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Quick question. If you are fairly confident a firm is going to be at OCI and are planning to apply to them then, is it detrimental to apply to them over the summer are a job fair or through mass mailing as well? I want to get a jump fairly soon on mailing out some resumes/transcripts/cover letters and don't know what the exact OCI firm list will look like, but I don't want to annoy firms because they've seen my application 1-2 times already before OCI even starts.

How strong a candidate are you?

If a stellar candidate, I think the firm may look at you early in the hopes of snagging you before the rush (if they give you an offer, it will probably explode sooner too)

If just a good candidate, I think they will tell you to apply through OCI. You also run the risk of annoying recruiting and the hiring team for trying to jump the gun as a mere standard applicant.

general rule of thumb is to mass mail those firms you wouldn't have exposure to otherwise...so for you, I guess that means those that go to the job fairs and who go to OCI. As for firms that go to both OCI and the job fair, I've heard that firms put more weight on the OCI interview, so it might be better to allocate bids for places you really want to work at OCI.

Last year, I used off campus fairs as a way to spread my bids to different markets, and it worked in my favor.

monkey85 wrote:How strong a candidate are you?

If a stellar candidate, I think the firm may look at you early in the hopes of snagging you before the rush (if they give you an offer, it will probably explode sooner too)

If just a good candidate, I think they will tell you to apply through OCI. You also run the risk of annoying recruiting and the hiring team for trying to jump the gun as a mere standard applicant.

Depends on how you define "good" versus "stellar". . . I believe I am a pretty strong candidate but not in the top 5% range type strong. I don't want to come across as jumping the gun, but isn't June/July a typical time to start mailing for firms? Or do people wait until around the time school starts?

Anonymous User wrote:general rule of thumb is to mass mail those firms you wouldn't have exposure to otherwise...so for you, I guess that means those that go to the job fairs and who go to OCI. As for firms that go to both OCI and the job fair, I've heard that firms put more weight on the OCI interview, so it might be better to allocate bids for places you really want to work at OCI.

Last year, I used off campus fairs as a way to spread my bids to different markets, and it worked in my favor.

Well that's the problem. I truthfully have no idea which firms will be at OCI. On the one hand I don't want to leave out a firm because I'm being too cautious, but at the same time (like I said before) I don't want to annoy them with duplicate applications. I'm really not sure what to do.

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Jessuf wrote:Does your OCI have a screening process or is it just lottery? It makes sense to mass mail firms who participate at your OCI that you don't get an interview with if your school does a lottery system.

It's the screening process I believe, where they let employers preselect candidates. Are you suggesting I wait until after OCI to mass mail?

nmcdgt wrote:

monkey85 wrote:How strong a candidate are you?

If a stellar candidate, I think the firm may look at you early in the hopes of snagging you before the rush (if they give you an offer, it will probably explode sooner too)

If just a good candidate, I think they will tell you to apply through OCI. You also run the risk of annoying recruiting and the hiring team for trying to jump the gun as a mere standard applicant.

Depends on how you define "good" versus "stellar". . . I believe I am a pretty strong candidate but not in the top 5% range type strong. I don't want to come across as jumping the gun, but isn't June/July a typical time to start mailing for firms? Or do people wait until around the time school starts?

Anonymous User wrote:general rule of thumb is to mass mail those firms you wouldn't have exposure to otherwise...so for you, I guess that means those that go to the job fairs and who go to OCI. As for firms that go to both OCI and the job fair, I've heard that firms put more weight on the OCI interview, so it might be better to allocate bids for places you really want to work at OCI.

Last year, I used off campus fairs as a way to spread my bids to different markets, and it worked in my favor.

Well that's the problem. I truthfully have no idea which firms will be at OCI. On the one hand I don't want to leave out a firm because I'm being too cautious, but at the same time (like I said before) I don't want to annoy them with duplicate applications. I'm really not sure what to do.

it's still early now. they'll release all the firm names when you start bidding (like in early July), and after you do that, then start mass mailing.