Most CBs without offer Forum

[alexancs1]

Most CBs you have heard of and they still do not have an offer?

[Anonymous User]

I was near the top of my class for OCI at an OK-but-not-great school, had something like 30 screeners and landed callbacks at many of the top firms in my region (Bay Area). It became obvious that the mid-market regional firms didn't bother giving me callbacks because they assumed (correctly) that they were fallbacks for me. Went on, at a guess, 10-13 callbacks that came out of OCI. At this point, I'd had more success than almost anyone else in my class in terms of landing interviews. Some of them were between different offices of the same firm, so I can't pin down an exact number. Some went poorly, some went so well I thought I was a lock. Zero offers.

Managed to swing another two callbacks for 3L hiring, again at top firms, again I thought they went well, and was even told as much by contacts I had at the firms. Nothing.

So at this point I'm at like 12-15 unsuccessful callbacks. You can imagine how deeply upsetting this is, and it leads me to wonder what fundamental failing has led me to this result.

Ended up landing a solid clerkship, and I'm currently in the throes of the hiring season. I've now been on a couple of callbacks, and will likely have a few more. But, finally, after this absurdly grueling and gutting process that has been drawn out over three years, I got an offer from a band 1 group in my practice area at a top firm. It felt, in a word, good.

Very curious to hear if anyone can beat that, but from my own inquiries, I haven't heard about anyone coming even close to 12-15 straight callbacks without a single offer. I suppose there's also some lesson in there about not giving up or whatever, but all in all, the whole process sucked. 1/5 stars, I do not recommend failing over a dozen callbacks.

Edit: I actually forgot about my first failed callback, which was pre-OCI, so the number is more like 13-16.

[Anonymous User]

I was near the top of my class for OCI at an OK-but-not-great school, [...]

Interesting, thanks for sharing your story. And congrats on landing a great offer. It sounds like you had super high grades -- even apart from the yield protection you experienced, I wonder if that was almost a liability? Obviously grades can help you get past the screener stage, but in a way, the high grades may set even higher expectations w/r/t polish and likeability at the callback stage. Like, "he/she is obviously a great candidate on paper, but I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be during the interview"? Just a thought.

[Anonymous User]

I was near the top of my class for OCI at an OK-but-not-great school, [...]

Interesting, thanks for sharing your story. And congrats on landing a great offer. It sounds like you had super high grades -- even apart from the yield protection you experienced, I wonder if that was almost a liability? Obviously grades can help you get past the screener stage, but in a way, the high grades may set even higher expectations w/r/t polish and likeability at the callback stage. Like, "he/she is obviously a great candidate on paper, but I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be during the interview"? Just a thought.

That is possible, though I think it's unlikely. I don't think people cross-apply grades to expectations re: personality in that way. I can only guess, but I honestly think I was just straight up unlucky. I am confident that I am, at a minimum, a passable interviewee.

I can say with certainty that it hurt me with midlaw firms, though. Given the number of callbacks I got from top firms, there's really no other explanation for why I got zero responses whatsoever from regional firms.

[Anonymous User]

I was rejected from 11 straight callbacks, then offered for the last 2, to go 2/13 total. Apparently I screened well, but my grades weren't good and the callbacks were spread across 8 or 9 different markets so I my story of "why here" was probably never polished because I had to change it from day to day. It was soulcrushing to come out of OCI thinking I had it in the bag because I punched so far above my weight-class and then get dinged one after the other. But it all worked out in the end and I wound up with my #1 pick after law school.

[Anonymous User]

The #1 person in my class at a T25 had 30+ screeners, 15+ CBs, but only got one offer from a very low-ranked AmLaw 200 firm. She was a K-JD whose personality screamed "All I do is study all the time and I don't know how to be a working professional."