Mass mailing is so frustrating Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm having trouble mass mailing. It's taking FOREVER. There are so many obstacles...

1. Firms that come to OCI (whether I bid or not) respond saying I should talk to them at OCI.. also I might have a chance at getting an interview with them via waitlist or hosp. suite. Still mass mail?
2. Some firms that are not on my OCI list responded saying they are coming to my OCI (I'm confused?)
3. Firm doesn't hire summers
4. Firm focuses on a niche area - how do I apply for these? My 2L classes are centered around a certain practice area, but if the firm is a only focused on real estate, how would I convince them otherwise?


And even if I find a firm that's a good "fit" for massmailing (not coming to OCI, hires summers, and is a full service or has the practice area I want), it takes about 20 minutes to mass mail the firm. Finding the firm, tailoring cover letter, etc. AND if they want you to apply online (IE: TYPE OUT RESUME), it takes additional time.

I've only mass mailed like 40 firms. I thought I would be able to get to 200 by the time OCI rolls around but this is taking forever. The only responses I got were "talk to us at OCI" or "we're not hiring".

What am I doing wrong? I don't get how people can mass mail 300 firms when they also have a summer job...
Any tips?

[Anonymous User]

Resume launchpad. Stop worrying about tailoring so much.

[Anonymous User]

That's better than me. So far, I've gotten ZERO responses.

[Mredav44]

write a generic cover letter and fill in 1.) practice areas, 2.) law firm name, 3.) the location of the office, for each mass-mailing. should take you about 2-3 minutes to edit + send these out from looking at NALP and constructing the email at the same time

if it matters, i just use my "cover letter" as the body of the email and attach a resume + transcript

chill

[BVest]

Yes it takes time. And yes, the responses (and lack thereof can be frustrating). But the alternative is not getting a job.

First, learn to do mail merges. You may want to do this for hard copy letters (or pdfs of same) or for email cover letters. Here's how to do an email merge with excel and outlook. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word- ... 09678.aspx

Next, create your excel spreadsheet of firms you want to apply to. It should look like this:

Code: Select all

Law Firm                            Law Firm Short Name  Address             City  State  Zip    Contact Full    Contact Last  Contact Title
Smith Barney Angelo & Thompson LLP  Smith Barney         600 Sampson Ave.    Waco  TX     76111  Stephanie Sams  Ms. Sams      Recruiting Coord.
Jones Jones & Jones PC              JJJ                  1201 Rainyday Drive Paris TX     75555  Tom Babbo       Mr. Babbo
Blowhard Happy & Douglass, LLP      BHD                  3600 S. I-40 Expy.  Tulsa OK     72222  Kristine Smythe Ms. Smythe

It also needs a column for email which I didn't have room to show you above.

Creating the spreadsheet is what takes time, but you do it as you're researching what firms you might like to apply to.

(You will note that not everyone has a title. If the person is a partner, don't put "Partner" as their title. As long as <<title>> appears on its own separate line below, the line will be omitted if the title field is blank.)

Next, draft a cover letter that's so general it could go to any firm, but using the mail merge function and inserting your field placeholders as you go:

August 7, 2014

«Contact_Full»
«Contact_Title»
«Law_Firm»
«Address»
«City», «State» «Zip»

Dear «Contact_Last»:

I am a second-year law student at _______________________ and I am writing to apply for a summer associate position at «Law_Firm_Short_Name» for 2015. Enclosed are my résumé, transcript, and references.

I am especially interested in ______________________ law as well as __________________________ because of my experience with ________________. It is this interest that has led me to inquire about opportunities at «Law_Firm_Short_Name».

[Paragraph about me].

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Next choose "complete the merge" and then choose to review the merge results before sending them individually. Then review (and customize any you want to customize at this point) and send.

ETA, that [paragraph about me] above can be another merge field and you can type the entire paragraph into the field in excel. In doing this you can have one paragraph about how much you want to be in NYC that you put for NYC firms, one about DC, one about Chicago, etc. Then when you do the merge you don't have to do any additional customizing.

[Ohiobumpkin]

Yes it takes time. And yes, the responses (and lack thereof can be frustrating). But the alternative is not getting a job.

First, learn to do mail merges. You may want to do this for hard copy letters (or pdfs of same) or for email cover letters. Here's how to do an email merge with excel and outlook. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word- ... 09678.aspx

Next, create your excel spreadsheet of firms you want to apply to. It should look like this:

Code: Select all

Law Firm                            Law Firm Short Name  Address             City  State  Zip    Contact Full    Contact Last  Contact Title
Smith Barney Angelo & Thompson LLP  Smith Barney         600 Sampson Ave.    Waco  TX     76111  Stephanie Sams  Ms. Sams      Recruiting Coord.
Jones Jones & Jones PC              JJJ                  1201 Rainyday Drive Paris TX     75555  Tom Babbo       Mr. Babbo
Blowhard Happy & Douglass, LLP      BHD                  3600 S. I-40 Expy.  Tulsa OK     72222  Kristine Smythe Ms. Smythe

It also needs a column for email which I didn't have room to show you above.

Creating the spreadsheet is what takes time, but you do it as you're researching what firms you might like to apply to.

(You will note that not everyone has a title. If the person is a partner, don't put "Partner" as their title. As long as <<title>> appears on its own separate line below, the line will be omitted if the title field is blank.)

Next, draft a cover letter that's so general it could go to any firm, but using the mail merge function and inserting your field placeholders as you go:

August 7, 2014

«Contact_Full»
«Contact_Title»
«Law_Firm»
«Address»
«City», «State» «Zip»

Dear «Contact_Last»:

I am a second-year law student at _______________________ and I am writing to apply for a summer associate position at «Law_Firm_Short_Name» for 2015. Enclosed are my résumé, transcript, and references.

I am especially interested in ______________________ law as well as __________________________ because of my experience with ________________. It is this interest that has led me to inquire about opportunities at «Law_Firm_Short_Name».

[Paragraph about me].

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Next choose "complete the merge" and then choose to review the merge results before sending them individually. Then review (and customize any you want to customize at this point) and send.

ETA, that [paragraph about me] above can be another merge field and you can type the entire paragraph into the field in excel. In doing this you can have one paragraph about how much you want to be in NYC that you put for NYC firms, one about DC, one about Chicago, etc. Then when you do the merge you don't have to do any additional customizing.

Thank you for perhaps the best mass mailing response in a thread ever.

[Fiero85]

Thank you for perhaps the best mass mailing response in a thread ever.

+1 thanks!

[BVest]

One more thing about mail merging, especially email merging: Don't forget to add the actual attachments at the appropriate point in the merge process. Not including attachments to a single email is embarrassing; not including attachments to 40 emails that you send out simultaneously will make you want to curl up under a rock.

[Druid]

One more thing about mail merging, especially email merging: Don't forget to add the actual attachments at the appropriate point in the merge process. Not including attachments to a single email is embarrassing; not including attachments to 40 emails that you send out simultaneously will make you want to curl up under a rock.

X-post from another thread where someone was talking about how hard they fucked up a single cover letter.

I forgot to send attachments with my cover letters once when I was mass mailing a market. That market was New York.