Top 15%, LR, T20 - struck out at OCI and taking questions Forum

[Anonymous User]

Shoot.

[grrrstick]

What do you think went wrong? What are you looking at doing now?

[Anonymous User]

I will still work for a large firm. Fortunately I arranged interviews outside of the OCI process.

[Anonymous User]

What market is the school in?

What markets did you bid/interview in?

How many screeners did you get?

How many callbacks did you end up with?

[marlborofillet]

What markets did you bid on?

How deep do OCI firms usually dip into your school (e.g. top 20%)?

Godspeed.

[rouser]

do you consider yourself to be generally charming/good with interviews?

[Anonymous User]

What might have gone wrong:

- bad/mediocre OCI interviews (obviously)
- intense competition among classmates for the same firms in the same markets
- failutre to show enthusiasm for the firm. Enthusiasm is really important. Not necessarily rah rah. But I think you need to convey the point: "you're my #1 choice and I would definitely work here if you gave me an offer."

[Anonymous User]

Did you do any CBs?

[Anonymous User]

What might have gone wrong:

- bad/mediocre OCI interviews (obviously)
- intense competition among classmates for the same firms in the same markets
- failutre to show enthusiasm for the firm. Enthusiasm is really important. Not necessarily rah rah. But I think you need to convey the point: "you're my #1 choice and I would definitely work here if you gave me an offer."

That is terrible logic.

What market is the school in?

What markets did you bid/interview in?

How many screeners did you get?

How many callbacks did you end up with?

This. We need the answers to these questions. If the OP only had two-three screeners in small markets, no wonder he/she struck out...

[PinkCow]

Looks on 1-10?

Social skills on 1-10?

[Flips88]

- failutre to show enthusiasm for the firm. Enthusiasm is really important. Not necessarily rah rah. But I think you need to convey the point: "you're my #1 choice and I would definitely work here if you gave me an offer."

Just gonna say this isn't the best advice. I did it for my #1 choice at OCI and didn't even get a callback. Not sure if that was the reason but it can either make you look desperate or maybe even presumptuous

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with ~15 NY firms at OCI. Landed 3 callbacks. Firms generally dip to median.

One big and somewhat obvious takeaway: if you interview with firms that are willing to fly back kids at or below median (in other words if you go to a t14), then top 15% + LR will not win you the callback over another kid the interviewer genuinely bonded with.

[sunynp]

What might have gone wrong:

- bad/mediocre OCI interviews (obviously)
- intense competition among classmates for the same firms in the same markets
- failutre to show enthusiasm for the firm. Enthusiasm is really important. Not necessarily rah rah. But I think you need to convey the point: "you're my #1 choice and I would definitely work here if you gave me an offer."

Re: intense competition for spots- how many spots are we talking about here?

My idea is that it isn't so much the competition as it is the very limited number of jobs available. I think people over - estimate the number of jobs available at big firms through OCI. Not everyone with the right credentials is going to get a job through OCI. Sometimes people seem to feel that getting a job is like school admissions - once you have the numbers you are in somewhere, but hiring is an entirely different process.

[Anonymous User]

I consider myself a handsome guy.

Social skills are fine. Probably better than most people here. Though I'm somewhat soft-spoken and don't follow sports (which possibly hurt me at one particular callback dinner).

[rouser]

I consider myself a handsome guy.

Social skills are fine. Probably better than most people here. Though I'm somewhat soft-spoken and don't follow sports (which possibly hurt me at one particular callback dinner).

were you selling yourself towards a certain practice area?

[Anonymous User]

Are you sure you struck out? Have you received rejection letters yet?

[EvilClinton]

Interviewed with ~15 NY firms at OCI. Landed 3 callbacks. Firms generally dip to median.

One big and somewhat obvious takeaway: if you interview with firms that are willing to fly back kids at or below median (in other words if you go to a t14), then top 15% + LR will not win you the callback over another kid the interviewer genuinely bonded with.

This literally makes no sense.

[Anonymous User]

Re: number of spots - Let's see. A firm with 40 interview slots seemed to callback 5-7 candidates.

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with ~15 NY firms at OCI. Landed 3 callbacks. Firms generally dip to median.

One big and somewhat obvious takeaway: if you interview with firms that are willing to fly back kids at or below median (in other words if you go to a t14), then top 15% + LR will not win you the callback over another kid the interviewer genuinely bonded with.

This literally makes no sense.

Why are you confused?

[Anonymous User]

I sold myself towards general corporate.

[NYC2014]

Two questions, OP:

1) Scale 1-10, how straight, white, and male are you? I'd bet my family's farm that you're going to say 10. (Discriminators against straight white males gonna discriminate, nomsayin?)

2) Do you blame Obama?

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with ~15 NY firms at OCI. Landed 3 callbacks. Firms generally dip to median.

One big and somewhat obvious takeaway: if you interview with firms that are willing to fly back kids at or below median (in other words if you go to a t14), then top 15% + LR will not win you the callback over another kid the interviewer genuinely bonded with.

This literally makes no sense.

Why are you confused?

The statement seems right to me. It's definitely true at Texas. I significantly outperformed people on LR with much better grades because my personality clicked with more firms.

[Anonymous User]

at the risk of outing myself I am straight, white, average height, male. sup bro.

[NYC2014]

at the risk of outing myself I am straight, white, average height, male. sup bro.

All joking aside, the amount of blatant, overt discrimination in law firm hiring is outrageous. I really feel like I've overcome strong institutional adversity by succeeding as a straight white male.

[grrrstick]

I sold myself towards general corporate.

I hear this from people, and I never know what it means. Did you tell them you want transactional work generally? Or do you mean governance/securities/m&a/finance? Do the firms you were interviewing at split up corporate practice areas, and if so, do you think it hurt you that all you could say was you wanted general corporate?