ITT Cool Posters Give Good Advice to 2L Job Search Noobs

[BearlyLegal]

Where do you live, botbot? Can I buy you a drink? 

[botbot]

Dallas right now.
NOLA in 2 months.

And to your other question, yes.

[BearlyLegal]

Ok next time you and bears are closeby, drinks are on bears! 

[SEC_2L]

  Mail first week of August. 

Botbot, would you suggest the first week of August for Dallas Big/Mid Law as well? I've been wondering what the ideal time to mail is.

Thanks.

[botbot]

  Mail first week of August. 

Botbot, would you suggest the first week of August for Dallas Big/Mid Law as well? I've been wondering what the ideal time to mail is.

Thanks.

Yep.  Early August gets you in before most major interview programs but after the firms have finished dealing with their summer associates.  This date has been confirmed by a number of local (Dallas) hiring committee members.

[UnbiasedObserver]

Thanks for this, botbot!  This should be stickied!

[dischord]

Tag.

[Naked Promise]

Q for botbot about timing for mailing.

I'm planning on applying to every NALP firm (plus some others) in both Portland and Seattle, but I go to a small T30 school on the east coast (grew up in PNW, parents and in-laws live there, so no prob w/ connection). Back when I was applying for 1L jobs I talked to a firm recruiter lady and she told me that a good way to do it would be to pick a week sometime in August when I can go back to the area and then apply to firms some time in July and say "hey I'll be in town August ##-## and would love to come in for an interview." i'll also note that none of these firms will be coming to OCI at my school. does this sound like a good plan? if not, what would you do?

[botbot]

Q for botbot about timing for mailing.

I'm planning on applying to every NALP firm (plus some others) in both Portland and Seattle, but I go to a small T30 school on the east coast (grew up in PNW, parents and in-laws live there, so no prob w/ connection). Back when I was applying for 1L jobs I talked to a firm recruiter lady and she told me that a good way to do it would be to pick a week sometime in August when I can go back to the area and then apply to firms some time in July and say "hey I'll be in town August ##-## and would love to come in for an interview." i'll also note that none of these firms will be coming to OCI at my school. does this sound like a good plan? if not, what would you do?

That isn't a bad plan.  I know a number of students who sent their resumes at the end of July or early August with a "I'll be in town and available for interviews on these dates", but none were actually contacted for interviews during that period.  Do it, but don't be overly disappointed if you don't hear back from the firms in time to get a quick interview.  A few of the students still landed jobs in their market of choice...

[nealric]

I would just like to add that vault/NLJ ranking does not necessarily correspond with selectivity. I actually had a better call back ratio with V50 firms than I did with V100 and a better ratio with V100 than I did with NLJ250 firms. Part of this was that the higher-ranked firms I interviewed with were more highly leveraged, and were therefore hiring much larger numbers of summers.