OCI with no Work Experience Forum

[Anonymous User]

Am I totally screwed for OCI if I come in with no work experience at all. I have never had job and I am straight from undergrad. I had a completely unrelated natural science internship in undergrad for a year (*read measuring plants*) but that is it.

Top 10-20% grades.

What do you think?

[mvp99]

top 10-20% where?

[Anonymous User]

top 10-20% where?

T20

[chuckbass]

There's nothing you can do about it now, so just focus on getting good grades again and work on your interview skills.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone else experienced OCI with this inexperience?

[mvp99]

top 10-20% where?

T20

Pretty sure you're in a good position regardless of WE. Plus what the poster above me said.

[MCFC]

Anyone else experienced OCI with this inexperience?

Tougher, but you'll be just fine.

[Anonymous User]

.

[BasilHallward]

I guess I need to be clued in on what type of work experience is important and why. It is fair to assume that most first-year law students did not have stellar undergrad jobs or fancy jobs in that patented year off. Otherwise, why go to law school? I worked for a major airline in customer service at an international airport during undergrad. If that crap work experience is important, then cool. I just don't see how it is relevant to a Summer Associate position.

[Anonymous User]

I went through this at Georgetown with similar grades and a total lack of work experience. It didn't end up hurting me. To the extent that it comes up at all in interviews, you just talk about extracurriculars/internships/whatever else you filled your resume with.

Yes, it does feel kind of stupid when you get a question like "what's the greatest professional challenge you faced" and instead of giving a real answer you spin a story about running a student organization or some group project you had in undergrad or something equally lame. But I didn't find that my results in interviews where I had to do that were worse than the interviews where it didn't come up. (Obviously there's bias in there because it's not a great sign when interviewers are resorting to filler questions like that anyway, but whatever.)

[Desert Fox]

Prob dosnt hurt but 10-20 doesn't cut it at t20 every time. You might strike out

[lawhopeful10]

Anyone else experienced OCI with this inexperience?

I went through OCI with no work experience with top grades from a T1 regional and struck out. I hadn't worked since my freshman year in college and also only did research my 1L summer. I did get a lot of screeners and some callbacks but couldn't seal the deal. I ultimately got something at a smaller firm for this summer but I do think my peers who took time off between law school and worked performed better at OCI. As others have said though, nothing you can do about it now so just work on becoming good at interviews.

[Mal Reynolds]

I guess I need to be clued in on what type of work experience is important and why. It is fair to assume that most first-year law students did not have stellar undergrad jobs or fancy jobs in that patented year off. Otherwise, why go to law school? I worked for a major airline in customer service at an international airport during undergrad. If that crap work experience is important, then cool. I just don't see how it is relevant to a Summer Associate position.

Work experience, even bad experience, gives you more to talk about in interviews. You can leverage it into a good story about why you want a certain practice area and it probably gives you a little more credibility and perceived maturity. Now this isn't to say that it's determinative, or that people without it don't get jobs, but it's definitely an advantage.

[BasilHallward]

I guess I need to be clued in on what type of work experience is important and why. It is fair to assume that most first-year law students did not have stellar undergrad jobs or fancy jobs in that patented year off. Otherwise, why go to law school? I worked for a major airline in customer service at an international airport during undergrad. If that crap work experience is important, then cool. I just don't see how it is relevant to a Summer Associate position.

Work experience, even bad experience, gives you more to talk about in interviews. You can leverage it into a good story about why you want a certain practice area and it probably gives you a little more credibility and perceived maturity. Now this isn't to say that it's determinative, or that people without it don't get jobs, but it's definitely an advantage.

Good point, but bad experience at local hamburger joint can frankly be fabricated.

[Mal Reynolds]

Yeah I guess you could lie in interviews. I'm not sure what your point is.

[BasilHallward]

Yeah I guess you could lie in interviews. I'm not sure what your point is.

That one should improvise in any way possible to land a gig, instead of fretting over work experience. If one was an electrical engineer before law school , then one should not be at OCI. Oversimplification, I know.

[BasilHallward]

No work experience will not necessarily hurt you; not knowing how to react to and steer questions to emphasis your strengths will hurt you.

[Anonymous User]

Any suggestions on how I would spin my measuring plants internship?

[sinfiery]

no one cares; hope you are interesting in some other way though because you need something to talk about for 20 minutes

[BasilHallward]

Any suggestions on how I would spin my measuring plants internship?

Your'e in law school. Dress it up. I totally don't know what your internship consisted of, but speak to the nuances of this quantitative analysis. Then, tell the interviewer to kill himself or herself for referencing the trite plant internship. Seriously though, you'll be fine.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I guess I need to be clued in on what type of work experience is important and why. It is fair to assume that most first-year law students did not have stellar undergrad jobs or fancy jobs in that patented year off. Otherwise, why go to law school? I worked for a major airline in customer service at an international airport during undergrad. If that crap work experience is important, then cool. I just don't see how it is relevant to a Summer Associate position.

I don't think you can assume that most first year law students are K-JD or only worked crap jobs during undergrad/one year off, actually. And obviously every year tons of K-JDs without any notable work experience do just fine in OCI, so I agree with everyone who's said that there's no point worrying about it now. But there are plenty of employers who like the idea of not having to train their new associates, not just in law, but in what it's like to have a full time job, period. (And there are other employers who will love having applicants who have no expectations because they have no experience. It just depends.)

[BasilHallward]

I guess I need to be clued in on what type of work experience is important and why. It is fair to assume that most first-year law students did not have stellar undergrad jobs or fancy jobs in that patented year off. Otherwise, why go to law school? I worked for a major airline in customer service at an international airport during undergrad. If that crap work experience is important, then cool. I just don't see how it is relevant to a Summer Associate position.

I don't think you can assume that most first year law students are K-JD or only worked crap jobs during undergrad/one year off, actually. And obviously every year tons of K-JDs without any notable work experience do just fine in OCI, so I agree with everyone who's said that there's no point worrying about it now. But there are plenty of employers who like the idea of not having to train their new associates, not just in law, but in what it's like to have a full time job, period. (And there are other employers who will love having applicants who have no expectations because they have no experience. It just depends.)

It does depend on our varying definitions of the word most, I guess.

[catinthewall]

Any suggestions on how I would spin my measuring plants internship?

Not everyone goes to law school having been a paralegal previously. I showed up at law school after having been a fighter pilot for a couple of years -- I didn't even know that state courts and federal courts were separate things on my first day of law school (I'm currently a federal dist. ct. clerk). So it's not necessarily relevant work experience they're looking for but rather work ethic.

You've proven you have some work ethic already by being in the top 10-20% of your class. I imagine that work ethic was also involved in measuring plants -- you showed up on time, every time; you were meticulous and paid close attention to detail; you were an important part of a team and worked well with others; and so on.

Employers want to know they can stand being around you for 10+ hours a day. Show them that you are a joy to be around. You'll be great! Good luck!

[Mal Reynolds]

Any suggestions on how I would spin my measuring plants internship?

Your'e in law school. Dress it up. I totally don't know what your internship consisted of, but speak to the nuances of this quantitative analysis. Then, tell the interviewer to kill himself or herself for referencing the trite plant internship. Seriously though, you'll be fine.

Why are you answering questions as a 0L, especially since your advice is so bad.

[FSK]

Prob dosnt hurt but 10-20 doesn't cut it at t20 every time. You might strike out

This. Its surprisingly easy to strike out from a "good" spots at a T20. Firms aren't clambering to fill a quota that you meet. You just happen to meet their standards, and they'll take you if they like you.