Oh see eye
Instead of throwing out scattershot comments on my life over the last month (month!), I’ll talk a little about OCI.
OCI (On-campus interviewing) is the way many incoming 2Ls (that’d be me) get their 3L summer jobs, and it’s the way some 3Ls line up their first jobs after graduation. In case you skimmed that last sentence, that means that a couple weeks from now, in AUGUST, I’ll be interviewing for jobs that start, at the earliest, next MAY. A bit insane, no? Does any other profession do this?
When I start my 3L summer job, I will have twice the law school experience I have now. Don’t employers want to see my fall semester grades? See how well I handle journal work? Maybe they’re just as frustrated with the situation as I am.
At any rate, everyone has to go through OCI, so there’s not much point in complaining. It’s something of a ritual. I imagine I’ll appreciate it quite a bit if I can nail down a summer position right away, and much less so if it’s only the beginning of a rough semester-long search.
The interviews are all set up online. UH runs the program, and employers choose to participate. They post their requirements, and we students bid on which employers (usually medium-to-large firms) we’d like interviews with by submitting documents (resume, writing sample, cover letter, etc.) we’ve uploaded to the system. The employers review our documents and pick as many students as they have interview slots, and then we choose which of those interviews we’ll accept. Then they somehow fill in the leftover spots with alternates.
The interviews take place (mostly) the week before school starts. Bidding was a week or two ago, and we find out which interviews we got this Friday.
Out of 60 or so employers, I bid on 16: all the IP firms I even remotely qualified for plus a few extras. We’re allowed up to 25 bids, and we can accept 17 interviews. And you just know some people are going to have to choose which 17 interviews to accept. Me, I don’t think I’ll have that problem.
Five of the firms I bid on, I expect never to hear back from. Their class-rank requirements are pretty elite, but hey, bids are free. There are three or four employers I feel well-qualified to talk to and think I might get spots with, and the rest … who knows? I guess it depends on how well my IP classmates have been doing.
Not gonna lie, I’ll be kinda crushed if I don’t get any interviews at all. My grades did take a nose-dive last semester, but surely someone will like my first-semester grades, writing sample, and experience enough to at least chat with me. Maybe two someones? Three? Probably not more than that.
John and I rescheduled our Colorado vacation (squee!) and I moved up my end-date at work so I could do OCI; I hope it wasn’t all for nothing.
Tags: career, interviews, job, job search, law school, OCI, UHLC
