A guide to the mechanics of OCI, callbacks, etc. Forum

[thesealocust]

Absolutely. Reimbursement stuff takes ages and/but is totally independent of how the process works out. They'd reimburse you even if nobody gave you an offer

[Anonymous User]

Reimbursement question for consideration. I live in relatively remote Brooklyn, and took cars to some callbacks in Midtown in the past few weeks. It's been nasty hot and I didn't want to show up a soppy mess. I took the train home after because it didn't matter then. Do I have anything to lose by submitting receipts for this? Does it look really bad and/or is there zero chance of reimbursement?

[Anonymous User]

Please don't everyone make fun of me at once.

I had callbacks with 3 different firms, all 5-10 days ago and so far just radio silence from all three. I did not send thank-you emails after them because of ignorance and now I am reading that I should have. Question; is it too late? Does it look bad on me that I didn't send any, and is it weird to send emails now?

[Germaine]

Please don't everyone make fun of me at once.

I had callbacks with 3 different firms, all 5-10 days ago and so far just radio silence from all three. I did not send thank-you emails after them because of ignorance and now I am reading that I should have. Question; is it too late? Does it look bad on me that I didn't send any, and is it weird to send emails now?

Depending on the norms of your market, I'm not sure you should have sent them. Search past threads to see the big debate about this.
But whatever the right call would have been initially, I think the short answer to your question is that yes, it's too late. (However, try not to stress about it too much. I got offers from 3 firms after sending 0 thank yous.)

[Anonymous User]

CB cancellation question. On Friday I got an offer from my top choice. I have a CB scheduled for Wednesday at a firm pretty far down my list. They are closed Monday. This means my cancellation would get there the day before the CB. Our career services office strongly discourages cancellations, but it feels like a waste of a CB spot that could go to someone else. What's the right play?

[5ky]

CB cancellation question. On Friday I got an offer from my top choice. I have a CB scheduled for Wednesday at a firm pretty far down my list. They are closed Monday. This means my cancellation would get there the day before the CB. Our career services office strongly discourages cancellations, but it feels like a waste of a CB spot that could go to someone else. What's the right play?

i had a similar situation a few years ago, except my offer came friday at 5 and my callbacks were Mon and Tue. my CSO also told me not to cancel. i ultimately went on those two callbacks because i respected our cso a lot, but i think i'd cancel them if you are 100% sure you wouldn't accept.

[Anonymous User]

has there been an advice thread on how to ask a firm to split (and in particular how to ask the other firm to be the second half split). Because I'm basically autistic, I'm talking about explicitly what to say/what not to say. Do you just accept the one you want to be your first half, and then go to the other one and ask for a start date in like, August?

[beepboopbeep]

No, talk to them both about it before officially accepting anywhere. Just tell them you're excited to accept the offer, that you're planning to split if it's possible, these are the dates you'd like to start and end, and ask if that's ok with them. If they have to make some concessions like letting you do less than the minimum # of weeks, they'll probably ask for some concessions from the other firm as well. I split, and highly recommend doing so. FWIW though I haven't heard of many firms that require first-half dropping that requirement.

[Anonymous User]

After about a week and a half post CB, firm emailed me that they were still making decisions, I was still a candidate, let them know if I had other expiring offers etc. Is this standard for all candidates, or is this something they'd send to a short list of candidates they're seriously considering? This was last week and I've heard nothing since

[Anonymous User]

+1

[Icculus]

CB cancellation question. On Friday I got an offer from my top choice. I have a CB scheduled for Wednesday at a firm pretty far down my list. They are closed Monday. This means my cancellation would get there the day before the CB. Our career services office strongly discourages cancellations, but it feels like a waste of a CB spot that could go to someone else. What's the right play?

i had a similar situation a few years ago, except my offer came friday at 5 and my callbacks were Mon and Tue. my CSO also told me not to cancel. i ultimately went on those two callbacks because i respected our cso a lot, but i think i'd cancel them if you are 100% sure you wouldn't accept.

Coming from one who does interviews, if you know you aren't going to accept the offer cancel the CB. I don't care if it is 10 minutes before you are supposed to come in. Otherwise you are literally wasting everyone's time. Attorneys who do interviews are busy and taking time out of their schedule to interview you. I would rather get an email saying "interviews cancelled" than deal with someone who already knows they are not going to come. Career services has no idea WTF they are talking about here.

[Anonymous User]

Please don't everyone make fun of me at once.

I had callbacks with 3 different firms, all 5-10 days ago and so far just radio silence from all three. I did not send thank-you emails after them because of ignorance and now I am reading that I should have. Question; is it too late? Does it look bad on me that I didn't send any, and is it weird to send emails now?

Depending on the norms of your market, I'm not sure you should have sent them. Search past threads to see the big debate about this.
But whatever the right call would have been initially, I think the short answer to your question is that yes, it's too late. (However, try not to stress about it too much. I got offers from 3 firms after sending 0 thank yous.)

I can tell you where I am I have already evaluated your interview probably within an hour of you leaving my office. Odds are by the time you thank me I have already submitted my review and decision. In fact, every thank you note I have gotten I have received after I have already submitted my review. I also very much doubt anyone I work with would consider a thank you necessary. Nor would anyone's decision be so on the fence that a thank you email would move it one way or another. That said I am in NYC. It may be different in smaller markets.

[Anonymous User]

After about a week and a half post CB, firm emailed me that they were still making decisions, I was still a candidate, let them know if I had other expiring offers etc. Is this standard for all candidates, or is this something they'd send to a short list of candidates they're seriously considering? This was last week and I've heard nothing since

bump

[Danger Zone]

After about a week and a half post CB, firm emailed me that they were still making decisions, I was still a candidate, let them know if I had other expiring offers etc. Is this standard for all candidates, or is this something they'd send to a short list of candidates they're seriously considering? This was last week and I've heard nothing since

bump

Would knowing the answer change anything for you?

Get out there and keep mailing until you have an offer.

[totesTheGoat]

I can tell you where I am I have already evaluated your interview probably within an hour of you leaving my office. Odds are by the time you thank me I have already submitted my review and decision. In fact, every thank you note I have gotten I have received after I have already submitted my review.

When I used to interview for non-law positions, the thank yous were only fodder for me to reject an applicant. I had 3 piles of resumes, and the applicant's resume went into one immediately after they left the building. I had Good, Maybe, and Shred piles. If the Good pile was big enough, I would shred the Maybe pile after doing a quick pass to make sure that I didn't miss anything that would bump a resume from Maybe to Good. That happened once or twice (especially for the early interviews where I didn't have much to compare them against) out of the couple hundred resumes I reviewed. Perhaps a thank-you letter would be helpful in that rare situation, but even then I was looking more at the resume and my interview notes.

The only thank you note I remember was a whiny sniveling piece of entitled dreck. The candidate was right on the Good/Maybe border, and he had a decent interview that pushed him into the Good pile. We were doing technical interviews, so we were pushing every candidate to their limit to see what they knew and didn't know. Completely missing an answer to a question and/or saying "I have no clue" wasn't an auto-ding by any stretch. We would adapt the interview questions to intentionally reach the edge of their knowledge. It's a stressful interview and nobody feels good about their chances when they walk out of the room. Anyway, this guy sent an email "thank you" to me talking about how he knows that he could do better and how he didn't feel like the interview was a fair assessment of his skills and how he wants to do a second interview to better show how he would be a good candidate for the position. That thank you letter took him from serious consideration to a shredded resume.

TL;DR: Don't try to make up for your perceived inadequacies by writing a soppy thank you letter.

[Anonymous User]

At what point is it OK to ask where my damn reimbursement check is?

[patentlitigatrix]

TL;DR: Don't try to make up for your perceived inadequacies by writing a soppy thank you letter.

Yeah, they very rarely seem genuine, even if I can tell the applicant is trying hard. I won't ding someone for it, unless they wrote something stupid/it was riddled with typos or errors. It is just a formality that I want to go away.

[265489164158]

Super helpful thread. Bump.

[KijiStewart]

Are we supposed to have a reference letter printed out. My OCS said we should, but I haven't read that anywhere else.

Also, for unofficial transcripts, thats ONLY our 1L transcript - right?

[Anonymous User]

Are we supposed to have a reference letter printed out. My OCS said we should, but I haven't read that anywhere else.

Also, for unofficial transcripts, thats ONLY our 1L transcript - right?

we were told to have our fall semester schedule on ours and any classes we knew we'd be taking in the spring.

[Gunner19]

tagging

[Anonymous User]

Someone mentioned to me it is appropriate to email the recruiting coordinator if you have not heard anything one week after a screener. Is that actually appropriate?

[Anonymous User]

Someone mentioned to me it is appropriate to email the recruiting coordinator if you have not heard anything one week after a screener. Is that actually appropriate?

I HEARD THIS TOO! I was told to email interviewer directly. Please let me know if you have any advice on how to write dazzling emails?

[Gymnastics]

Any tips on the best way to approach follow up emails after an initial screening interview through OCI?