Anyone Else Worried about OCI?

[,.,.,.;.,.,.]

 

Only time will tell whether . . . time will tell.  But this looks like some serious pwnage, considering the never-ending stream of bad news on ATL.

Anyone have good back-up plans?

[Talk Is Cheap]

Back up plan: find a non-OCI job.

Back up back up plan: bankruptcy, relocate to warm foreign country.

[StevePirates]

In order:  LL.M, S.J.D., Ph.D., and then if the job market hasn't recovered.... second B.A. in Puppetry.

[botbot]

Be a jd cop.

[no634]

Only time will tell whether . . . time will tell.  But this looks like some serious pwnage, considering the never-ending stream of bad news on ATL.

Anyone have good back-up plans?

Haha, at our school they basically said, "OCI is going to be a disaster for 75% of you."

Look at this way, most law students do not find jobs through OCI. Do your best, be human, and realize its not your only (and definitely not your best) option.

[,.,.,.;.,.,.]

Yes, but I go to a T6.  I have no family connections or networking ability.

[BikePilot]

From what I've seen the networking ability thing is pretty critical in big law. Sure you can get a job without such ability, but are you going to be popular with the partners and given the good work? Are you going to develop your own book of business? I'd say go out there and talk to people, there's nothing particularly difficult about networking and that sort of thing, just takes a bit of comfort in social situations and pro-active approach.

As for most students not getting jobs via oci, that probably varies by school. I'd guess that the vast majority of my classmates got their 2L jobs though OCI. Hard to say about long term stuff since most of my 3L friends are off to clerkships. OCI season last fall was a little lean, but I could see it being worse in the upcoming year. Hopefully for most folks that will mean they have their pick between 3-4 great firms rather than 10+ great firms:) Although it will vary by school I suspect, OCI is so easy and options so broad, it could get a whole lot worse and still not be very bad imho.

As for backup plans, its always good to keep alternatives in mind. I'm set for now (2L with firm job this summer) and could easily entertain myself in a variety of ways if I don't get an offer at the end of the summer - govt jobs, academic fellowships, that dphil I always wanted to do at oxford, I could work as an economist (been there done that, could go back easily) or even work as a mechanic (great fun and pay isn't too bad).

[bl825]

From what I've seen the networking ability thing is pretty critical in big law. Sure you can get a job without such ability, but are you going to be popular with the partners and given the good work? Are you going to develop your own book of business? I'd say go out there and talk to people, there's nothing particularly difficult about networking and that sort of thing, just takes a bit of comfort in social situations and pro-active approach.

As for most students not getting jobs via oci, that probably varies by school. I'd guess that the vast majority of my classmates got their 2L jobs though OCI. Hard to say about long term stuff since most of my 3L friends are off to clerkships. OCI season last fall was a little lean, but I could see it being worse in the upcoming year. Hopefully for most folks that will mean they have their pick between 3-4 great firms rather than 10+ great firms:) Although it will vary by school I suspect, OCI is so easy and options so broad, it could get a whole lot worse and still not be very bad imho.

As for backup plans, its always good to keep alternatives in mind. I'm set for now (2L with firm job this summer) and could easily entertain myself in a variety of ways if I don't get an offer at the end of the summer - govt jobs, academic fellowships, that dphil I always wanted to do at oxford, I could work as an economist (been there done that, could go back easily) or even work as a mechanic (great fun and pay isn't too bad).

I suspect, unfortunately, that things will not work out as you hope in terms of most people having their choice of 3-4 great firms rather than 10 great firms.  I think about it the way I think of how restaurants have been affected by the economy: rather than all restaurants seeing a similar drop in their business, what we've seen is that some restaurants are still doing great and others are practically empty.  In the same way, I suspect that there will be some people who have their choice of 10 great firms and many who have nothing.

Of course I could be wrong and things might just play out differently with OCI recruiting, but I don't see why that would be the case.

At any rate, I hope I'm wrong. 

[,.,.,.;.,.,.]

From what I've seen the networking ability thing is pretty critical in big law. Sure you can get a job without such ability, but are you going to be popular with the partners and given the good work? Are you going to develop your own book of business? I'd say go out there and talk to people, there's nothing particularly difficult about networking and that sort of thing, just takes a bit of comfort in social situations and pro-active approach.

As for most students not getting jobs via oci, that probably varies by school. I'd guess that the vast majority of my classmates got their 2L jobs though OCI. Hard to say about long term stuff since most of my 3L friends are off to clerkships. OCI season last fall was a little lean, but I could see it being worse in the upcoming year. Hopefully for most folks that will mean they have their pick between 3-4 great firms rather than 10+ great firms:) Although it will vary by school I suspect, OCI is so easy and options so broad, it could get a whole lot worse and still not be very bad imho.

As for backup plans, its always good to keep alternatives in mind. I'm set for now (2L with firm job this summer) and could easily entertain myself in a variety of ways if I don't get an offer at the end of the summer - govt jobs, academic fellowships, that dphil I always wanted to do at oxford, I could work as an economist (been there done that, could go back easily) or even work as a mechanic (great fun and pay isn't too bad).

Yeah, but you go to Harvard.

[nealric]

Yeah, but you go to Harvard.

Yeah, but you go to Chicago.