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Surviving On Campus Interviews: Tips to Ace Your Callback Interview

September 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Law Firm Interviews

It’s almost OCI time, so today we are excited to welcome back Peter from Law Firm Interviews with a follow up to his first article, Dealing with Adverse Facts During Interviews in the Surviving On Campus Interview Series. Today he is sharing tips to ace your callback interview. 

Welcome back, Peter!

I was at a cocktail party at the firm last night, and chatted with a few people, one partner, a couple of mid-levels, and a senior associate, about the folks they’ve been interviewing over the past few days. What they said reminded me to write this article.
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Advice on BigLaw and OCI from a Stanford Law Grad

August 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Man in front of puzzleCodesandcodes is a Stanford Law graduate and creator of the website, Biglawrefuge. We asked him tough questions about scoring that Big Law job after graduation and advice for surviving on-campus interviews.

Here are his answers: [Read more…]

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Surviving On Campus Interviews: Dealing With Adverse Facts During Interviews

August 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Law Firm Interviews- On Campus InterviewsIt’s almost OCI time, so today we are excited to welcome Peter from Law Firm Interviews with the first in a series about On-Campus Interviews. This first article discusses how to explain adverse facts on your record and discusses how he got through the process with flying colors. 

Welcome Peter!

Everyone has weaknesses, even the strongest candidates among you. Even if it’s that one low grade on the transcript, the result of one aberrant class or badly executed exam, you’ve been obsessed about how interviewers will see it, and in moments of extreme doubt, you’ve worried that it would cost you your job. [Read more…]

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In Defense of BigLaw…Sort Of

August 8, 2013 by 6 Comments

Angela Kopolovich - Legal RecruiterJust in time for OCI, we’re thrilled to welcome back Angela Kopolovich, Managing Director of the boutique attorney recruiting firm Alegna International to share her thoughts on a controversial topic: Whether you really should take that BigLaw job you’re not sure about. (And, no, your concerned parents did not pay her to write this piece.)

Here’s Angela!

I’m going to share a piece of advice with you that I got when I was in law school.

It came from my wise old owl of a mentor, right before OCI turned our lovely, quiet law school into a scene from Paranormal Activity. (If you haven’t lived through it, just wait till September…)

“If your grades and class rank make you competitive for a spot in BigLaw,” he told me, “you should probably take it.”

As you may recall, I went to law school because I wanted to be a prosecutor, so I was a little surprised by his suggestion.

“Surely BigLaw is not an appropriate career step for me. They don’t even handle the type of criminal work that I want to do. What would be the point?”

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Are You Setting Yourself Up For a Résumé Red Flag?

July 22, 2013 by 5 Comments

Trashed ResumeYou know how everyone says follow your passion? Well, what if following your passion results in a giant résumé red flag? What then?

Today, we’re thrilled to have Rebecca Shoom — a rising 3L at an Ontario law school who currently works in Toronto — here to explain the unexpected pitfalls she encountered after following a side interest that BigLaw firms didn’t fully appreciate.

Without further ado, here’s Rebecca:

“1L summer is your last taste of freedom — relax, explore an interest, have fun!”

This was the advice given by professors and students alike in my first week of law school. So, that’s exactly what I did.

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Law Firm Hiring Partners Talk About What They’re Looking For

August 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Are you interviewing for summer associate jobs? If so, I strongly suggest you watch this Bloomberg Law video series. (And I’m not just saying that because I’m in it. Trust me, I’m the low man on the totem pole here — the rest of the guests are seriously impressive BigLaw hiring partners and such.)

All total, they run about half an hour, but I pretty much guarantee you’ll learn something useful!

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7 Ways to Stay Sane During OCI

August 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Note cardsAugust is here, which can only mean one thing — the annual craziness of on-campus interviewing is about to begin!

For the uninitiated, OCI is how most law firm summer associate positions are handed out. Students interview en masse before classes start, often in a hotel or set of on-campus conference rooms. In one day, you might do 10 or more screening interviews, with an eye towards getting to the all-important callback stage (which requires another day of interviews, on site in the office you’re interested in).

Every school is different, of course, but — in my experience — OCI was alternately boring, stressful, frantic, and exhausting. Not to say there weren’t some good parts, but the whole experience can be a bit overwhelming!

Therefore, I offer you seven tips for maintaining your sanity during the OCI craziness:

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The Key to OCI Success

July 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

KeyThere’s been a lot of ink spilled about OCI, the on-campus interviewing process by which law firms hire summer associates. (You can find several such articles here: Summer Jobs 101, in fact.)

But let’s get down to brass tacks. What’s the single biggest thing you can do to ensure you get an offer?

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Do You Have, or Want, a Summer Associate Position? Some Tips for Success

April 16, 2012 by

Andrew JamesToday’s interview is with Andrew James, creator of the Summer Success Crash Course.

He’s here to talk about how to get a summer associate position, and what to do to ensure you succeed over the summer. If you’re going to be a summer associate, you owe it to yourself to check out his course, because it’s pretty great. The first two lessons are free, so what do you have to lose?

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What Are Law Firms Looking For? Get the Inside Scoop From a Legal Recruiter!

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

HandshakeYou’re in for a treat! My fantastic friend Rebecca Netter, who left Biglaw to become a legal recruiter, has agreed to answer some questions about getting a legal job, from the perspective of someone who spends all day figuring out if someone is a viable candidate for legal jobs.

In other words, she knows what she’s talking about.

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