Offerless 2L- CCN (below median) Forum

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Offerless 2L- CCN (below median)

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:48 pm

Struck out of OCI a couple of months ago, and have had very little luck mass-mailing firms since. My GPA is between a 3.15-3.25. I'm not holding out on getting any other bites for big firm SA screeners, so my priority now is positioning myself as best I can to be competitive for biglaw during 3L. I know it's going to be far more difficult next year, but I'd really appreciate any advice y'all have on how to approach this atm.

Right now, I'm targeting summer positions with the government, as well as in-house positions at banks or private equity firms. I'm sending out applications for government summer positions early next week (SEC, DFS NY, etc.). In regards to banks and PE firms, I'm having trouble finding information on which ones hire 2Ls, and how reputable a particular bank or PE firm is with big law firms. Does anyone have advice on who to target on this front, or where to look? I'm also looking at midsize/boutique firms that specialize in a practice area that my resume is tailored to, although it seems like the window for those positions has closed as well.

This is a really stressful, shitty time, but I'm trying to stay proactive. Grades are another thing I'm trying to stay focused on (even if I can't bump up my overall GPA that much, having an annual academic honor to put on my resume would help for next year). Anyway, I'd appreciate any and all input on what to do going forward. Thanks again.

QContinuum

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Re: Offerless 2L- CCN (below median)

Post by QContinuum » Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:44 pm

Why did you strike out of OCI? At 3.15-3.25, grades shouldn't have been an issue. CN - we can say CN since Chicago has a weird numeric grading scheme - place loads of below-median students into BigLaw every year. Was it bad bidding strategy? Was it how you presented yourself at interviews? How many screeners did you do/how many CBs did you get? Did you focus on NYC, or did you apply to other markets like D.C. or Cali?

We need to figure out what went wrong because, while it's obviously impossible for you to redo 2L OCI, figuring this out will impact how you should approach your job hunt going forward.

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benwyatt

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Re: Offerless 2L- CCN (below median)

Post by benwyatt » Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:57 am

Talk. To. Career. Services.
That is the best advice I can give you. They will be able to help you figure out a) what you did wrong and b) what to do now and how to be competitive. There are a lot of schools where career services isn't going to be that helpful but at CCN there is at least one person in that office who can help you. Ask your friends who they worked with and work with that person because you need to get moving now.

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Re: Offerless 2L- CCN (below median)

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:45 am

I was in your shoes once and at a lower ranked school than yours (still t-14). My 2L summer strategy was similar to yours and I also have experience at a couple regulatory agencies. I eventually ended up landing big law. My advice for you is to determine what practice you want to be in and specialize by taking course focused in that area and obtaining internships in that area. You also need to load up on friendly curved classes and bring your gpa above a 3.4. Beef up your resume as much as possible and bring grades up and you'll most certainly land something during 3L.

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Re: Offerless 2L- CCN (below median)

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Oct 29, 2018 3:37 pm

I am in the same shoe right now. Did the same thing but landed nothing. Even in-house jobs are difficult to land.

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LBJ's Hair

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Re: Offerless 2L- CCN (below median)

Post by LBJ's Hair » Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:40 pm

Putting aside getting *a* job, *any* job, for the summer, I would talk 1) career services, and 2) friends. Ask them to do practice interview/interviews + ask for *completely candid* feedback.

Most people with your grades at CCN who didn't bid insanely poorly got BigLaw jobs via OCI. I'm sure you had some bad luck too - and really sorry about this :( - but it sounds like you don't interview very well. There's still time to fix this! But you need to find out what you're doing wrong.

QContinuum

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Re: Offerless 2L- CCN (below median)

Post by QContinuum » Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:59 pm

LBJ's Hair wrote:Putting aside getting *a* job, *any* job, for the summer, I would talk 1) career services, and 2) friends. Ask them to do practice interview/interviews + ask for *completely candid* feedback.

Most people with your grades at CCN who didn't bid insanely poorly got BigLaw jobs via OCI. I'm sure you had some bad luck too - and really sorry about this :( - but it sounds like you don't interview very well. There's still time to fix this! But you need to find out what you're doing wrong.
Agreed. That's why my earlier post ITT tried to ask OP for more info. It's certainly possible OP struck out due to very bad bidding strategy - seems to happen to a few people every year. Below median bidding solely D.C./CA, or NYC V20, is one "easy" way of making a strikeout happen even if the candidate interviews well. But assuming OP bid all of the large class-size, less grades-sensitive NYC firms, then it looks like an interviewing issue. It's not a grades issue (or not primarily a grades issue) for sure.

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