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So I interviewed with a V50 firm for a 1L SA in my home market in February, and although I didn't get the job, the rejection letter invited me to go straight to the call-back stage for this fall in that office. The problem is that because I would like to move to NYC and work there, I would like to interview with this firm in NYC. Obviously, I would prefer not to waste a bid on a firm that will let me go straight to a call-back, so I am tempted to just ask if they could extend the invitation to the NYC office. On the other hand, I am concerned that if I ask them to allow me to interview for the NYC office and they say no, they won't give me an offer in my home market because they'll know I'm looking for NYC.

Should I just throw caution to the wind and ask, and hope it won't come back to bite me, or should I just take the call-back in my home market? Note that I would work in my home market only as a last resort, but would rather have an offer in my home market than not have an offer and wind up using a bid on their NYC office.

To give you a sense of where I stand absent this invitation, I am CCN transfer who was top 2 percent at my T20.

This is a terrible idea. You didn't get a callback from the entire firm, you got a callback from that particular office of the firm. There is no way the NYC office is just going to let you go straight to the callback stage without even meeting you first. Also, you are definitely not going to get an offer from the callback you DO have if you ask for an NYC callback instead.

Bid on the NY office and take the callback in your home market.

chasgoose wrote:This is a terrible idea. You didn't get a callback from the entire firm, you got a callback from that particular office of the firm. There is no way the NYC office is just going to let you go straight to the callback stage without even meeting you first. Also, you are definitely not going to get an offer from the callback you DO have if you ask for an NYC callback instead.

Bid on the NY office and take the callback in your home market.

Agreed. If my office (a branch office of an NY firm) extended a callback to someone, not only would that callback not necessarily be transferable to the NY office, but the request would also certainly tip us off that the applicant was not committed to our office. I don't know the size of the office you're talking about, but if it's small then they can't afford to be wasting callbacks and offers on people who would rather work elsewhere.

OP here. Thanks guys. I went ahead and mentioned my deep and abiding love for my home market and asked for a call-back in that office.