Getting your application noticed by big firms? Forum

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Getting your application noticed by big firms?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Oct 11, 2018 11:12 pm

Class of 2017, T25 law school, just completed a judicial clerkship and am (still) on the job hunt.

Smaller, regional offices of Morgan Lewis and Fox Rothschild are hiring nearing me (NJ). I applied through their online portals, but I am afraid these applications will not get noticed.

Is it a horrible idea to also mail my application materials to the hiring attorneys? I have heard mixed sentiments, so I am curious as to what everyone here thinks on the matter.

misterjames

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Re: Getting your application noticed by big firms?

Post by misterjames » Fri Oct 12, 2018 9:37 am

Horrible in the sense that it'd be a waste of your time. You should try to find alumni of your school at the office you're applying to, or at least at the firm. If no alumni, try to find someone you can somewhat connect with on something. Try to reach out and let them know your situation and that you applied, maybe ask to take them for coffee or for a phone call.

Anonymous User
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Re: Getting your application noticed by big firms?

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:21 am

Call the recruiting manager, and be like, "Hi I'm XYZ and I'm calling to follow up on my application . . ." Do this a week or two after initial submission. Sometimes the phone call makes them give a second look at your profile. Make sure you sound really polite and enthusiastic on the phone.

objctnyrhnr

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Re: Getting your application noticed by big firms?

Post by objctnyrhnr » Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:17 am

In a nutshell, the credited response to OP’s inquiry is to network.

OP, your instincts are not off-mark. This is a common problem during the lateral job search. When you shoot stuff into a portal, it really probably is just disappearing into the ether. It’s relatedly possible that non jd support staff are instructed to look for people with biglaw experience and either don’t understand the value of clerking or just desire to adhere to their marching orders with no deviations. (I’m assuming you are clerking without prior biglaw experience.)

You should, in my opinion, stop direct applying right now. The reason is that many large firms have internal referral policies to incentivize associate-internal-submits, and the fact that you might have already directly submitted might mess with this. Additionally, although post clerkship positions are typically not compatible with using recruiters, to the extent that one position might be, you are negating your ability to use a recruiter (who would get you more attention than you’re getting via direct submit) by directly submitting. I acknowledge that in OP’s position, that latter point might not be super pertinent relative to say firm to firm lateral job searches.

Common wisdom in the lateral search world is that the boost from an application sent through the following avenues can be ordered as follows: 1) partner submit, 2) associate submit, 3) recruiter submit, 4) direct submit.

To illustrate my point, I’ll speak vaguely about my one lateral job search. I got associate passed through to four spots, interviewed at two. I got partner passed through to three, interviewed at one and got the job. I got recruiter submitted to two and interviewed at one. I directly submitted to maybe 10 and did not get one bite.

My experience, I would think, is not unusual. Unless you are coming from a similar biglaw firm, direct submitting just doesn’t work.

Go out there and network, OP.

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