Early Offer Forum

[Anonymous User]

I received an offer yesterday for an SA position at a firm in my home market. I am very excited about this opportunity, but I'm wondering how much time I have to sit on the offer? I have a few call backs before OCIs gets underway and would love to see how they pan out before I accept the initial offer. I'd appreciate any info on this. Thanks

[sambeber]

If the firm follows NALP guidelines, 28 days.

[IAFG]

Is it a NALP firm? Can't you just ask them directly?

[lisavj]

http://www.nalp.org/studentprofessionalism

[thesealocust]

Probably 28 days. After 3 or so weeks, if your process is still on-going, contact the firm and ask for an extension. In most cases the firm will understand that their early offer put you in a time-crunch and be happy to extend your deadline.

Only worry about the hard choices if they balk at extending and your process has yet to be concluded.

[rad lulz]

Just ask bro cmon.

[Anonymous User]

If the firm follows NALP guidelines, 28 days.

Is it a NALP firm? Can't you just ask them directly?

It is a NALP firm. I guess I can ask them directly but I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I'm also kind of worried that I may not hear back from the other firms where I have callbacks within 28 days. Should I let the firms that gave me call backs know that I have an offer on the table but that I am more interested in their firm?

[thesealocust]

Should I let the firms that gave me call backs know that I have an offer on the table but that I am more interested in their firm?

This is often a good strategy. It says a lot about you that you already have an open offer. A few things though:

(1) Since it's a NALP firm, you have 28 days. Do not ask for an extension until it turns out you need one. Give it 3 weeks at least (but don't wait until the day before you're supposed to get back to the firm). Then politely and truthfully describe your situation - you're very interested in firm X and are strongly considering their offer, but you want to give other firms a fair shake and still have a callback with firm Y that you won't hear from until after firm X's deadline, so could you have an extension of (some reasonable, fixed period of time).

Contacting them too early is a problem for a few reasons: you won't know how much time you need and you'll sound very non-committal if you say "Well I may have other callbacks or offers in the future."

(2) Be careful about trying to leverage the offer against firms in other regions. It will highlight that you aren't committed to region X if you tout an offer from region Y.

(3) Having said that, leveraging your offer is especially smart because you can make firms get back to you more quickly. Not all firms will speed their process for you, but some will if you mention your other offer // deadline.

[Aqualibrium]

I had a similar situation. Big firm from the market where I'm from made me an offer in July of my 1L summer for a 2L summer SA. I just explained to them that I appreciated the confidence in me, but I wanted to be able to see what all my options were and make the best decision for me. I asked for a month, and about 3 weeks later asked for an additional 2 weeks (so 5 weeks total). I ultimately turned down the offer. Despite all that, I still have a good relationship with the hiring partner at that firm, and visit the office whenever I'm in town.

I feel like a large percentage of the things we percieve to be problems only look that way because people don't communicate effectively. Just call up whoever, ask them for a month, and move on. Don't be wordy, don't act like/go in thinking you are doing something wrong, just tell em you appreciate it but you want to consider all your potential options. If the firm is a NALP member firm though, you've got 28 days so don't call unless you are coming towards the end of that 28 days and think you need a 1 or 2 week extension.

Also, don't be afraid to tell other firms, post callback of course, that you have another offer on the table with a deadline.

[stratocophic]

Disagree with "post-CB." Use it as leverage - follow up with firms you've already applied to, tell them that you're on the clock but are very interested in their firm. I had firms get me in ASAP as a result of that, and ultimately received my offer from my firm in 2 weeks because I asked, which caused them to both get me in for my CB earlier and to decide on my offer more quickly. Also, never hurts to show firms that they're not the only one interested in you (and thus possibly missing something undesirable that everyone else isn't) - I had attorneys ask what lther firms I was interviewing with in their market in pretty much every CB (awkward when your CBs are with 1 or 2 firms in a bunch of different markets and you're trying to persuade them you want their market ).

[Aqualibrium]

Disagree with "post-CB." Use it as leverage - follow up with firms you've already applied to, tell them that you're on the clock but are very interested in their firm. I had firms get me in ASAP as a result of that, and ultimately received my offer from my firm in 2 weeks because I asked, which caused them to both get me in for my CB earlier and to decide on my offer more quickly. Also, never hurts to show firms that they're not the only one interested in you (and thus possibly missing something undesirable that everyone else isn't) - I had attorneys ask what lther firms I was interviewing with in their market in pretty much every CB (awkward when your CBs are with 1 or 2 firms in a bunch of different markets and you're trying to persuade them you want their market ).

I agree...I wrote post cb, but suppose I really meant that the only time you offer that info without being prompted during a screener, callback, or other communication with a firm is after you've had your CB. That's the way I played it. If I was asked where I was in the process/ who I'd been talking to etc... I told them where I had offers/callbacks and my deadlines. If I wasn't asked, I just sat on the info and informed the recruiting director after my callback.

[stratocophic]

Disagree with "post-CB." Use it as leverage - follow up with firms you've already applied to, tell them that you're on the clock but are very interested in their firm. I had firms get me in ASAP as a result of that, and ultimately received my offer from my firm in 2 weeks because I asked, which caused them to both get me in for my CB earlier and to decide on my offer more quickly. Also, never hurts to show firms that they're not the only one interested in you (and thus possibly missing something undesirable that everyone else isn't) - I had attorneys ask what lther firms I was interviewing with in their market in pretty much every CB (awkward when your CBs are with 1 or 2 firms in a bunch of different markets and you're trying to persuade them you want their market ).

I agree...I wrote post cb, but suppose I really meant that the only time you offer that info without being prompted during a screener, callback, or other communication with a firm is after you've had your CB. That's the way I played it. If I was asked where I was in the process/ who I'd been talking to etc... I told them where I had offers/callbacks and my deadlines. If I wasn't asked, I just sat on the info and informed the recruiting director after my callback.

I'd agree with that, no reason to bring it up out of the blue. Exception might be if the deadline's fast approaching and someone in recruiting or a hiring partner ask if you have questions at the end of your CB, because then you can let them know without further delaying a message you're going to need to get across either way.