1Ls take notice - OCIP Lessons Learned

Now that the interview process is over, with a few exceptions, it’s time for some lessons learned. It is my hope that the topics discussed will be as helpful to 1Ls as I think they would have been to me one year ago. I encourage other 2Ls and 3Ls to write in either agreeing with or augmenting my own thoughts with some of theirs. Each successive class should have it easier and, hopefully, this post is a start.

First of all, you should know what my qualifications are for writing this - my results and luck with the process. I interviewed with 33 firms during OCIP (well actually 31, but had 2 pre-OCIP which I’ve decided to clump in with the rest). I received 17 callbacks but most of them were extended considerably after the interview date – two-weeks or more in my case. Of those 17 callbacks I went on 7 and received an offer from each, in other words, every firm I went on a callback with I received an offer from. I have no idea if my experience is typical, but I would say my results are pretty good, at least, I was happy with the choices I had. Here are some of my lessons learned about the process and related experiences in no particular order. They are my own thoughts and you should think about whether the strategy and advice I outline below will work for you.

At the beginning of OCIP keep track of your pre-bidding rankings (if you made them, and you should as how else are you going to decide what firms to place in what spots). You ranked firms a certain way for a reason. If you don’t get your #4 pick but get the rest of your top ten, try to get an interview with #4 when they are on campus. Too often, as was the case with me, you tend to forget about the firms you don’t receive interviews from, even though many firms you do get interviews with might be ranked rather low on your list going into the entire process. Had I actively pursued the top 10 or 15 firms I had going into OCIP in each phase, and not simply acquiesced to the interviews I already had, I feel I would have had better choices during the callback phase, and wouldn’t have been scrambling towards the end to interview with every last firm in order to increase my odds of receiving callbacks.

Preparing for OCIP interviews is a waste of time (note: I said only OCIP interviews, it is imperative you prepare thoroughly for callback interviews as I credit much of my success in this phase to being able to ask smart, specific questions about the interviewers and the firms). This is probably something that you have to figure out for yourself but I felt I performed much better when I knew only the person’s name and not all about what they did for Firm X. Everyone likes to talk about themselves and while it is sometimes useful to be able to ask a specific question about your interviewer’s work, I felt that the better question was what they did the past week and why they liked it. If you are interested in what they say, ask a more specific follow-up. These interviews are only 20 minutes long and that’s barely enough time to learn anything or ask any meaningful questions. It goes without saying, however, that you must know what the firm does. Although the most humorous OCIP stories were told by those students who only wanted to do litigation at a firm and are told mid-interview the firm does corporate work only, those stories are best heard and not told from a first-person perspective. Don’t make this mistake.

Thank-you notes, that people say are important, are worthless. I received offers from just as many firms that I didn’t send thank you notes to as the ones I did. Save your time after an interview and relax.

Apply for Firm jobs on Dec. 1. Last year I didn’t do this, and while I had a great summer at a public interest organization, I feel that it would have been worthwhile and not that difficult. Firms aren’t looking for 1Ls who know exactly what they want to do (my impression); they’re looking for 1Ls who are simply interested in their firm and who have reasonably good backgrounds (backgrounds are all they can judge on Dec. 1 anyway). I didn’t apply because I thought it would take too much time away from my studying. It really shouldn't. Put together a decent cover letter now and change it slightly for each firm. Apply to enough firms and you'll get some bites. It should be beneficial to go on a few interviews and see what the process is like. It will serve you very well when you’re a 2L. I think this will behoove even those of you who want to explore public interest (as I did) during the 1L summer. Practice for OCIP during your 1L year can't hurt.

I have no doubt that other 2Ls and 3Ls will add to this topic. My advice is for 1Ls to read it all and try to understand as much as possible. Make a short list of the better suggestions you read and keep it for next year or, if you follow my advice and decide to apply for firms this year, after Dec. 1. Good luck 1Ls – it’s not a fun process but the more prepared you are the better you are able to handle it.