"Other markets" questions during CBs Forum

[Anonymous User]

Did I screw myself by saying I was looking at a market other than New York during a callback? A couple partners asked whether I was set on NY, which came somewhat as a surprise.

[JohnnieSockran]

Did I screw myself by saying I was looking at a market other than New York during a callback? A couple partners asked whether I was set on NY, which came somewhat as a surprise.

Probably not a great look.

They probably asked to see if NY was your 2nd choice/fallback market, which it is for a lot of people. It's tougher to get a job in LA, DC, Seattle, etc. even with ties to those markets because there are less jobs there, so many applicants that prefer some of those or other cities also interview in NY because there are a ton of jobs there, and thus use it as their fallback option if Seattle or whatever doesn't workout. I know I did this, but I also told all of the NY firms that I was only interviewing in NY.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Isn't there some concern about lying and saying it is your only choice? e.g., disclosing where you're going to work instead when turning down a NY offer, or it otherwise coming up somehow later down the road?

I also don't really see how targeting another market is somehow worse for a firm than you targeting other firms in NY. I guess its just another reason for you not to take their offer, or a reason why you might be a flight risk once hired, but so is any other number of reasons why you would choose another NY firm.

[smokeylarue]

Probably not a deal breaker, but you should've lied. You're just giving them a reason to ding you. Start lying on your next interviews.

[JohnnieSockran]

OP here. Isn't there some concern about lying and saying it is your only choice? e.g., disclosing where you're going to work instead when turning down a NY offer, or it otherwise coming up somehow later down the road?

I also don't really see how targeting another market is somehow worse for a firm than you targeting other firms in NY. I guess its just another reason for you not to take their offer, or a reason why you might be a flight risk once hired, but so is any other number of reasons why you would choose another NY firm.

Because if they give you an offer, they know you may hold out for weeks before giving them an answer while you wait for a market like Seattle to give you answers (because also all other markets move slower than NY).

So, if there's another candidate equal to you but only targeting NY, they'd rather hire that person since they know NY isn't the fallback option. It's pretty uncommon that people are interviewing in another market like DC, with NY as their first choice and DC or wherever else as the fallback. NY has a reputation for being a harder working city, it's usually more expensive, so firms assume if you're interviewing elsewhere it's because NY is your 2nd choice.

And no, lying won't matter down the road. Just lie, and then you don't even have to tell them what offer you accept instead, just say, "I accepted another offer, but thank you for your time" and leave it at that.

[Anonymous User]

Shart. Well at least I still have five more to go. Glad I caught this problem early.

[JohnnieSockran]

Shart. Well at least I still have five more to go. Glad I caught this problem early.

Yes, just be positive and keep improving with each interview. Better to know now than 5 interviews from now. This probably also isn't a big enough issue to completely sink your candidacy if they otherwise liked you.

But, I can recall multiple of my classmates going through 5+ CBs, not getting any offers, or not getting many, and realizing after it was too late that they were giving completely toxic answers to multiple questions.

So, it's good that you're coming here for advice for questions that threw you off or you're not sure of the best answer for, so that you can crush the next CB, because that's all you can do.

[Sharpy]

To be honest, firms know that candidates target multiple markets. If you stated that you were predominantly targeting New York but wanted to keep your options open and looked at a few other markets, I don’t think that’s a bad answer.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah, with each reply I made sure to say I was mostly targeting NYC and that it is my top pick (which it actually is) and why (best legal market in the world, stuff to do, family, etc.), why x firm was of interest to me, and that the other market was not, so hopefully it wasn't an immediate shutdown.