2009 FALL OCI INFORMATION
On-campus interviewing begins August 17 and ends October 23
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PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE DOCUMENT – Even those of you who participated in OCI last year. What is Fall OCI? Law firms and other legal employers visit law schools nationwide during the fall to interview applicants for employment starting the following summer or fall. Some large law firms do most of their hiring of new law graduates this way. The firms hire students the summer between their second and third year and if the students perform well, the firms often make offers to them for full-time employment upon graduation. What types of legal recruiters participate in the fall interview program? Large Law Firms: These employers are able to establish their hiring needs a year in advance. Occasionally, a mid-size or small firm will participate. However, the vast majority of law firms with 2-25 attorneys do not participate. Instead, they recruit when they need to fill immediate openings. Government Agencies: Federal, state and local government agencies recruit for their summer intern programs, graduate honor programs (not all agencies have these) or for entry-level attorney positions. Accounting & Consulting Firms: Sometimes accounting firms are interested in law graduates with accounting backgrounds for their tax departments. They are generally interested in third year students only.
Who is eligible to participate? Students who will graduate in 2010 or 2011. What types of credentials are OCI interviewers seeking? Because employers often interview at 10-20 campuses across the country, the competition for positions is extremely high. Generally, employers seek students with a high class rank and/or other distinguishing academic credentials. Employers usually require criteria ranging from the top 10 to 20%. Law Review and Moot Court are two credentials that many large law firms prefer. Patent firms want a technical background such as electrical or chemical engineering. Accounting firms seek law students who have had some undergraduate accounting courses or who are CPAs. Government employers generally seek students who are committed to the work the government agency performs. Why do recruiters interview and hire many more second year students than third year students? Large and mid-size law firms tend to fill most of their beginning associate needs from their previous year’s summer associate program. Firms that have successful summer associate programs do not need to recruit many, if any, third year students. Therefore, they focus on hiring second year students to fill future hiring needs. Should students apply to employers who are not on the OCI interviewing list? Yes. You are strongly encouraged to contact any employer in which you have an interest. If you are interested in applying to an employer that is not interviewing on-campus this fall, contact the employer and find out the name of the hiring partner or recruiting person and send a cover letter and resume to that person in early August. If the recruiter is interested in interviewing you, he/she will contact you directly. Or, go to www.nalpdirectory.com and do an advanced search of all the law firms in the city of your choice. Remember to follow-up any letter with a phone call to make sure the employer received your resume.
If you do not get interviews through OCI please refer to the Handout entitled “Steps to Take Towards Your Next Job.” About 80% of the nation’s law graduates, including those who graduate from Loyola, do not get hired through OCI recruiting programs but successfully find employment after graduation. OCI is just one avenue to legal employment and, depending on your academic credentials, career goals and practice interests it may not be the appropriate avenue for you. If you are uncertain whether this is a program in which you should participate, or if you would like to evaluate other employment opportunities, please make an appointment to discuss your options with a career advisor.
How OCI works:
Participating students who wish to interview with the employers registered to participate in Loyola’s OCI will be expected to review the on-line list of employers and their hiring criteria and bid for interview slots on the employer schedules. Symplicity is a computerized scheduling database that matches on-campus employers with students and creates interview schedules. The scheduling database considers student class and work schedules, student preferences for particular employers, and any hiring criteria required by employers. Choosing the Employers with Whom You Wish to Interview: In Symplicity, you will rank the employers beginning with the one with whom you most want to interview to your lowest preferred employer. Symplicity fills an on-campus employer’s interview schedule with students who have ranked the employer as number one, then with students who have ranked it as number two, etc. It also checks the interview time slots against a student’s work and class schedule and will not schedule an interview during those times. If you rank an employer as your number one choice, and there is not a class or work schedule conflict, you are likely to receive an interview with that employer BUT YOU ARE NOT GUARANTEED AN INTERVIEW WITH THAT EMPLOYER. Whether you receive an interview depends on how many other students preferenced that employer and how many interview slots an employer has signed up for. If the number of students ranking the employer as number one is greater than the number of interview slots, the computer will conduct a random selection among students who have chosen the employer as number one, and so on. Students who have bid but do not receive an interview will be wait-listed and if an interview opportunity becomes available due to a last minute cancellation, we will slot you into an interview time and contact you via email. If you are unable to interview on a particular day (out of town, religious holiday, doctor’s appointment) you may want to write the firm directly, outlining the reasons you are unable to meet with the interviewer on its scheduled interview date and request an in-office interview. Hiring Criteria: All employers will indicate their required or preferred academic hiring criteria, i.e. top 10% of class, law review, technical background, etc. The career services office never sets these criteria. Some firms look for additional credentials, such as accounting, engineering, or technical backgrounds. Others may evaluate candidates on their past professional work experience. Students should know the employers’ qualifications before bidding. Employers expect us to match students to their exact hiring criteria. If an employer requires the upper 15% and you are ranked at 16%, unfortunately, you may not preference that employer. If an employer’s hiring criteria are listed as “preferred,” this means that the employer will typically hire from within this class rank or just outside it. Students should be realistic in their bidding selections.
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WAIVERS: If an employer states that the hiring criteria will be waived for Law Journal, Moot Court, or other criteria, those waivers are automatic for that employer – so you don’t need to request a waiver. Some employers will waive their hiring criteria for students who are within 5% of the employer’s required class rank. If you are within 5% of an employer’s criteria, you should consider writing a persuasive letter to the recruiter requesting a waiver to bid on that employer. Employer contact info can be found at www.nalpdirectory.com. Click on this link to see an example of such a letter: http://www.luc.edu/law/career/pdfs/WAIVE_THE_CRITERIA.pdf. You will need to adapt the letter to your particular case -- this is just an example to get you started. Students sometimes find success with this option. If the employer agrees to waive its criteria, the employer must inform the Office of Career Services in writing via email (law-oci@luc.edu) or by phone (312) 915-7162 that it is waiving the criteria in your case and that you are permitted to bid on them. WE WILL NEED TO HEAR FROM THE EMPLOYER BY JULY 14TH AT 5:00 P.M. IN ORDER TO ALLOW YOU TO BID ON THAT EMPLOYER. PLEASE CONTACT MARIANNE DEAGLE IN THE OFFICE OF CAREER SERVICES TO DISCUSS THIS OPTION IF YOU ARE WITHIN 5% OF THE EMPLOYER’S HIRING CRITERIA AND YOU WISH TO BID ON THEM. After you send your waiver requests to the employers, please be courteous in your follow-up with them. I realized these waivers require a quick turnaround but harassing employers with multiple emails and phone calls will not leave a good impression and will not get you an interview. Timing for Bidding: All bidding will take place between July 1st and July 15th at 5:00 p.m. What You Can Do Now to Get Prepared for OCI: (1) update your resume; (2) if you are not sure what to include on your resume review the “How to Write a Resume” document in your 1L Handbook and make updates based on these suggestions. Then make an appointment with a career advisor to review your efforts; (3) schedule a mock interview in July; (4) research the firms, organizations and agencies with whom you wish to interview. Researching Employers: Spend some time researching the employers you are interested in to verify that they have the type of practice you seek. Don’t waste your bids by being uninformed. If you need help researching firms, please call our office. Your OCI Interview Schedule: Your personal interview schedule for preferenced employers will be available for viewing in Symplicity on August 5th. Hard copies of interview schedules will not be distributed; you must view your schedule in Symplicity and only you are responsible for knowing your schedule. If you do not get an interview with an employer you bid on, you may write to that employer directly to request that they add you to their schedule during one of their breaks. Here is a sample letter that you can adapt to your particular case: http://www.luc.edu/law/career/pdfs/REQUESTING_AN_INTERVIEW.pdf If the employer agrees to add you to their interview schedule, the recruiter must indicate in writing (law-oci@luc.edu) or by phone (312) 915-7162 that it will add you to the interview schedule at the beginning or end of the day, or during a lunch break.
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Contact Large Law Firms Directly in August or early September: You should reach out to all large law firms, whether they come on campus to interview or not, with a cover letter and resume to secure an interview. If, for instance, you do not receive an interview with a firm that is coming oncampus, don’t let that dissuade you from contacting them directly. Send them a cover letter and resume requesting an opportunity to interview with them in their office. Many of our students have found success this way. For those firms who do not participate in on-campus interviewing at Loyola, request an interview by sending them a resume and cover letter. To know who those firms are, go to www.nalpdirectory.com and compare that list with the list of firms interviewing on-campus and send those not interviewing on campus a cover letter and resume in August requesting an interview.
What to Expect When Interviewing Begins: Interviews are generally scheduled from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday with a 12:20 to 1:30 p.m. lunch break. A few recruiters schedule only half-day schedules. Interviews are usually 20 or 30 minutes long. Evening students will need to report their work schedules in such a way that blocks of time are available for interviews (if you have questions about this, please contact us at law-oci@luc.edu. YOU MUST SHOW UP FOR YOUR SCHEDULED INTERVIEW. If you do not show for an interview, you will risk forfeiting all of your upcoming interviews. If an interview opportunity opens up, we will contact you to make you aware of it. Official Mode of Communication: The official mode of communication during fall on-campus interviewing is email. You should check your email daily for communications from our office. We will not call you with changes or updates (this includes interview time changes and additional or canceled interviews.) Resume Collect Employers: Some employers choose to not conduct interviews on campus but are interested in receiving resumes, writing samples and transcripts from Loyola students. These employers are referred to as “Resume Collect Employers.” To accommodate these employers, we collect materials from interested students through Symplicity and forward them to the employers by their designated deadline. The employers then contact students directly to schedule interviews. Cover letters & writing samples can be uploaded from a Word document to Symplicity. To upload a transcript, you will need to scan it and make a pdf of it before you upload it. You can do so in our office. You will find these opportunities in Symplicity by clicking on the Job Postings tab. We will continue to post these opportunities as we become aware of them throughout the fall recruiting season. Please see the Fall 2009 Symplicity Registration & Bidding Instructions for detailed information about uploading resumes and transcripts. Multiple School Interviews: Some employers from outside of the Chicago metro-area wish to interview students from multiple schools on the same day at one location. If an employer asks Loyola to host these interviews, the CSO will forward all resumes to these employers, and they will select which students to interview. The schedule will be available in Symplicity one week prior to the employer interviews. If an employer asks another law school to host these interviews, we will be contacted by the school and asked to collect resumes. The resumes will go to the employer, the employer will select who they wish to interview. We will contact you about these opportunities if/when they arise.
Contact Small & Medium Size Firms: Most small and medium size firms (those on the 4 or More list) typically do not make hiring decisions until the spring semester and sometimes, not until after you have taken the bar exam and passed. This means you should not send these firms a resume and cover letter too early. We advise that you hold off on sending out resumes and cover letters to these
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firms until early in your last semester of law school (closer to the time in which they may be ready to make decisions). You may need to send a second round of resumes and cover letters to these employers after you take the bar exam. Out of State Employers: If you are interested in an out of state employer, your letter should address why you wish to relocate to that city. Also, these employers will take your request more seriously if you tell them that you plan to visit their city on a certain date and that you would appreciate an opportunity to meet them while you are in town. Keep in mind that if you want access to information about legal employers in other states, you can often gain this information by getting reciprocity to another law school career services office. To learn more about reciprocity please visit this webpage: http://www.luc.edu/law/career/reciprocity.html Cover Letters & Resumes: It is important that you let one of the counselors in Career Services review your resumes and cover letter(s) before they go out. Last year we saw several poorly written and inappropriate cover letters after they went out to employers. Before you send your letters and resumes out, please let us take a look at them. Feel free to email one of us (Maureen Looker, Mary Beth Wynn or Marianne Deagle). Keep in mind that you will need to market the experience, skills (research and writing skills) and education you have acquired. Principles and Standards for Recruitment and Hiring: The National Association for Law Placement (NALP), of which Loyola is a member, has established principles and standards for recruitment that legal employers, law schools and law students must abide by. These principles were created to ensure fair and ethical hiring practices; they explain the behavior expected of both employers and students during the fall recruitment process and provide “Standards for the Timing of Offers and Decisions.” Please review these standards and pay particular attention to the 45 day rule (attached to this email). You may also go to NALP.org to learn more about NALP’s standards. OCI Informational Panels – in August We plan to hold two informational panels in August to help you get ready for on-campus interviewing. The first panel will include several 3Ls who participated in OCI last year and will speak to you about how to prepare for on-campus interviewing. The second information panel will help you get ready for call-back interviews (these are interviews that take place in the law firms that are a follow-up to the on-campus interviews).
Important 2009 OCI Dates
July: July 1: July 15: July 22: August 5: August 5 - 6 August: August 17: Schedule a mock interview with the Office of Career Services Students Begin Registering and Bidding on Employers Bidding ends Check Symplicity for cancelled bids Interview schedules available for viewing in Symplicity Cancellation Period Interviewing Tips 3L Student Panel Discussion OCI interviews begin
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