JD Match Forum

[buckilaw]

Is JD Match worth using? I recall feedback from last hiring season being a mixed bag at best.

[Anonymous User]

can someone explain to me what exactly it does? And is it supplemental to OCI?

[BruceMacEwen]

Bruce here from JD Match. In a nutshell:

• we're the first online recruiting platform exclusively dedicated to law students and law firms;
  free for students;
  a supplement to OCI and not a replacement;
  provide robust search tools firms can use to find you-whether or not they visit your school;
  give you ways to search for firms by region, size, and category;
  and can match students and firms based on mutual interest through our preference-driven algorithm.

Students are already interviewing outside OCI-74% of T14 students and 64% of everyone else last year according to our survey research-and we help make that process more informed and focused. Our students last year said things like "common sense and easy to do," "can't have enough tools to help," "a great additional option," and "why wouldn't I?"

Bottom line: Last year our member firms found and hired member students. Yes, it was Year 1 so we were small, but we'll only grow from here.

Look, we can't offer The Answer-not in this market environment. But people are wondering if OCI can, too.

[buckilaw]

Bruce here from JD Match. In a nutshell:

• we're the first online recruiting platform exclusively dedicated to law students and law firms;
  free for students;
  a supplement to OCI and not a replacement;
  provide robust search tools firms can use to find you-whether or not they visit your school;
  give you ways to search for firms by region, size, and category;
  and can match students and firms based on mutual interest through our preference-driven algorithm.

Students are already interviewing outside OCI-74% of T14 students and 64% of everyone else last year according to our survey research-and we help make that process more informed and focused. Our students last year said things like "common sense and easy to do," "can't have enough tools to help," "a great additional option," and "why wouldn't I?"

Bottom line: Last year our member firms found and hired member students. Yes, it was Year 1 so we were small, but we'll only grow from here.

Look, we can't offer The Answer-not in this market environment. But people are wondering if OCI can, too.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to provide us with this information.

I can think of 1 reason why I'd be a bit hesitant to use JD match. Say I have a list of my preferences on match, and I list firm X relatively low on my list of preferences. I then interview with firm X during my school's OCI. At some point wouldn't firm X reference JD Match? Is it not plausible that firm X may not extend a callback/offer because they think I'm going to work for a firm that I ranked higher on JD Match?

[BruceMacEwen]

Thanks for the followup. Two quick points:

• First, no member can see any other member's rankings. That would obviously blow the whole system. So firm X won't know if you ranked them low, medium, or not at all--or what other firms, if any, you ranked.
  Second, if you interview Firm X and like them, wouldn't you then rank them more highly? (This would definitely improve your odds of matching with them through the algorithm, but changes nothing else.)

The key is you can change your rankings at will (drag and drop, really simple) 24/7. If X stays low maybe they deserve to be. Unless I'm missing something (entirely possible).

[LjakW]

If I may ask, how many students were hired through JDMatch?

[BruceMacEwen]

Good question. Unfortunately--this pains us, but we understand firms' thinking--we're not absolutely sure, because firms told us they don't want to reveal specific numbers for JD Match vs. OCI. Firms just said they did hire JD Match students, including (as noted) students at schools the firm didn't visit.

A corollary, which we may not have made clear, is that once the algorithm makes a match, we're entirely out of it. It's completely up to the firm and the student how to proceed from there, and unlike (say) FB or LinkedIn, we don't channel communications through JD Match, for privacy reasons.

Frankly, we're highly confident that in Year 1 the vast majority of hires were through OCI, and we're (again) a complement, not a substitute.

But we're only going to grow from here, and firms have told us they'd like to cut down on their OCI schedules in future if they can.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for taking the time to post here. Does JD match offer anything for 3Ls, or is it strictly for 2L OCI?

[BruceMacEwen]

We're actually open to:

• 1Ls
  2Ls
  3Ls
  and judicial clerks

3Ls are interesting because more firms tell us they're hiring "on demand" to fill needs rather than doing 100% of it through the traditional 2L summer program.

Coming soon--we'll be available to law grads looking for contract/staff/temp/LPO type jobs. Stay tuned.

[thelaststraw05]

Probably a dumb question, what is "Last Score" in the Law School tab of creating a profile?

[thelaststraw05]

Is it a typo that is supposed to be LSAT score?

I'm almost done with a profile, but I don't know what to put in this required box.

[BruceMacEwen]

That would be a typo! It's been fixed and now reads, correctly, "LSAT Score."

Thanks for the eagle eye!