's policies so you don't get banned from OCI.

And plenty don't forbid this.

If that's true that's all the more reason to check the schools policies.