DOJ Honors Program 2019-2020 Forum

[shenan9944]

Any ENRD finalists with an offer yet?

Any updates from ENRD this week?

They sent out all 14 offers Friday and Monday and some had accepted and no one had declined as of yesterday.

Okay thanks for the info! Do you know how many alternates were selected?

I don't, I just know that there are a few in front of me...but you can probably find out where you are in the alternate list by emailing them. That's how I found out because I have another offer that expires soon and I needed to find out the timeline and probability of getting an offer.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone with an offer from CRT yet?

CRT finalist here and I haven’t gotten an offer.

[AMS2020]

Anyone with an offer from CRT yet?

CRT finalist here and I haven’t gotten an offer.

I just received my phone call offer

[Anonymous User]

Anyone get phone call offers from either OCIJ or UST?

I recently received a call from UST

[Anonymous User]

Anyone with an offer from CRT yet?

CRT finalist here and I haven’t gotten an offer.

I just received my phone call offer

Do you mind saying who you received the call from?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone get phone call offers from either OCIJ or UST?

I recently received a call from UST

Wow congrats! How long ago did they reach out?

What office did you get assigned?

I’m a finalist for UST, but I am currently outside the country and can’t get phone calls. I’m sure they will leave voicemails or follow up with an email?

[Anonymous User]

I received an exploding offer from USTP that required response within a few days. Did this happen to anyone else? What did you do about it? I know the Honors Program guidelines specify a 2-week window.

[Anonymous User]

I received an exploding offer from USTP that required response within a few days. Did this happen to anyone else? What did you do about it? I know the Honors Program guidelines specify a 2-week window.

Exploding offers are definitely not allowed. Here's what Deana had to say about it from an earlier post on Avue: "It is inappropriate for Honors Program participating components to curtail the response period, issue exploding offers, or require candidates to respond to hypothetical offers such as 'we would be inclined to issue you an offer provided you tell us in advance that you will accept it if we do.' Contact me for assistance if this occurs."

You should reach out to her.

[Anonymous User]

Definitely reach out to Deanna. But I think the holding the offer 2 weeks is fairly recent - it wasn’t a requirement when I went through the process and it was commonly expected that the applicant accept on the spot (I asked for 20 mins to call my spouse, lol). So it’s possible that this USTP office has someone operating under outdated expectations if they did the hiring in past years (not that that makes it okay, but maybe approach it diplomatically as them misunderstanding rather than couching it as malicious).

[Anonymous User]

I received an exploding offer from USTP that required response within a few days. Did this happen to anyone else? What did you do about it? I know the Honors Program guidelines specify a 2-week window.

Exploding offers are definitely not allowed. Here's what Deana had to say about it from an earlier post on Avue: "It is inappropriate for Honors Program participating components to curtail the response period, issue exploding offers, or require candidates to respond to hypothetical offers such as 'we would be inclined to issue you an offer provided you tell us in advance that you will accept it if we do.' Contact me for assistance if this occurs."

You should reach out to her.

Yes, very surprised to hear this. Did the office you chose reach out? Was it one of the AUST’s that interviewed you?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone get phone call offers from either OCIJ or UST?

I recently received a call from UST

Wow congrats! How long ago did they reach out?

What office did you get assigned?

I’m a finalist for UST, but I am currently outside the country and can’t get phone calls. I’m sure they will leave voicemails or follow up with an email?

I believe the call was made last Thursday. The formal offer email was sent just a few days ago! I hope you hear good news soon!

[Anonymous User]

I received an exploding offer from USTP that required response within a few days. Did this happen to anyone else? What did you do about it? I know the Honors Program guidelines specify a 2-week window.

When did you get the email offer? I also had a very short window to give a firm response, but I lucked out and got my preferred location so it was an easy "yes" for me. I do not see any harm in asking for an extra week to mull the offer over.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone get phone call offers from either OCIJ or UST?

I recently received a call from UST

Wow congrats! How long ago did they reach out?

What office did you get assigned?

I’m a finalist for UST, but I am currently outside the country and can’t get phone calls. I’m sure they will leave voicemails or follow up with an email?

I believe the call was made last Thursday. The formal offer email was sent just a few days ago! I hope you hear good news soon!

Anon, did your offer letter include an acceptance window? I'm the anon from above (acceptance window of just a few days) and my email said I needed to accept by this Friday, November 29 (the day after Thanksgiving). Did your email say something similar?

[Anonymous User]

I received an exploding offer from USTP that required response within a few days. Did this happen to anyone else? What did you do about it? I know the Honors Program guidelines specify a 2-week window.

Exploding offers are definitely not allowed. Here's what Deana had to say about it from an earlier post on Avue: "It is inappropriate for Honors Program participating components to curtail the response period, issue exploding offers, or require candidates to respond to hypothetical offers such as 'we would be inclined to issue you an offer provided you tell us in advance that you will accept it if we do.' Contact me for assistance if this occurs."

You should reach out to her.

Yes, very surprised to hear this. Did the office you chose reach out? Was it one of the AUST’s that interviewed you?

The destination office did not reach out; it was an administrative person in the Executive Office in DC. That person has not been able to provide useful information regarding my request to extend the deadline. I emailed Deana and PM'd her on Avue, but she is out of office until December 2 (after the response deadline expires). I will keep the thread posted on the progress of this.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone get phone call offers from either OCIJ or UST?

I recently received a call from UST

Wow congrats! How long ago did they reach out?

What office did you get assigned?

I’m a finalist for UST, but I am currently outside the country and can’t get phone calls. I’m sure they will leave voicemails or follow up with an email?

I believe the call was made last Thursday. The formal offer email was sent just a few days ago! I hope you hear good news soon!

Anon, did your offer letter include an acceptance window? I'm the anon from above (acceptance window of just a few days) and my email said I needed to accept by this Friday, November 29 (the day after Thanksgiving). Did your email say something similar?

Yes, I had the exact same window. I thought the short acceptance window was odd, but luckily I was matched with my preferred location and I had nothing holding me back from accepting the offer on the spot. Have you tried contacting the person who gave you a call with the oral offer?

[Anonymous User]

Anon from earlier with the exploding offer from USTP. They called to apologize and extended acceptance window to two weeks from the email offer (as opposed to the phone call, which was earlier).

[Anonymous User]

Anon from earlier with the exploding offer from USTP. They called to apologize and extended acceptance window to two weeks from the email offer (as opposed to the phone call, which was earlier).

You clearly did something right! I received a follow-up email extending the acceptance window to 12/16!

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone received their reimbursement yet?

not me. Anyone?

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard anything from OCIJ?

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard anything from OCIJ?

Nothing yet, but now that Thanksgiving is behind us, hopefully we will see some movement this week and bring some finality to those who are finalist. Good luck!

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know the consequences of accepting an offer and then later reneging on that acceptance if something you can't refuse comes along? I imagine it's poor form, but are there any dire consequences?

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know the consequences of accepting an offer and then later reneging on that acceptance if something you can't refuse comes along? I imagine it's poor form, but are there any dire consequences?

Anon because the story could ID me. I know someone who got hired by one of the USAOs (not SDNY/EDNY) and then reneged a couple of months later, mostly because the job would require moving a good 5 or 6 states away and they were concerned about uprooting their spouse/disrupting the spouse’s career path. I think also they had no ties to the new state and wanted to stay where they had roots etc. They told me the USAO was completely gracious about it, they went on to a fairly prestigious firm, and googling shows me that they just got hired at the local USAO. So obviously it’s not a kiss of death.

FWIW, though, I think the things that helped this person: they reneged relatively early in the process (I don’t know if the office was able to replace this person, but no real on-ramping had taken place yet), and I think the reneger had been pretty honest about their concerns from the start (they were a pretty strong candidate so could pull that off). I also think it was pretty clear they hadn’t continued interviewing and had got something better, but had thought carefully about it and withdrawn (without something lined up) because of their family priorities.

I guess I would kind of wonder what you mean by “something you can’t refuse comes along” - if you’re still applying for jobs after getting the honors gig I think that’s kind of crappy and poor form, and withdrawing to take such a job would leave a bad taste in DOJ’s mouth. But whether it would have consequences would likely depend on how you withdrew and whether you ever wanted to work with that branch of DOJ again. I think if you reneged on, say, EOIR, it’s unlikely that, say, civil programs would care later down the road. But you might well burn a bridge with the component you renege on (again, depending how you do it).

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone gotten any calls today? Wondering if most of the offices are taking a victory lap after the long holiday weekend.

[Anonymous User]

has anyone who's accepted an offer heard back on next steps for employment onboarding?

[Anonymous User]

Civil has started collecting initial information to initiate the e-Qip background check process. As far as I know, e-Qip accounts have not yet been made available.