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NY V50. Said they just found out that they had filled their summer hiring needs. No offers from any screeners/previous CBs yet (just rejections/radio silence).

I mass-mailed literally 50 NY firms at a time using NALP's Excel sheets.
The list was originally ~100 firms but after crossing off the ones I already did OCI with and ones clearly beyond reach, there were only 50.

Too late to create a new Excel sheet from NLJ, AmLaw, and other sources? FWIW, my resume & transcript is already made available to firms I indicated an interest in via my school's career office.

Start applying to public interest jobs to as a CYA measure? Pre-law school resume indicates a PI bent.

T6, also FWIW.

Less thinking more mass mailing. Start looking at other markets you have ties too.

...

Anonymous User wrote:Less thinking more mass mailing. Start looking at other markets you have ties too.

That was the plan. Hence 50 emails sent at once. But the lack of success suggests maybe try a different approach? Career services and a few TLS posts recommend targeted reaching out to alumni. But there are a billion NY biglaw alums of my law school so a cold email will probably just go unread (i.e., it's not like he's an alum of a school that sends only a few graduates to biglaw at all, so he feels some motivation to help out). And I don't have time to dance around the subject.

Anonymous User wrote: That was the plan. Hence 50 emails sent at once. But the lack of success suggests maybe try a different approach?

I get that this sucks to hear, but I don't think you've experienced a lack of success. 1 per 50 is kind of the standard hit rate, I would guess. Keep going, follow up with those you haven't heard from, etc.

Keep mass mailing. Even the ones that you considered a reach. Follow up with any firms that haven't gotten back to you. You might be pleasantly surprised. I got screeners at some places I considered a reach.

I landed a 3L offer at a place that was a huge 'reach' through massmailing (the median GPA of students from my school who go to the firm is .4 above my GPA).

Massmail everyone.

Less bulk mass mail more targeted mailings on a massive scale. You're asking firms to give you a job that pays $3,000 a week, take a few minutes to tailor your letter to them. Definitely reach out to alums, even if 99% ignore you all it takes is one. Work with your career services too, they have a real interest in getting you a job.

OP, do you mind stating which firm?

Anonymous User wrote:I landed a 3L offer at a place that was a huge 'reach' through massmailing (the median GPA of students from my school who go to the firm is .4 above my GPA).

Massmail everyone.

Curious as to what firm

TheUnicornHunter wrote:Less bulk mass mail more targeted mailings on a massive scale. You're asking firms to give you a job that pays $3,000 a week, take a few minutes to tailor your letter to them. Definitely reach out to alums, even if 99% ignore you all it takes is one. Work with your career services too, they have a real interest in getting you a job.

This. If it sounds like it is a lot of work, that's because it is. Fifty firms really isn't all that many. Nor is simply sending out letters really all that much of an effort (you may have done more, but I obviously only have the info in your OP). There are people on here that do hundreds. If you combine firms and judges (for clerkships), I send out probably over 300 mailings. Reaching out to alums at firms is definitely credited as well. Just send a short email and see if they have some time to talk. Many will ignore you but all it takes is one friendly alum whom you convince to invest a little time in you (this obviously requires making a good impression and coming off as sincere). I encountered one such alumni and it set off a chain of events that led to a biglaw offer. There are other stories like mine. You absolutely cannot take a passive approach. The people that get good gigs through mass mailing and networking are really hustling. They earned it in a manner of speaking.

I've applied to 200+ places, gotten four interviews. Keep going.