What am I doing wrong Forum

[Anonymous User]

Throughout law school I have gone on 15 callbacks (3 1L, 9 2L, 4 3L) and I have only received 2 offers (where I worked 1L and 2L summer). I am a fairly average student for a student who goes to biglaw from UT, I have received good remarks from mock interviews, and I have strong ties to the markets I have targeted. I just feel like going 2/15 with callbacks isn't normal. I feel lucky to have the offers that I have gotten, but I cant help but wonder if there is something off-putting that I am doing in callback interviews.

TL/DR: I am trying to change markets for my finances career, so I am really thinking about how to put my strongest foot forward and I cant help but think my 2/15 CB record highlights some problem I am not seeing.

[papermateflair]

I don't know if any of us can tell you what you're doing wrong - is it possible that your personality is getting you through screeners and into callbacks that, when it comes to grades, you aren't a realistic candidate for an offer for? Maybe. Or maybe you're not great at callback interviews? Can you have a friend or career services sit down and give you the actual honest truth about what you need to change in an interview? Are the markets you've been targeting especially selective? If you're interviewing in smaller markets (say, Austin), there are less jobs available, so your interview skills might not be an issue if there's only 3 SA positions at the firm you interview with. When you say you're an average student, does that mean your grades are median at UT? I think we could be more helpful if you provided a few more details (keeping it anonymous, of course).

[nixy]

Yeah, your interview skills may be fine, you may just in the end have not had as good qualifications as someone else who had equally good interview skills. Or maybe there is an issue with your interview skills. It seems to me, though, that if there really were a major interviewing issue it doesn’t seem likely that you’d even make it to callbacks - it’s not like screeners are *so* different from callbacks that you can make it through the one and then fail at the other. Sometimes it’s luck of the draw wrt what an employer is looking for, who else applied, your personal fit with the interviewers (which can’t always be controlled; even a good interviewee isn’t going to fit with every interviewer).

[BrainsyK]

This feels humble braggy for some reason, not saying it is. It just feels that way.

You're 33% for 1L SA success, which is exceptionally high. 11% for 2L success, which is low but also there's not a lot of samples. 0% for 3L success, which is reasonable because 3L OCI is lol. As far as I can tell, you just got lucky during 1L OCI and slightly unlucky during 2L OCI, which is normal. Sometimes, things go your way and sometimes they don't.

Many students go to higher ranking schools with good grades do worse than having both a 1L and 2L SA. You'd be surprised at how many average T14 students only get 1-2 offer. These are offers for 200k/yr jobs not complimentary mints and aren't handed out as such.

If you're interviewing in TX from UT, you may receive more callbacks than is normal because it costs little if not nothing to bring you to a callback so that might explain why you have so many.

Again, this is all assuming you have average to good but great grades. If you're like top 5% then yeah, you have a problem.

[Aeroplane]

Could be that something about your style of dress is off putting at interviews. If you do mock interviews dressed casually, career services wouldn't have seen your actual interview clothes. Or they might not be forthright enough to tell you certain potentially offensive things. Like that your pants are two sizes too small or that you have BO or greasy hair. Try to find a very honest friend or acquaintance and tell them to be brutal.

[legalpotato]

Throughout law school I have gone on 15 callbacks (3 1L, 9 2L, 4 3L) and I have only received 2 offers (where I worked 1L and 2L summer). I am a fairly average student for a student who goes to biglaw from UT, I have received good remarks from mock interviews, and I have strong ties to the markets I have targeted. I just feel like going 2/15 with callbacks isn't normal. I feel lucky to have the offers that I have gotten, but I cant help but wonder if there is something off-putting that I am doing in callback interviews.

TL/DR: I am trying to change markets for my finances career, so I am really thinking about how to put my strongest foot forward and I cant help but think my 2/15 CB record highlights some problem I am not seeing.

Have you carefully read your resume to make sure there are no errors? I would ding someone for that alone no matter how well their interview.

Maybe you can have your finance proof read for you?

[biglaw_advice]

I agree with others that doing mock interviews should shed some light on any potential interview issues. Sample size is still pretty small and dependent on so many factors outside of your control, that i would hesitate to make any sweeping generalizations about you, your personality, or even your interview skills. Keep trying and keep getting better. I wrote some general tips on OCIs here that may be helpful: https://biglawadvice.com/2019/06/27/5-t ... nterviews/

[Lawl_Schoolz]

I agree with the poster above who said you did great 1L ok 2L and 3L OCI is LOL. You said you're switching markets, but you haven't said how big a switch. Are you trying to jump Dallas to Houston or vice versa? If so, that's one thing. Are you trying to jump from Texas to say California, Chicago, DC? Coming from UT without extraordinary credentials is likely your answer for the 3L problem. Given the limited number of 3L spots that are out there, and that most are people with very good credentials from higher ranked schools with a national reach trying to trade up or trade equally because they need to change markets or didn't like their 2L SA or something, you're unlikely to win coming from a school with a much more regional reach.

[Anonymous User]

Since you got multiple 1L callbacks I doubt you're in the position I was, but I also had a lot of callbacks for 2L positions and only converted on ~10% of them. Best explanation for me was bad grades, I go to a good school and punched above my weight class in screeners. Then when more than 1 person's opinion of me mattered and everyone considered my grades, I was rejected. Maybe this does apply to you though. Best of luck on 3L applications!

[QContinuum]

You're 33% for 1L SA success, which is exceptionally high. 11% for 2L success, which is low but also there's not a lot of samples. 0% for 3L success, which is reasonable because 3L OCI is lol. As far as I can tell, you just got lucky during 1L OCI and slightly unlucky during 2L OCI, which is normal. Sometimes, things go your way and sometimes they don't.

Many students go to higher ranking schools with good grades do worse than having both a 1L and 2L SA. You'd be surprised at how many average T14 students only get 1-2 offer. These are offers for 200k/yr jobs not complimentary mints and aren't handed out as such.

I feel like this isn't being noticed enough by the other posters ITT. Most of the other posters seem to be approaching this as "OP says they're having issues converting screeners -> offers, let's try to figure out what the problem is." But in fact it isn't apparent there's any problem at all. OP goes to UT, which is a very strong regional but not a T13. UT most recently had a BigLaw placement rate of just under 57%, so it's to be expected that a median UT student (at the 50th percentile) would find it a bit challenging to land offers at 2L OCI. And as Brainsy notes, OP actually had gangbuster results at 1L hiring. The average T13 student (let alone the average T20 student) strikes out of landing a 1L SA. That OP had such a high success rate on the 1L circuit - with average grades at UT - indicates that OP's a phenomenal interviewer.

Again, this is all assuming you have average to good but great grades. If you're like top 5% then yeah, you have a problem.

[notinbiglaw]

2/15 is low but not awful, especially if, which I suspect is the case, you were trying to trade up from your 1L SA (which would almost certainly mean you were interviewing for V50, roughly speaking, and probably toward higher end of that range.)

Then trading up again from, in the most likely scenario though I can’t be sure since you don’t say, from Texas where UT has regional placement power to DC/NYC where people from T14 (yeah, I am GULC grad, so sticking with T14 for life) with students with stronger credentials and more relevant experience.

Chances are you are doing just fine in interviews but your credentials are just a few notches below other people who also interviewed well.

[Anonymous User]

Email your interviewers and ask for feedback. I had weird OCI results when I did it (callbacks at firms that, statistically, I had zero chance of getting while also getting rejected from other less-selective firms). After I reached out to my interviewers at the firms that rejected me, I found out I that those firms had grade floors. But for those, they told me, I’d have gotten offers. And since I can’t change my grades, I can safely ignore those rejections.

It also helps to ask for feedback because it shows that you care. If you end up doing 3L OCI, you’ll already have an “in,” which you can then turn into information you can use in interviews. All of this is to say that you shouldn’t worry just yet, but you should be proactive. All TLS can do for you at this stage is get people to tell you what you already know so you can actually listen to it. Best of luck.