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General Board / OCI advice for 2Ls.
« on: July 10, 2008, 10:00:45 PM »
I thought this would be a helpful thread for all those going through the process of OCI in the next few months. I am currently a rising 3L and went through it all last year. However, the reason I am making this thread is that as my summer associate experience is coming to a close, I have learned (As I am sure pretty much every other summer has also learned) a good overview of what goes on in the firm, what they like to hear, what the summer program is like, what they look for in candidates, what is proper convo during lunches, and basically stuff I wish I knew before I was interviewing.
without getting into explicit detail, I thought I would make some of the following suggestions- some are obvious, some are not.
1. social skills matter almost MORE then experience at the interview stage: (duh): when you ask "what makes this firm different then any other firm?" they ALL say the people. and it's true. you are going to be working LATE hours with these people. if you are on a heavy, time pressed case with other associates, you will be eating meals with them and seeing them more often then your significant others- they want someone who they can hang out with, talk to and generally have a good time with when doing work. While you make think all this is obvious, i dont think its stressed enough. when you have the interview, you got the foot in the door, nows the time to shine- smile alot, be friendly and social and show them that you are an AWESOME PERSON while being polite and professional at the same time.
2. RESEARCH the firm before hand: that was my number one biggest mistake. I figured they all practiced the same stuff, they were all big, all paid alot- all the same. when they would ask "why us?" I would B.S. something about how they had a great diverse practice area and had such a strong reputation. bad, bad, bad. find out who their clients are, find out DETAILS about the practice area.- if they are heavy in banking & finance find out what recent matters they handled and stress WHY that interests you. its not enough to say the firm has a great reputation b/c it won X, Y, and Z case- you want to say why that appeals to you. firms are VERY VERY proud of what they have accomplished and they like to stress their individuality. show them that this matters to you as well.
3. ask about the details of the summer program: buddies, mentor, training, work assignments and feedback. I was always scared to ask this b/c I didnt really know what was expected in a summer program. what i learned was that each program is different in how its run: what type of assignments will I be getting? Do I get to pick the practice groups? What is the feedback like? are there educational programs throughout the summer, etc. etc. this is huge b/c this is what you are being hired for, you want to know if the program fits your needs, esp if you are looking at offers from a variety of firms. (try to stay away from asking about how many events they have, if you will be getting a blackberry and how much the lunch budget is)
4. dont be afraid to ask about Pro Bono: firms are very proud of their pro bono work and are making huge attempts to promote it. ask what pro bono work they do, if there are pro bono teams, if you can get involved in pro bono as a summer, etc, etc. I was always scared I'd come off as not being devoted to the corporate world If i showed I was interested in this stuff, but they really do like to show how committed they are to this stuff.
5. Corporate v. Litigation: what makes one different then the other? do some initial research on what actually separates the two in terms of day to day tasks- you'll find the big split in pretty much every firm and its good to have a background when asked about it in an interview (beyond the basic litigators deal with lawsuits, corporate deals with contracts).
6. Smile and Nod alot when the interviewer goes on and on about himself: asking the interviewer about their own experiences at the firm is awesome: they love to talk about themselves usually!!
7. Do you have an area of interest? You will usually get asked this. if you dont have one, thats fine but practice what you will say (I am interested in so many different things because......; I am excited to get to work with a variety of different practice groups...) if you do have one, make sure you have a good reason WHY you like one better. even if its just it interests you, it sounds better then saying "i've wanted to be a litigator b/c I love law and order" or "law school doenst teach us transactional stuff so I figure I should do litigation."
8. Don't be TOO casual. It's really a fine line. you want to come of as personable and show them how awesome you are but you dont want to babble on about your boyfriend problems either (I've heard horror stories about this!!) be careful what topics you cover.
9. Try to stay away from sounding stuck up. It's easy to want to sell yourself at an interview (and we all do) but when asked about certain accomplishments you want to sound down to earth, not like you are god's gift to mankind. this goes back to point number 1: they like people who they can chill with. everyone is smart, whose someone I can see myself grabbing a drink with at 1am after a 14 hour day? play up your accomplishments without sounding like a brat.
10. if you haven't, put hobbies on your resume. best thing I ever did. fantastic interview starters- I got asked about certain things I put down on almost every interview and often got asked about it.
GENERAL ADVICE:
-dont schedule too many callbacks in one day: you want to be at your best and brightest, not tired and freaking out about when your next one is.
-research the firms.
-notice how they treat support staff and other lawyers. are doors open? do the lawyers seem to know each other? are people overall friendly?
-eat very very neatly (I have awful table manners- it took me lots of practice!)
-Smile alot
and most importantly: DO YOUR HOMEWORK. why this firm? and why should they hire you? what will you do for them? find out what is generally expected of a summer associate and stress why that summer associate should be YOU.
PLEASE ADD MORE!!
without getting into explicit detail, I thought I would make some of the following suggestions- some are obvious, some are not.
1. social skills matter almost MORE then experience at the interview stage: (duh): when you ask "what makes this firm different then any other firm?" they ALL say the people. and it's true. you are going to be working LATE hours with these people. if you are on a heavy, time pressed case with other associates, you will be eating meals with them and seeing them more often then your significant others- they want someone who they can hang out with, talk to and generally have a good time with when doing work. While you make think all this is obvious, i dont think its stressed enough. when you have the interview, you got the foot in the door, nows the time to shine- smile alot, be friendly and social and show them that you are an AWESOME PERSON while being polite and professional at the same time.
2. RESEARCH the firm before hand: that was my number one biggest mistake. I figured they all practiced the same stuff, they were all big, all paid alot- all the same. when they would ask "why us?" I would B.S. something about how they had a great diverse practice area and had such a strong reputation. bad, bad, bad. find out who their clients are, find out DETAILS about the practice area.- if they are heavy in banking & finance find out what recent matters they handled and stress WHY that interests you. its not enough to say the firm has a great reputation b/c it won X, Y, and Z case- you want to say why that appeals to you. firms are VERY VERY proud of what they have accomplished and they like to stress their individuality. show them that this matters to you as well.
3. ask about the details of the summer program: buddies, mentor, training, work assignments and feedback. I was always scared to ask this b/c I didnt really know what was expected in a summer program. what i learned was that each program is different in how its run: what type of assignments will I be getting? Do I get to pick the practice groups? What is the feedback like? are there educational programs throughout the summer, etc. etc. this is huge b/c this is what you are being hired for, you want to know if the program fits your needs, esp if you are looking at offers from a variety of firms. (try to stay away from asking about how many events they have, if you will be getting a blackberry and how much the lunch budget is)
4. dont be afraid to ask about Pro Bono: firms are very proud of their pro bono work and are making huge attempts to promote it. ask what pro bono work they do, if there are pro bono teams, if you can get involved in pro bono as a summer, etc, etc. I was always scared I'd come off as not being devoted to the corporate world If i showed I was interested in this stuff, but they really do like to show how committed they are to this stuff.
5. Corporate v. Litigation: what makes one different then the other? do some initial research on what actually separates the two in terms of day to day tasks- you'll find the big split in pretty much every firm and its good to have a background when asked about it in an interview (beyond the basic litigators deal with lawsuits, corporate deals with contracts).
6. Smile and Nod alot when the interviewer goes on and on about himself: asking the interviewer about their own experiences at the firm is awesome: they love to talk about themselves usually!!
7. Do you have an area of interest? You will usually get asked this. if you dont have one, thats fine but practice what you will say (I am interested in so many different things because......; I am excited to get to work with a variety of different practice groups...) if you do have one, make sure you have a good reason WHY you like one better. even if its just it interests you, it sounds better then saying "i've wanted to be a litigator b/c I love law and order" or "law school doenst teach us transactional stuff so I figure I should do litigation."
8. Don't be TOO casual. It's really a fine line. you want to come of as personable and show them how awesome you are but you dont want to babble on about your boyfriend problems either (I've heard horror stories about this!!) be careful what topics you cover.
9. Try to stay away from sounding stuck up. It's easy to want to sell yourself at an interview (and we all do) but when asked about certain accomplishments you want to sound down to earth, not like you are god's gift to mankind. this goes back to point number 1: they like people who they can chill with. everyone is smart, whose someone I can see myself grabbing a drink with at 1am after a 14 hour day? play up your accomplishments without sounding like a brat.
10. if you haven't, put hobbies on your resume. best thing I ever did. fantastic interview starters- I got asked about certain things I put down on almost every interview and often got asked about it.
GENERAL ADVICE:
-dont schedule too many callbacks in one day: you want to be at your best and brightest, not tired and freaking out about when your next one is.
-research the firms.
-notice how they treat support staff and other lawyers. are doors open? do the lawyers seem to know each other? are people overall friendly?
-eat very very neatly (I have awful table manners- it took me lots of practice!)
-Smile alot
and most importantly: DO YOUR HOMEWORK. why this firm? and why should they hire you? what will you do for them? find out what is generally expected of a summer associate and stress why that summer associate should be YOU.
PLEASE ADD MORE!!
