Partners/Associates: how do you feel about all these informational interview requests? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Are you annoyed by a cold request from a law student you've never met, especially from a non-alumni?
Is a 20-minute call too long?
If the conversation went well, can I ask you to forward my resume to the recruiting?
What kind of things in the cold email tends to draw your attention?
Thanks for any input!

[Anonymous User]

Are you annoyed by a cold request from a law student you've never met, especially from a non-alumni?
Is a 20-minute call too long?
If the conversation went well, can I ask you to forward my resume to the recruiting?
Thanks for any input!

There is literally a thread right below this one by you asking the same question. You won't get any faster response this way.

[Anonymous User]

Are you annoyed by a cold request from a law student you've never met, especially from a non-alumni?
Is a 20-minute call too long?
If the conversation went well, can I ask you to forward my resume to the recruiting?
Thanks for any input!

There is literally a thread right below this one by you asking the same question. You won't get any faster response this way.

OP here. Thanks but the other thread asks whether the OP should contact the interviewer once s/he gets an interview. My question gears toward informational interviews in general.

[Anonymous User]

Are you annoyed by a cold request from a law student you've never met, especially from a non-alumni?
Is a 20-minute call too long?
If the conversation went well, can I ask you to forward my resume to the recruiting?
Thanks for any input!

There is literally a thread right below this one by you asking the same question. You won't get any faster response this way.

duplicates

[dixiecupdrinking]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

[Anonymous User]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

Thanks! So another bad advice the career office gives?

[yay]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

Thanks! So another bad advice the career office gives?

Career services people are the worst. For one, majority of them are not lawyers. Two, they have zero clue about legal employment. They suck.

[Anonymous User]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

Thanks! So another bad advice the career office gives?

Career services people are the worst. For one, majority of them are not lawyers. Two, they have zero clue about legal employment. They suck.

All of my school's CS people used to work at biglaws as an associate or partner. I am sure they know what they are talking about. I don't think the above post is an accurate description. In my experience, their advice is great but the success depends on how YOU execute it.

I made a bunch of cold emails and cold calls to assos and partners and most of them, even total strangers who had ZERO ties to me (even race/gender/hometown was different) kindly responded to my request and spent more than 20 minutes to answer my stupid questions. People seemed super busy but super nice to me and I was touched.

But to be fair, I have extensive WE prior to law school, and it is safe to say that I have more sophisticated interpersonal/networking/sales skills than most kids. Still, cold calling/emailing is hard for me, too.

[Anonymous User]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

Thanks! So another bad advice the career office gives?

Career services people are the worst. For one, majority of them are not lawyers. Two, they have zero clue about legal employment. They suck.

All of my school's CS people used to work at biglaws as an associate or partner. I am sure they know what they are talking about. I don't think the above post is an accurate description. In my experience, their advice is great but the success depends on how YOU execute it.

I made a bunch of cold emails and cold calls to assos and partners and most of them, even total strangers who had ZERO ties to me (even race/gender/hometown was different) kindly responded to my request and spent more than 20 minutes to answer my stupid questions. People seemed super busy but super nice to me and I was touched.

Glad to hear. My experience was bad. You probably went to to T14. I went to a T30. Non-T14 cso sucks.

[Anonymous User]

Glad to hear. My experience was bad. You probably went to to T14. I went to a T30. Non-T14 cso sucks.

Sorry it didn't work out for you. Actually I go to a T30-40. I guess that the satisfaction about a service provider really depends on the 1) quality of the personnel AND 2) chemistry between a service provider (CSO) and a user (students). There are several CS people at my school and their service quality and even resources that they provide vary.

I suggest people sit down with all of the advisors and choose the advisor who is most suitable to them. You can ALWAYs switch to a different advisor later or consult all of them on a need-basis. Kids at my school usually mistakenly think that they should stick to one advisor, but it is not. For instance, I talked to one of the advisors, and immediately found that she would not be helpful at all. So I stopped going to her. If I sticked to her until graduation, I would have thought that our school's CSO sucked. (I am not saying this is your case)

[tbird]

My approach has always been to offer to buy them lunch. If you work or live in the same city, then meet them near their office. I would never take 20 minutes during their work day when they could be billing. But everyone has to take a lunch break. And if they spend it with me, and I initiated and want to benefit from it, then I should buy. Even if you suck to talk to and your questions are annoying, at least they got a free meal and it didn't eat into their day.

That was my approach prior to and during law school and I built some good relationships. Granted none of them were cold calls completely. I usually knew someone that they knew. But I think that would be the best approach for a cold email/call.

[AOT]

I've done a bunch of calls over the last couple of weeks and everyone has been incredibly friendly and willing to help. I've mainly reached out to alums from my school but also to alums from other schools working in the practice areas I'm interested in. Pretty surprised by the negative responses here.

[dixiecupdrinking]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

Thanks! So another bad advice the career office gives?

As you can see from the other responses, YMMV, but this is my two cents.

[favabeansoup]

I've gotten a few emails, but I'm not a senior associate/partner and I expect those people get a lot more. Totally disagree with the above poster. I always take time to talk to people from my law school/undergrad. Calls are like maybe 20 minutes and I'm more than happy to fit it in during my day if I'm not that busy. I actually kind of like my firm so I like leaving a good impression on students. I think ignoring emails from students reaching out and asking for your help doesn't leave a good impression of your school or your firm (Edit: we were all in that position a few years ago, so it irks me to think people feel superior now vs then). Obviously the main goal is to get a job, everyone knows that, and I won't be able to guarantee you anything because I make no decisions, but if I have a good conversation with someone and they have decent grades I will most definitely forward that application along with a recommendation to further interview this person.

[NonTradHealthLaw]

I'm of the camp where I try to share time and perspective with law students who reach out to me because I remember how awkward and petrifying such an action could be.

That said, while a cold email to me is fine, a cold phone call may get you burned with the fire of a trillion hell flames.

[Anonymous User]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

Thanks! So another bad advice the career office gives?

Career services people are the worst. For one, majority of them are not lawyers. Two, they have zero clue about legal employment. They suck.

All of my school's CS people used to work at biglaws as an associate or partner. I am sure they know what they are talking about. I don't think the above post is an accurate description. In my experience, their advice is great but the success depends on how YOU execute it.

I made a bunch of cold emails and cold calls to assos and partners and most of them, even total strangers who had ZERO ties to me (even race/gender/hometown was different) kindly responded to my request and spent more than 20 minutes to answer my stupid questions. People seemed super busy but super nice to me and I was touched.

But to be fair, I have extensive WE prior to law school, and it is safe to say that I have more sophisticated interpersonal/networking/sales skills than most kids. Still, cold calling/emailing is hard for me, too.

I had the same experience. I too would say that I have very strong interviewing/sales skills, based on my background and the fact that my grades sucked, so something had to get me this job.

Generally though, people were nice. People like the poster above that said he "has no time/interest" in talking to a stranger will probably ignore your email. But for every 3 of him (maybe 1 of him, and 2 legitimately busy people), there is 1 non-asshole that will happily respond to your request, because most lawyers generally love talking about what they do (cause if you're like me your family is sick of hearing about it or doesn't understand what you do, so you have no one to tell lol).

[Anonymous User]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

Thanks! So another bad advice the career office gives?

Career services people are the worst. For one, majority of them are not lawyers. Two, they have zero clue about legal employment. They suck.

All of my school's CS people used to work at biglaws as an associate or partner. I am sure they know what they are talking about. I don't think the above post is an accurate description. In my experience, their advice is great but the success depends on how YOU execute it.

I made a bunch of cold emails and cold calls to assos and partners and most of them, even total strangers who had ZERO ties to me (even race/gender/hometown was different) kindly responded to my request and spent more than 20 minutes to answer my stupid questions. People seemed super busy but super nice to me and I was touched.

But to be fair, I have extensive WE prior to law school, and it is safe to say that I have more sophisticated interpersonal/networking/sales skills than most kids. Still, cold calling/emailing is hard for me, too.

I had the same experience. I too would say that I have very strong interviewing/sales skills, based on my background and the fact that my grades sucked, so something had to get me this job.

Generally though, people were nice. People like the poster above that said he "has no time/interest" in talking to a stranger will probably ignore your email. But for every 3 of him (maybe 1 of him, and 2 legitimately busy people), there is 1 non-asshole that will happily respond to your request, because most lawyers generally love talking about what they do (cause if you're like me your family is sick of hearing about it or doesn't understand what you do, so you have no one to tell lol).

Also, if I am busy, I generally will ignore a cold email for a couple days until I can see a point where my schedule might free up a bit, and then respond to schedule a phone call/coffee. Back when I was going through this process, I did a lot of these informational interviews over the phone, and for people in the city where I was working 1L summer, I did it via coffee as early in the AM as they wanted to meet (hoping that then it wouldn't eat into their billable hours), but I basically left the timing up to them, and offered in my cold email to either come to them for lunch/coffee, or schedule a phone call if that was easier.

[Bluem_11]

The OP is either a troll or aspie++.

[Good Guy Gaud]

The OP is either a troll or aspie++.

Welcome to TLS

[yay]

The OP is either a troll or aspie++.

Welcome to TLS

he sounds like a newbie who's just trying to leverage whatever he can to make connections and have a better shot at the firm. i didn't catch the awkward/aspie behavior in that (maybe im aspie). there is a tactful way to do this especially if you want a particular firm and you don't personally know anyone there.

unless of course, he's just doing it to practice interviewing skills with random strangers. that's super weird and psycho.

[Good Guy Gaud]

Associate here:

I wouldn't take a cold-call (phone) from a stranger while at work. Tbird has a good approach, though. If someone offered to take me to lunch or even coffee, particularly if they were an alum, I'd usually be more than happy to grab a bite to eat and talk. I don't imagine I'd even let them pay.

[yay]

My approach has always been to offer to buy them lunch. If you work or live in the same city, then meet them near their office. I would never take 20 minutes during their work day when they could be billing. But everyone has to take a lunch break. And if they spend it with me, and I initiated and want to benefit from it, then I should buy. Even if you suck to talk to and your questions are annoying, at least they got a free meal and it didn't eat into their day.

That was my approach prior to and during law school and I built some good relationships. Granted none of them were cold calls completely. I usually knew someone that they knew. But I think that would be the best approach for a cold email/call.

i wish i can be friends with you. it's thoughtful, not overbearing, and tactful. i bet you also have good friends who care deeply about you.

[longtimelurker123]

It depends. I cold emailed a law school alum and got a callback invite because of it (few years back) at a firm outside of GPA. I think the key is to go after mid level associates. Partners are too removed and have enough junrio associates to mentor already. Same with senior associates. Sweet spot IMO is 5th year and 6th year associates. Theyre still at the firm because they think they can make partner and thus must be doing good work and have some sort of pull - at least enough to get you interviews. Yet they aren't so senior as to have other people already sucking up to them.

[Anonymous User]

NYC V5 junior associate here --

I 100% recommend doing this and to the extent people reach out to me I'm always happy to chat. I spoke with someone at every single firm I interviewed at before OCI which both helped me be successful in terms of offers (20+ callbacks, etc) but more importantly it helped me get a better sense of each firm for purposes of deciding where to go.

Worst comes to worst someone doesn't respond to your email. I would honestly say that talking to associates at firms you're interested in is the single best bit of OCI prep you can do (assuming you are already a decent interviewer).

[reasonable_man]

Associate here. I have no interest in spending 20 minutes, or probably any time, on an informational interview. If you're an alum of my college I MIGHT make time. If you're an alum of my law school, I probably won't (because I'm clearly one of dozens/hundreds of alumni you've probably contacted). If I have no connection at all to you there's no chance.

People are busy and asking for favors of complete strangers is not a good way to make them want to hire you.

Thanks! So another bad advice the career office gives?

Career services people are the worst. For one, majority of them are not lawyers. Two, they have zero clue about legal employment. They suck.

All of my school's CS people used to work at biglaws as an associate or partner. I am sure they know what they are talking about. I don't think the above post is an accurate description. In my experience, their advice is great but the success depends on how YOU execute it.

I made a bunch of cold emails and cold calls to assos and partners and most of them, even total strangers who had ZERO ties to me (even race/gender/hometown was different) kindly responded to my request and spent more than 20 minutes to answer my stupid questions. People seemed super busy but super nice to me and I was touched.

But to be fair, I have extensive WE prior to law school, and it is safe to say that I have more sophisticated interpersonal/networking/sales skills than most kids. Still, cold calling/emailing is hard for me, too.

You have met Career Services people that were former biglaw partners?