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September 17, 2003
Thank You for Taking the Time to Not Interview Me
Two of the fifteen rejection letters posted on my bedroom wall are from firms/offices that never even interviewed me. In both cases, I dropped of a resume with the firm's recruiter during OCI, letting them know I was interested in the firm, but hadn't received an interview through the lottery process. One firm sent a rejection thanking me for stopping by, but telling me that unfortunately due to the high number of qualified applicants.... you get the picture.
The other firm takes the cake though. They sent me the same rejection letter they sent to everyone who interviewed. Before they got to the point ("unfortunately, due to the high number of qualified applicants..."), they thanked me for taking the time to interview and told me how nice it was to meet me. I'm glad I make such an impression!
On a related note, here's something which may interest anyone who has not yet completed OCI. I did manage to get two additional interviews just by dropping off resumes with interviewers and recruiters throughout the week. One attorney took my resume and asked me to hang on while she looked over her schedule. She found a break and penciled me in for later that afternoon. Another firm called me after reviewing the resume I dropped off with their recruiter. Sadly, neither resulted in a callback, but at least it got me somewhere. Showing initiative and interest can do nothing but help you.
Posted by buddha at September 17, 2003 10:09 AM
Comments
Ding letters are a pain, I have quite a nice pile spread over my table. I talked to a friend who works for a firm in NY and has to interview applicants through OCI all the time, he said that half the time the people that get a call back are those that drop names or act as though they know someone at the firm. I tried it at a couple interviews (e-mailed people that had worked there) and actually got call backs from almost every firm where I "knew" someone.
Good luck to you.
Posted by: Anonymous at September 18, 2003 03:20 AM
The only firm where I had a name to drop -- and an associate going out of his way to tell the hiring committee about me -- dinged me.
Posted by: buddha at September 18, 2003 11:42 AM
Good call on the "drop in" advice. I ended up having lunch with the recruiter, so instead of 20 minutes I got almost 2 hours of face time.
(Of course, I have yet to hear back - but I'm going to groove on the victory of just scoring the first round.)
Posted by: girlie at September 18, 2003 07:53 PM
Yeah, the drop-off-a-resume trick is really a good idea if you don't get a firm you want in the lottery. I even got a couple of firms to give me a callback based on that and a resume, without bothering with a screening interview.
On the rejection front, I got a rejection from a firm that had cancelled its DC summer program. I heard this, stopped by the interview (which I had scheduled during Early Interview Week) and politely told the recruiter that I wasn't interested in the other offices they were still interviewing for. The next week I got a form "thank you for your interest" rejection, signed by that very interviewer!
Posted by: Another Georgetown 2L at September 25, 2003 06:05 PM
I'm fairly sure I know the firm. Which makes me wonder if I know you and we talked about this the morning of that interview. Amusing.
The tide of rejections seems to have slowed for now (there aren't that many more available!)
Posted by: buddha at September 25, 2003 07:17 PM