How was OCI?

[constable80]

IMO, OCI is a complete sham unless you are in a Top school these days.  The firms show up knowing they aren't hiring anybody from a lower tiered school.  The "interviews" are a joke.  They just sit and B.S. with you about nonsense for about 15 minutes and say goodbye.  It's not even interview experience, because they don't really interview you.  No one is getting any callbacks here.  I'm on LR, Top 10%, rejected everywhere so far.  Hope it's better for others out there.  Any info?

[Cicero]

Well, we had about 50 employers for EIW, but I didn't apply to very many of them. I did a few interviews and have had 1 callback interview so far. We've had a lot less employers for each of the 3 phases after EIW. I haven't been interested in most of the employers since a lot of them are so far away. I do have another interview next week. (fingers crossed as I would really like to cross finding a summer associate position off the to do list) So far I've found it to be a great learning experience--OCI interviews, law firm socials to get to know the employer, 1/2 day interview--all things that are completely new to me.

Which law school do you attend?

[bigs5068]

Well Constable sounds like you have a great attitude about the market. Interviews are competitive, but believe it or not they do hire people why else would they spend hours of time coming to campuses. You need to take some initiative in the interview there are plenty of people in law school, and if you go in expecting them to be impressed by the fact that you did okay on some exams you have another thing coming.

[marcus-aurelius]

I don't see firms wasting man hours and money to interview just for kicks.  Just my opinion

[john4040]

believe it or not they do hire people why else would they spend hours of time coming to campuses.

I don't see firms wasting man hours and money to interview just for kicks.  Just my opinion

Many firms now go to OCI with the intention of maintaining relations with the school and its students - not to offer jobs. 

When I was going through OCI, I overheard several hiring attorneys noting that they had so many excellent candidates - ones that had better stats than their current associates.  Another hiring attorney chimed in, stating that he wished his firm had jobs to offer.  The attorneys then laughed and parted ways.   

[bigs5068]

I have no doubt that happens, getting a job is hard and they are not handing them out. That is the case in every profession and from every school. The fact that they show up to maintain relations with the school, indicates they have or may hire at some point from there, but maybe not that time around or for a few years to come. I am just continually baffled at how naive law students are that finding a job etc is difficult. When your interviewing for an attorney job going to law school and ranking highly is not that impressive, since every other candidate they meet has themselves gone to law school and probably ranked highly if they have OCI interviews.

[Morten Lund]

The "interviews" are a joke.  They just sit and B.S. with you about nonsense for about 15 minutes and say goodbye.  It's not even interview experience, because they don't really interview you. 

I never say never, as they say, but...  It is difficult for me to imagine firms sending people to OCI at schools where they do not intend on hiring.  Sure, they might send people to OCI at schools where they have very narrow hiring criteria (top 5 in class, for instance), but the expense associated with OCI is far to high to waste on PR exercises.

As to your characterization of the interviews - I am curious what you would consider a "real" interview?  What about the b.s. session made you feel like you were not being interviewed?  How should it have gone?

[bigs5068]

I am no expert in interviewing, but I would imagine the OP had no questions of his own and was expecting the interviewers to be ultra impressed by his being in the top 10% and on law review, but I really think that is very minimal once you have the interview. This is because anyone they are interviewing has pretty solid academic qualifications and the top 10% of the class probably includes 15 to 40 other people. So you are in front of them and need to be an enjoyable person to be around particularly because I would think the  don't want to be there anymore than the interviewee.  The whole situation is very similar to the awkwardness of a first date and the interviewers have to go through 4-10 of those in a row and they probably don't want to be doing all the talking. There is also the simple fact that some interviewers are much better than others.  I have had quite a few up to this point and there was one guy that quite literally had no personality, a Ben Stein type voice, and made me think of that cheesy song where the chick sings "I wonder if this guy has ever had a day of fun in his whole life." It was a brutal interview and I don't think it had anything to do with him liking or disliking GGU we just did not click. Then some interviewers were just cool people and a lot easier to talk to and those went well.   The interviewers are people, which is something you always need to understand and I really don't think they want to put all the effort in the interview so it is good take a little initiative and have a set of at least moderately intelligent questions to keep the conversation alive.

 When I was in college 21-22 I had some bad interviews and it was my fault they were bad. The first few real job interviews I had I showed up under dressed and unprepared, and that is not a good combo. After two embarrassingly bad interviews in regards to appropriate dressing I still was not good at keeping the conversation going. They only have so many questions to ask and if you don't have any questions of your own there is an awkward silence and the old it was great to meet you statement comes 10 minutes into the interview. I don't know if anyone can ever be GOOD at interviewing, but the more you practice them the better you get.

[haus]

bigs5068,

I think that you are making some code points related to the interview.

Having done my fair share of interviews from both sides of the table I would suggest that just because the interviewee did not think that anything was accomplished, there is a very good change that the interviewer does not feel the same way. I know that my company will not bother going to on campus interview events unless they think there is a high probability to try to bring someone into the fold. This is not to say that they might not be in the mindset of being exceedingly selective.

When I am interviewing someone, I try to stay away from the canned interview topics and instead I attempt to get the interviewee to talk about something that interest them. Hopefully this something can in someway be tied back to the type of work that my group does. I am looking first for a real level of interest in the concepts and skills related to what we do. If the candidate manages to check that box, then I start looking for signs of creativity, and/or a willingness to go beyond what most people are willing to do. If after 10-12 minutes I come away feeling that the person I was talking to is fired up and ready to tackle whatever is thrown at then then I head over to the man who can write the checks and see what can be done. If not, then I hand the resume over to the HR rep to place on file.

[constable80]

Just to be more clear, I had plenty of questions for interviewers and so did others I have spoken to since.  I left thinking I did well, got along with the interviewers and had a few laughs with all of them.  My main point is that OCI is a joke when it comes to lower tiered schools.  You can object to that notion, feel free, but it's what I believe based on my experience and others.  If you go to a top-tier / mid-tier school I'm sure you had a different experience.  I also stick by the opinion that you don't get the benefit of interview experience because it's just a B.S. session about nothing.  I've already got something else lined up for the summer so I'm not down and out.  I just think that if these big firms come to a school knowing they aren't hiring anyone from that school it is a waste of time and a sham and yea, I think that is what is going on.