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I assume it does, but I want to see if anyone has actually gotten a 1L summer job after using mail merge as a 1st contact device, sending grades, interviewing, and getting an offer.

Er, if anything, getting a request for more information is a good sign. It means they are A.) Willing to hire 1Ls, and; B.) Impressed enough with your prior experience that they are willing to spend postage to ask you for your grades.

The most common response to mail merges isn't even a rejection per se--you just never hear anything.

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Er, if anything, getting a request for more information is a good sign. It means they are A.) Willing to hire 1Ls, and; B.) Impressed enough with your prior experience that they are willing to spend postage to ask you for your grades.

The most common response to mail merges isn't even a rejection per se--you just never hear anything.

+1

Without prior contact with the firm, of course they are going to want your grades. You should be THRILLED that ITE you 1) got a response and 2) that response didn't begin with "While you seem like a great candidate..."

I guess what I'm really asking is, what is the likelihood that, given a "send grades" response is received, one will eventually get an offer?

Also, how much of a factors are grades if they are basing the "send grades" email on my resume only?

CE2JD wrote:I guess what I'm really asking is, what is the likelihood that, given a "send grades" response is received, one will eventually get an offer?

The likelihood of getting a 1L SA this year is minuscule. Why are they going to hire a 1L when they can hire a 2L and it will cost them the same. The best way to get an SA gig as a 1L is to apply to a firm that has an active diversity program. Don't rely on getting an SA gig through mass mail, period. Have 3 backup plans: 1) mail judges, 2) contact PI places, 3) think about a professor you may want to work with.

CE2JD wrote:Also, how much of a factors are grades if they are basing the "send grades" email on my resume only?

Grades determine whether they want to meet you. Its the same with OCI, as long as you are normal, grades will determine whether you get a callback.

Well, grades weren't all there was to OCI this year, and they probably won't be going in to the future.

That said... your chances of getting a paid gig this summer are really small. It isn't worth thinking about what your chances at getting a job at this particular place are, because you absolutely need to continue trawling the water anyway. So, send your grades in, hope for the best, but continue the job search as if you hadn't heard back from them.

I was sending out piles of resumes until the day I was offered my 1L gig (and my 2L gig, for that matter.)

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Well, grades weren't all there was to OCI this year, and they probably won't be going in to the future.

That said... your chances of getting a paid gig this summer are really small. It isn't worth thinking about what your chances at getting a job at this particular place are, because you absolutely need to continue trawling the water anyway. So, send your grades in, hope for the best, but continue the job search as if you hadn't heard back from them.

I was sending out piles of resumes until the day I was offered my 1L gig (and my 2L gig, for that matter.)

I'm not sure where you are or what your experience was for OCI, but callbacks seemed to be very grade based for us (unless the person had an unusual background). I'm not saying offers were determined by grades, but it seemed like the likelihood of getting a callback was very much related to where you were in the class. The people who were top 10-15% had 10+ callbacks, people 15-30% got 5-10 callbacks, people 30-50% averaged 2-3 and anyone below that was happy to even get 1. Maybe if you're at a prescreen school where employers already screened for grades, the experience was different.

Edit: This does not correlate with number of offers, there were people who got 1 CB and got an offer and there were people who went on 6 or 7 CBs and got no offers.

Yeah, I got an offer based on 1 of my 2 callbacks.

That said, I only got 2 callbacks as a top 1% person at a T40 who transferred in to a T6 and wrote on to a secondary journal, so it wasn't all grades. Work experience had a lot to do with it this year, as did your ability to schmooze in an interview (which I'm admittedly only so-so at--not awful, but I don't have the type of pressence that is going to result in a future as a trial lawyer, that's for certain).

Anyway, enough about that. Pretty sure we agree about what OP's approach should be.

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Yeah, I got an offer based on 1 of my 2 callbacks.

That said, I only got 2 callbacks as a top 1% person at a T40 who transferred in to a T6 and wrote on to a secondary journal, so it wasn't all grades. Work experience had a lot to do with it this year, as did your ability to schmooze in an interview (which I'm admittedly only so-so at--not awful, but I don't have the type of pressence that is going to result in a future as a trial lawyer, that's for certain).

Anyway, enough about that. Pretty sure we agree about what OP's approach should be.

Just to clarify... transfers definitely had a strange year. I don't know enough of them to really know how they fared here, but of the one's I've talked to they definitely haven't had an easy go with things even with stellar grades.

But yes, OP, moral of the story: Don't rely on a firm, have a back up plan, and ITE, have a back up for your back up plan