Question about OCI and where to bid Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 1L at a T14 who has very strong ties to a market in the PNW. I don't think there will be very many firms at OCI that will be hiring for their PNW offices if they have any. Besides maybe Perkins Coie or DWT, I don't think there will be many PNW dominant firms here either. Naturally I'm going to mass mail the shit out of everything under the sun back home, but I figure that I will have a ton of bids that I can play around with. My end goal is to have a big law job, any big law job, anywhere. I know that the smart move would be to dump them all on the NYC market, but I'd much rather work in the Bay Area. I'm not IP secure and I only have tangential ties there; a brother who lives and works there, his wife's family, and an Aunt who lives there as well. I've visited about twice a year for the past 4 or 5 years and I really like it there. So I guess my question boils down to, would it be crazy for me to focus my OCI bids on SF/SV instead of NYC?

I know that this is definitely putting the cart before the horse, as I have zero grades at this point and because OCI is about 10 months away. I just wanted to look into it and get advice from people who have been through the process and know it better than me. Thanks.

[bk1]

You haven't even taken 1L finals. Chill. Your grades will very much be determinative of what a realistic bidding strategy is and you won't know what those are for another ~8 months.

[Anonymous User]

You haven't even taken 1L finals. Chill. Your grades will very much be determinative of what a realistic bidding strategy is and you won't know what those are for another ~8 months.

I know, and I acknowledged that this is super early and I'm putting the cart before the horse. I just wanted to know whether or not this is a dumb idea.

[bk1]

You haven't even taken 1L finals. Chill. Your grades will very much be determinative of what a realistic bidding strategy is and you won't know what those are for another ~8 months.

I know, and I acknowledged that this is super early and I'm putting the cart before the horse. I just wanted to know whether or not this is a dumb idea.

I answered your question as to whether it is a dumb idea.

[Anonymous User]

Ok. Thanks for indulging me.

[BigZuck]

I agree with BK. Although, one useful thing you could do is spend the next 8 months bracing yourself for the grim reality that you almost certainly won't get Northern CA big law and if you do get big law, it will almost certainly be in NYC. You will probably end up with average grades and Northern CA is pretty much a wasteland without solid ties.

If you manage to bink great grades maybe things will change but probability and math says that probably won't happen.

Just focus on school for now.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks zuck. That's pretty much what I was looking for.

[B.B. Homemaker]

What zuck said. Everyone should become okay with the prospect of life in NYC, and if grades turn out to make that less of a certainty, wonderful.

[Anonymous User]

FWIW, I had much better success in the Bay Area than NYC, as long as the interviewer was actually from the Bay and not an NY person interviewing for their Bay Area office (i.e. NY interviewer interviewing for 8 offices, 1 of which includes the CA office)

If you've been to both places, you know they are very different kind of people. NorCal is much more about being chill and fitting in with their vibe (I hear oregon is like this, but never been myself). If you come across like a typical T14er you are gonna have a bad time, and if you don't know what that means well...

i highly regret using 90% of my bids in NYC. I didn't bid on some of my top choices in the Bay because I listened to the hivemind to bid NYC or else you'll strike out

I ended up getting several offers in CA, and completely striking out on like 30 NYC screeners. Well below median at MVP (probably 80-85th percentile); medium ties to CA, lived sorta in the area for a few years, but left many years ago.



idk if there's any advice in there but just sharing my experience

[Goodman]

I agree that this question is premature and your grades will determine whether targeting SF/SV without strong ties is a good idea. That said, one thing you can do to boost your chances is to spend your 1L summer in SF.

[bk1]

I agree that this question is premature and your grades will determine whether targeting SF/SV without strong ties is a good idea. That said, one thing you can do to boost your chances is to spend your 1L summer in SF.

While this can bolster OP's SF/SV ties, it may still be a better idea to spend 1L summer in the PNW which can be quite insular (even for people with ties similar to OP's) since that is OP's goal.

[filibuster]

Feel free to PM me OP and I can walk you through this. 2L, Bay Area kid, lower T14 with relevant information. Focus on 1L grades tho