16 OCI screeners over the course of two days Forum

[Zeile]

Has anyone else been through this? It's a prospect I'll be facing in a couple of weeks. Any advice? It especially sucks because four of my top five firms are packed into those days and are later, towards the end of my marathon.

[Zeile]

15 actually, my bad.

[5ky]

That's not a problem.

[09042014]

It's not that bad. Do your research ahead of time.

[Anonymous User]

I have 20 over two days at NYU. Talked to career services about it, and they said it was tough but doable. Reached out to a few 3Ls and they said similar things-- they emphasized that I should focus my prep on the firms I both really want and have a good shot at and to remember to try and keep my energy level up.

[alicrimson]

I haven't gone through 2L OCI, but I've done 1L OCI and have spoken to a lot of folks...so I might not be a super source. I don't have sixteen in one day; however, I have a few days with 8-9 interviews each day. Fortunately, they aren't back to back. I think, as others have emphasized, that doing your prep work now will pay off later. I know I'm making little index cards that I plan on carrying in my purse to remember key things I'd like to ask about and kind of a cheat sheet for general firm info. Have you gotten your time slots yet? This is the aspect that makes me the most nervous. If you haven't selected, try to have atleast 40 minutes between your interviews. I don't know if 2L OCI is like this, but when I did 1L, most firms ran atleast fifteen minutes late right before lunch and at the end of the day. I've also been told that if you have to have a smaller time frame between interviews, to make your close interviews early in the morning or right after lunch. Good luck!

[thesealocust]

Poor baby.

[Anonymous User]

23 in two days.
It's just what happens sometimes. Adrenaline will carry you through and you'll be fine so long as you did sufficient prep. Make cheat sheets if you have to. Make cheat sheets. Take 30 seconds to remind yourself of your answer to "Why this firm?" and you'll be fine. You're not going to land a job because you memorized the interviewer's background, you just need to not be oblivious to what the firm does (and where they do it). Don't say you want to do tax law in an office that doesn't have a tax practice, etc. Once you have that info written down, it won't take more than a minute to refresh yourself. By the end of the second day you'll be a pro at it. It may even be a good thing that the firms you covet are near the end, you'll be running like a well oiled machine by then.

Best of luck!

[fatduck]

16 over 2 days? ARE YOU INSANE? cancel at least half of these, dude. wtf are you thinking?

[KidStuddi]

16 over 2 days? ARE YOU INSANE? cancel at least half of these, dude. wtf are you thinking?

Many people who've attended back-to-back diversity fairs or regional interview programs have experienced this. It's not as uncommon or overwhelming as you would think. The prospect of having ten 20-minute conversations in one day should not really scare anyone who's going to take 6-8 hours of bar exam each day.

[Sapientia]

16 over 2 days? ARE YOU INSANE? cancel at least half of these, dude. wtf are you thinking?

Many people who've attended back-to-back diversity fairs or regional interview programs have experienced this. It's not as uncommon or overwhelming as you would think. The prospect of having ten 20-minute conversations in one day should not really scare anyone who's going to take 6-8 hours of bar exam each day.

yea fatduck is flame like alwys don't listen to that asswhipe

[fatduck]

16 over 2 days? ARE YOU INSANE? cancel at least half of these, dude. wtf are you thinking?

Many people who've attended back-to-back diversity fairs or regional interview programs have experienced this. It's not as uncommon or overwhelming as you would think. The prospect of having ten 20-minute conversations in one day should not really scare anyone who's going to take 6-8 hours of bar exam each day.

yea fatduck is flame like alwys don't listen to that asswhipe

sorry i had 14 interviews today and i'm a little burned out

[LawIdiot86]

Just remember, if you only do 14 and don't get any offers, you won't have a second chance to do 15.

[Anonymous User]

23 in two days.
It's just what happens sometimes. Adrenaline will carry you through and you'll be fine so long as you did sufficient prep. Make cheat sheets if you have to. Make cheat sheets. Take 30 seconds to remind yourself of your answer to "Why this firm?" and you'll be fine. You're not going to land a job because you memorized the interviewer's background, you just need to not be oblivious to what the firm does (and where they do it). Don't say you want to do tax law in an office that doesn't have a tax practice, etc. Once you have that info written down, it won't take more than a minute to refresh yourself. By the end of the second day you'll be a pro at it. It may even be a good thing that the firms you covet are near the end, you'll be running like a well oiled machine by then.

Best of luck!

Curious what to include in the cheat sheet.
They all pretty much sound the same to me when I researched three or four so I stopped.
And this is only a screener. What can they possibly ask about their firm? i don't think they are going to ask, "tell me what you know about the firm"?

[ilovesf]

16 over 2 days? ARE YOU INSANE? cancel at least half of these, dude. wtf are you thinking?

Many people who've attended back-to-back diversity fairs or regional interview programs have experienced this. It's not as uncommon or overwhelming as you would think. The prospect of having ten 20-minute conversations in one day should not really scare anyone who's going to take 6-8 hours of bar exam each day.

yea fatduck is flame like alwys don't listen to that asswhipe

Awesome anon use

[Anonymous User]

23 in two days.
It's just what happens sometimes. Adrenaline will carry you through and you'll be fine so long as you did sufficient prep. Make cheat sheets if you have to. Make cheat sheets. Take 30 seconds to remind yourself of your answer to "Why this firm?" and you'll be fine. You're not going to land a job because you memorized the interviewer's background, you just need to not be oblivious to what the firm does (and where they do it). Don't say you want to do tax law in an office that doesn't have a tax practice, etc. Once you have that info written down, it won't take more than a minute to refresh yourself. By the end of the second day you'll be a pro at it. It may even be a good thing that the firms you covet are near the end, you'll be running like a well oiled machine by then.

Best of luck!

Curious what to include in the cheat sheet.
They all pretty much sound the same to me when I researched three or four so I stopped.
And this is only a screener. What can they possibly ask about their firm? i don't think they are going to ask, "tell me what you know about the firm"?

Agree with what was said above - include practice areas (I tended to just copy and paste the office's "practice overview" from Chambers and Partners onto my cheat sheet, which probably provides more detail than you'll need but I think can be helpful), and just general information about the firm's programs - do they have a special training program, mentoring system, associate initiatives, etc. I thought the most helpful info to have included buzzwords and other impressions I gleaned from the Vault survey responses and the summaries on Chambers Associate. I think these resources give the most accurate sense of how working at the firm actually plays out and what kind of values/culture are prevalent at each. I felt the most important prep I did for screeners was just solidly knowing my resume and how I would answer questions about my summer internship, my first year of law school, why I went to law school, what I'm thinking with respect to litigation vs. corporate, etc. It won't matter how much you know about the firm if you are stumbling through the questions about yourself, which is the main focus of the interview and really where you need to shine and sound engaging/interesting

I also had days with 8-9 callbacks, many back to back, and its not thaaaat terrible once you get into the swing of things. Its just exhausting and draining so you'll probably want to die a little bit, but as long as you are well-prepared and confident you can power through it. After the first 1-2 where you are being asked pretty much the exact same questions about yourself, you'll end up going on autopilot

[071816]

23 in two days.
It's just what happens sometimes. Adrenaline will carry you through and you'll be fine so long as you did sufficient prep. Make cheat sheets if you have to. Make cheat sheets. Take 30 seconds to remind yourself of your answer to "Why this firm?" and you'll be fine. You're not going to land a job because you memorized the interviewer's background, you just need to not be oblivious to what the firm does (and where they do it). Don't say you want to do tax law in an office that doesn't have a tax practice, etc. Once you have that info written down, it won't take more than a minute to refresh yourself. By the end of the second day you'll be a pro at it. It may even be a good thing that the firms you covet are near the end, you'll be running like a well oiled machine by then.

Best of luck!

Curious what to include in the cheat sheet.
They all pretty much sound the same to me when I researched three or four so I stopped.
And this is only a screener. What can they possibly ask about their firm? i don't think they are going to ask, "tell me what you know about the firm"?

oh i don't know, they may ask something like "why do you want to work at this firm?"

[ilovesf]

I'm making cheat sheets right now for firms. I'm including:
-interviewer's name, school (if it is mine), practice area
-firm's main practice areas in the office i'm applying to
-questions specific to firm/interviewer: how work is given out, if interviewer changed firms maybe ask a question about switching

My interviews are more spread out (like 22 over a week), but I'm still worried about remembering all the info. Cheat sheet definitely seems like the way to go.

[Stringer6]

16 over 2 days? ARE YOU INSANE? cancel at least half of these, dude. wtf are you thinking?

Many people who've attended back-to-back diversity fairs or regional interview programs have experienced this. It's not as uncommon or overwhelming as you would think. The prospect of having ten 20-minute conversations in one day should not really scare anyone who's going to take 6-8 hours of bar exam each day.

yea fatduck is flame like alwys don't listen to that asswhipe

sorry i had 14 interviews today and i'm a little burned out

DUCK GUY

[soccerfreak]

16 over 2 days? ARE YOU INSANE? cancel at least half of these, dude. wtf are you thinking?

QFT

[JazzOne]

23 in two days.
It's just what happens sometimes. Adrenaline will carry you through and you'll be fine so long as you did sufficient prep. Make cheat sheets if you have to. Make cheat sheets. Take 30 seconds to remind yourself of your answer to "Why this firm?" and you'll be fine. You're not going to land a job because you memorized the interviewer's background, you just need to not be oblivious to what the firm does (and where they do it). Don't say you want to do tax law in an office that doesn't have a tax practice, etc. Once you have that info written down, it won't take more than a minute to refresh yourself. By the end of the second day you'll be a pro at it. It may even be a good thing that the firms you covet are near the end, you'll be running like a well oiled machine by then.

Best of luck!

Curious what to include in the cheat sheet.
They all pretty much sound the same to me when I researched three or four so I stopped.
And this is only a screener. What can they possibly ask about their firm? i don't think they are going to ask, "tell me what you know about the firm"?

oh i don't know, they may ask something like "why do you want to work at this firm?"

lol

[McQueen]

How can +20 at OCI be any harder than speed dating? If you are a 1L what is there to elaborate on that would take 3 minutes (without repeating yourself)? Succinct is good.

[Anonymous User]

23 in two days.
It's just what happens sometimes. Adrenaline will carry you through and you'll be fine so long as you did sufficient prep. Make cheat sheets if you have to. Make cheat sheets. Take 30 seconds to remind yourself of your answer to "Why this firm?" and you'll be fine. You're not going to land a job because you memorized the interviewer's background, you just need to not be oblivious to what the firm does (and where they do it). Don't say you want to do tax law in an office that doesn't have a tax practice, etc. Once you have that info written down, it won't take more than a minute to refresh yourself. By the end of the second day you'll be a pro at it. It may even be a good thing that the firms you covet are near the end, you'll be running like a well oiled machine by then.

Best of luck!

Curious what to include in the cheat sheet.
They all pretty much sound the same to me when I researched three or four so I stopped.
And this is only a screener. What can they possibly ask about their firm? i don't think they are going to ask, "tell me what you know about the firm"?

Did ten back to back. Had preprinted notecards with questions. Pulled them out for most. Have four callbacks so far. 'Parently didn't hurt me much.

I put on cards:
Info about interviewer I found interesting or confusing (what is an equity based security investment?) that would get em talking bout themselves.
Info about major pxtc areas or interesting cases
Anyone I knew at the firm (info calls to 3L summers at the firm = huge help in getting feel, plus you can answer why us with "honestly I wasn't sure and all the big firms seemed similar until I talked to X who said she was loving it and attending depos/etc)
Name of their edu or mentoring program
Any woman's initiative they had (I want to meet people who were partners bc I want to be one)

[Perseus_I]

Has anyone else been through this? It's a prospect I'll be facing in a couple of weeks. Any advice? It especially sucks because four of my top five firms are packed into those days and are later, towards the end of my marathon.

I had 15 in one day, many of them back-to-back. I did my research ahead of time and had a nice cheat sheet in my padfolio. The problem was NOT keeping details about the firms straight. The problem was finding the rooms and getting there on time while being in smiling, confident, organized "interview mode." I serially bombed about half of them. I was often late (10 minutes late to one), flustered, and fidgety because I had no way of keeping track of time during interviews and I didn't want to convey this to the interviewer but probably often did, I often got mixed up, appeared disorganized and hot, and I often forgot to do things like update my resume to show making Law Review. I even tried to update my resume at an awkward moment in one of them -- just because I couldn't think straight. Needless to say, I also stumbled through a lot of questions and once repeated myself 3 times, clearly annoying the interviewer. On the other hand, I have gotten callbacks from 2 so far (the interviews were Thursday), but that may honestly be it based on how badly I likely came across in many of them.

This is not something I would recommend doing if there is any way around it.

I also got much worse as the day progressed, and both my callbacks so far were within the first 5 -- for what that's worth.

[ilovesf]

Did ten back to back. Had preprinted notecards with questions. Pulled them out for most. Have four callbacks so far. 'Parently didn't hurt me much.

I put on cards:
Info about interviewer I found interesting or confusing (what is an equity based security investment?) that would get em talking bout themselves.
Info about major pxtc areas or interesting cases
Anyone I knew at the firm (info calls to 3L summers at the firm = huge help in getting feel, plus you can answer why us with "honestly I wasn't sure and all the big firms seemed similar until I talked to X who said she was loving it and attending depos/etc)
Name of their edu or mentoring program
Any woman's initiative they had (I want to meet people who were partners bc I want to be one)

Wait, you read these DURING the interview?