help! do i suck at interviewing? Forum

[so ambivalent]

here's the deal:
3L, top 20 law school, median maybe below, no urm, pre-law consulting job, reasonably attractive/sociable. but i keep striking out with interviews and have yet to find a job.
at a certain point i realize it's a numbers game; if you don't have the gpa for the big firms you interview at smaller firms or PI/govt that have fewer spots so you're odds are lower. but, what gets me is that i often strike out after the first or callback interview. this happened to me 3 times 2L year, i got called back waitlisted and no-offered at a firm, telephone call back with govt and then no offer after initial interview with small firm. i got my 2L summer gig from a telephone callback. i've rationalized those because the people they chose were actually classmates who were urm or just a better fit than me. but it's been really tough 3L year; so far i've struck out at a firm callback, a clerk interview and a first round interview that i thought i had a really good shot at. when you're one out of a handful of people and you think an interview goes well and you get a reject or hear nothing it makes you wonder if it's you.
the thing is, i did a 1l mock interview with a firm hiring partner and they said i was great. my cso seems to think i'm great. i never felt like i really bombed the interviews (except i felt a lack of connection with 2 of the ones 2l yr).
am i just sucking at this and clueless? does anyone else have this problem? how did you get real feedback and fix it?
i have 3 interviews (2 first round and 2nd) for my dream jobs next week so i wanna be sure i present as well as i can.
please help!

[Anonymous User]

One tip my mentor gave me that I still use to this day: find a non-legal topic to talk about during the interview.

With every interviewer, I try to find something in their bio that I can relate to. For some, I attended the same undergrad. school. For others, I noticed that they like to hike.

I find that talking, even briefly, about non-legal topics help the interviewer loosen up, and make the interview seem more like a conversation opposed to an interrogation.

[EtherOne]

When the interviewer welcomes you, as you enter the door, be sure that you (& not the interviewer) start the conversation by bringing up general topics, like the weather, city, common interest, etc.

That way, your transition to the "official" interview will be better.

[Anonymous User]

One tip my mentor gave me that I still use to this day: find a non-legal topic to talk about during the interview.

It is a crap shoot. The offer I got we had an in depth conversation about a practice area that I'm interested in. He actually quizzed me on a few issues that he gave summers in the past. I ended up getting an offer to 2L SA there.

I had a miserable OCI and a lot of my interviews I thought went well because I hit off by talking about music, sports, travel, or whatever. No offers.

Just my anecdotal advice.

[micwrecka45]

T20, median-ish or below means your credentials are just ok in this economy. I wouldn't automatically assume that it's your interviewing skills, and am not at all surprised that you are still looking for work. I know many people with very similar stats who took several months from graduation to land something. That's just the job market right now.

If you really are worried about your interviewing, maybe you could try a mock interview at your CSO. Depending on the CSO staff I spoke with, some were kinda useless with their critiques, but some were really good.

[Anonymous User]

Below median, T14, (afaik) a good interviewer, and still nothing. I blame my grades. I assume OP should blame grades and school ranking more than interviewing skills. If anything, his interviewing skills probably got him those few callbacks, and then he lost out to people with better grades and/or from better schools.

[so ambivalent]

Below median, T14, (afaik) a good interviewer, and still nothing. I blame my grades. I assume OP should blame grades and school ranking more than interviewing skills. If anything, his interviewing skills probably got him those few callbacks, and then he lost out to people with better grades and/or from better schools

the thing is in 2 cases people from my very school with (afaik) worse or not much better grades or experience got offers i didn't. 1 person was a URM (firm i got callback then waitlist but no offer). i hate to think it was urm status but firm had NO urm and person is pretty unremarkable/actually unpleasant. the other cases, i can see how ppl might be a better fit or have some resume thing that stands out. if it's better schools and gpas i'm fine with it; i actually got some clerkship rejection letters with bios of the ppl they picked and it was strangely reassuring to know how much better those candidates were for a job i was rejected from.