Top student at HYSCCN and struck out Forum

[Anonymous User]

I completely struck out at early interviewing despite my good grades and strong resume. Now what? Am I completely screwed?

[fish52]

Can you still try to mail some firms? A lot of firms are just in the middle of their CB schedule.

[pinkcamellia]

I completely struck out at early interviewing despite my good grades and strong resume. Now what? Am I completely screwed?

You didn't mass mail or anything?

[dresden doll]

No. Time to mass mail.

[Anonymous User]

I completely struck out at early interviewing despite my good grades and strong resume. Now what? Am I completely screwed?

You didn't mass mail or anything?

I started. But honestly, what are my chances of coming up with something decent?

[pinkcamellia]

I completely struck out at early interviewing despite my good grades and strong resume. Now what? Am I completely screwed?

You didn't mass mail or anything?

I started. But honestly, what are my chances of coming up with something decent?

Zero if you don't try. Keg411 has a good thread about mailing if you have a minute to read it.

[EvilClinton]

I completely struck out at early interviewing despite my good grades and strong resume. Now what? Am I completely screwed?

You didn't mass mail or anything?

I started. But honestly, what are my chances of coming up with something decent?

Keep mailing. It is not over till its over. I have friends that got SA spots in major markets as late as November. Keep your head up.

[clintonius]

Great grades from a top school separate you from the pack of applications that firms receive every day, and I imagine you'll get a lot more bites than the typical mass-mailer. Mind if I ask what you think went wrong? Problems landing callbacks, or converting them?

[Anonymous User]

Great grades from a top school separate you from the pack of applications that firms receive every day, and I imagine you'll get a lot more bites than the typical mass-mailer. Mind if I ask what you think went wrong? Problems landing callbacks, or converting them?

I'm not sure what went wrong, I only received a few callbacks and was unable to convert them. I wish I knew what went wrong so I can know what not to do in the future. I don't believe that it is my interviewing, I have some work experience and have never ran into any issues with interviewing.

[anon168]

I completely struck out at early interviewing despite my good grades and strong resume. Now what? Am I completely screwed?

Obviously mass mail, but also talk to your CSO and do some mocks and figure out what you are doing wrong. Because obviously it's not your paper-self, it's your actual self that's holding you back.

[clintonius]

I'm sorry to hear it. If you made any connections with people who interviewed you, you might want to ask them for some feedback. If you didn't, ask the recruiting coordinators. Maybe they will shed some light on the results you've gotten so far.

[Anonymous User]

I knew somebody who struck out at OCI and mass-mailed her way to a V5 offer. It's far from over, especially for somebody at a top school with decent grades.

[Anonymous User]

you have substantially underperformed your rank and school. and i'm not being a jerk, that's the truth because i did better than you did with a lower rank and a MUCH lower ranked school. That being said, I want to offer advice. My very first thought (given that you haven't offered too much info): were you REALLY, really selective with your firms? Also, you need to get help with your interviewing skills. If people are telling you you're fine, they are being nice given your school and rank. You're doing something wrong. (I'm not being a jerk. Getting accepted to HYSCCN is impressive and something I probably couldn't have done (or at the least, I would have had to pay sticker.) In any case, at a lower ranked school, I have had a much easier time with OK stats (approximately top 15%.) Best of luck, try to be less selective and get CB advice from your career services office.

good luck, I am sure things will work out with some diligence on your part.

[Anonymous User]

Sorry to hear that. I struck out pretty badly even though on paper I should not have, at least this badly. Nothing more frustrating than not knowing what you are doing wrong, especially if you feel as if interviews are going fine. But you will have an easier chance than other people from mass mailing with your school/rank so use that to your advantage.

[de5igual]

I'd definitely try and see if any of the callback firms are willing to give you feedback on your interview. Then, I'd try and get a practitioner to do a mock interview before your next one. Something is definitely amiss.

[redbullvodka]

Stats/bidlist?

[fish52]

you have substantially underperformed your rank and school. and i'm not being a jerk, that's the truth because i did better than you did with a lower rank and a MUCH lower ranked school. That being said, I want to offer advice. My very first thought (given that you haven't offered too much info): were you REALLY, really selective with your firms? Also, you need to get help with your interviewing skills. If people are telling you you're fine, they are being nice given your school and rank. You're doing something wrong. (I'm not being a jerk. Getting accepted to HYSCCN is impressive and something I probably couldn't have done (or at the least, I would have had to pay sticker.) In any case, at a lower ranked school, I have had a much easier time with OK stats (approximately top 15%.) Best of luck, try to be less selective and get CB advice from your career services office.

good luck, I am sure things will work out with some diligence on your part.

Douchebag. No shit (s)he underperformed, that's why his/her position is so unique.

User has been outed and warned.

[truevines]

I completely struck out at early interviewing despite my good grades and strong resume. Now what? Am I completely screwed?

Have you done any mock interview? Did you prepare for screeners and callbacks at all?

I think there might be something wrong with your interview skill or your projection of yourself.

Talk to your CDO counselor and have him/her run a mock interview with you and get some feedbacks.

[Reprisal]

^

haha

My guess is that your professional disposition is at odds with the biglaw defense firms you interviewed with. Try plaintiff or netural firms.

[keg411]

You needed to talk to your Career Services office like yesterday. Top grades at HYSCCN will get you something through mailing. I doubt you interviewed with every single firm in every single market at OCI. And definitely ask your career services office for a mock interview immediately.

If you want to get something, you really need to start being proactive.

[BaiAilian2013]

Great grades from a top school separate you from the pack of applications that firms receive every day, and I imagine you'll get a lot more bites than the typical mass-mailer. Mind if I ask what you think went wrong? Problems landing callbacks, or converting them?

I'm not sure what went wrong, I only received a few callbacks and was unable to convert them. I wish I knew what went wrong so I can know what not to do in the future. I don't believe that it is my interviewing, I have some work experience and have never ran into any issues with interviewing.

Dude. What else could it possibly be? If you rule out interviewing skill, you're down to the most unlikely factors, like hygiene or a bizarre nervous tick or near-universal discrimination based on some uncommon trait you have.

I would have OCS hook you up with another mock interview, but tell the interviewer BEFORE the interview that you struck out at OCI with X grades and Y school, so you think it must be your interviewing but have no idea what went wrong. You really need someone to be hypercritical at this point.

[Old Gregg]

Talk to you OCS. If they're worth the salary they're being paid, they should be able to secure you additional callback interviews (assuming your grades are as good as they sound).

[LegalPerspective]

I have to disagree with what most people are saying here. It's not necessarily the interviewing that is torpedoing this student's offers. I am a seond year at a V10 NYC firm, and I've done tons of callback interviews. Afterwards we do evaluations and the recruiting department sends us little notes to let us know if someone has been given an offer or not been given an offer, so we know which candidates to follow up with later and woo. And remember, once you're doing callbacks at top firms, being HSCCN doesn't mean that much, because everyone interviewing is from a top school or has supertop grades.

In any event, just this past week I did 6 interviews. 4 were from NYU/Columbia, one from Yale and one from Duke. Three got offers (the Yale, obviously -we'll take anyone from yale, no matter what - and two from NYU). One NYU guy in particular, who didn't get an offer, was by a significant margin the best interviewee i'd ever spoken with, and had better grades than some people we give offers to. The Duke candidate (not offered) was also an extremely good interviewee and her experience and interests appeared to be a perfect fit for what she wanted to do at the firm (a field for which we are recruiting heavily). OF the 6, only one of the interviewees was kind of an interview dud, and he didn't get an offer.

I remember last year as well many of the people that I thought were great at interviewing did not get offers. I think sometimes it's just idiosyncratic - you generally meet 6 attorneys in a callback, including 2 or 3 partners, and maybe one important person was rubbed the wrong way by something, or reminded that person of a problem he'd had recently. It's impossible to tell. The only thing that you can really do is do TONS of callbacks in several cities, and make sure you don't tell people about it (the wide net casting, i mean). If this kid did like 5 callbacks, it's easily possible this candidate just by random chance didn't get an offer at any of them, especially since firms only give summer offers to between 1/3 to 2/3 of candidates they interview (depending on the firm). WHile it's unlikely to strike out at random like this, it's not impossible, and it's likely to happen to someone just given the odds. It might make us feel good to think that having good interview skills will mean this wouldn't happen to us, but that's just pretending to be more in control than we really are. But for the grace of God . . .

[MayomiSanchez]

I had really good grades after first year at Fordham and nearly struck out. I mass mailed before I got a couple offers and weeks later had 3 more callbacks roll in (which of course I cancelled). If you have good grades mass mailing is definitely the way to go. Write a good/appropriate cover letter and tailor it a bit for each firm if you can. If you can't be sure of how to write such a letter, find a competent friend and get his/hers.

[Anonymous User]

Did OP by any chance bid almost exclusively on non NYC markets. I have friends at CCN and even H with top third and even top 15% grades who struck out in DC, Boston, and California.