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...last of my big/midlaw hopes extinguished today...this was the last firm from OCI...had callback, second interview...all of which I thought went well, but...

been mailing...mostly silence, rest dings...(to be expected, I know)...



so goddamned depressed right now, and trying hard not to be....

Anonymous User wrote:...last of my big/midlaw hopes extinguished today...this was the last firm from OCI...had callback, second interview...all of which I thought went well, but...

been mailing...mostly silence, rest dings...(to be expected, I know)...



so goddamned depressed right now, and trying hard not to be....

I know there is nothing that people on this board can say that will make you feel better, but just so you know, I know a lot of people (think double digits) in your situation, and I go to a T14. With how random the legal hiring process is, I can only say that I think that OCI is one of the most arbitrary things I have ever been through and I wouldn't lose self-esteem or kick yourself because you got unlucky in a really shitty process.

You are not alone op

Echoing the previous post, I can tell you that you shouldn't take this personally.

TLS doesn't know shit when it comes to WHY people strike out. Besides grades, many here assume "you must have a shitty personality". I know many people at my school (T14) who don't have offers yet. Most of them are charming, charismatic, and articulate, and in the end, it's just a crapshoot. Sure, there are some people who are completely awkward... but striking out can happen to ANYONE.

I think the baseline assumption here is: if you have decent grades at a T14, unless you get unlucky, you'll snag an offer. I say that's false.
Rather, the baseline is an average candidate will not get an offer until they hit a home run in an interview ("home run" meaning they have an interview where everything goes RIGHT). This means that within that 30 minute time frame, they have to make a great connection with the interviewer, for all 4-5 interviews, and not say anything that will ding them. That mean it requires more than the interviewer to say "he/she was alright". He/she must LIKE you enough to go to bat for you. And that's a hard thing to do, especially with 4 people in a row. Even if the applicant somehow manages that, most of the time, they're still competing with anywhere from 5-20 other people for 1 or 2 spots. Hence, even if everything goes right, the firm has to like you more than the other candidates.

You never know how far you got in the process. I know someone who struck out and when they asked career services, career services made a call to some of the firms he/she interviewed at. Turned out, he/she was the final pool of candidates for a good number of his/her callbacks, but just never was able to lock in the offer.

It happens. Everything is on a "curve", since you're competing with everyone else. The problem here is, the curve is all or nothing and you don't know how close you came.

Thank you each, and thank you all.

It truly is a crapshoot. I am lucky enough to have folks in my life to remind me of that. (Including you, anonymous internet friends.)

I hated this process all along, of course, but managed to keep my head up (ish) about it until I got 3 rejections, bam bam bam, from my last best hopes.

For the next few weeks, I'm putting ~90% of thoughts of job search stuff on hold, since grades still matter, and I'm behind...

Again, thanks for the kick in the attitude.

KBO.