Is getting a Big Law job via OCI really that hard?

[newbie99]

I feel like there's so many workshops. mock interviews, zoom panels about this topic - is it really that hard to land a job through OCIs? Why is there so much noise around this?

[Asian Jim]

"Hard" is a relative term. It seems like you are doing the Toronto recruits right now so why don't you let us know on November 9th?

[BlockedQuebecois]

Depending on your school, somewhere between half and one fifth of your classmates will do it. So no, not really. 

There’s noise around it because it’s high stakes. Generally speaking, if you don’t get an OCI job the door shuts for a lot of early career opportunities and employers. If you’re interested in those opportunities (which includes both private practice and a lot of government gigs), missing out on OCIs can be pretty devastating, even if you can work your way up to those opportunities in the long run. 

[QueensDenning]

The "noise" around OCIs is generally because you get ~2X the pay (at least for summer/articling) through OCI jobs than non-OCI jobs (generalization not a rule, but at least from what I've seen this isn't too much of a stretch. Yes some positions outside of OCI's pay the same or potentially more). Also you get access to certain types of work that you generally cannot get if you don't get one of these jobs - at least starting out.

It's "hard" because there are more qualified candidates than positions available. How "hard" it will be depends on how competitive of a candidate you are - ranging from objectively easy to virtually out of reach.

[Turtles]

On 9/26/2022 at 7:12 PM, newbie99 said:

I feel like there's so many workshops. mock interviews, zoom panels about this topic - is it really that hard to land a job through OCIs? Why is there so much noise around this?

Alternative take: law school is full of Type A students who over-analyze and obsess. Most will have come to law school directly from undergrad or other post-secondary education without having entered the job market. Many will have never held employment before or even gone through an interview. In response to the general panic of the cohort, law schools and clubs compensate by providing panels, workshops, practice interviews, etc, ad naseum.

It also makes the CDO's life easier when students land through big recruits rather than needing one-on-one job search support, and school's want to keep their placement numbers high to attract more potential students. 

My advice, just like when it comes to general studying and grades, is to try to drown out the noise. Yes, prepare, but don't let other's insecurities knock you off your own game. There's some idiosyncrasies to the OCI process (e.g., first choice language, signaling, interview time spots) but at the end of the day it's a glorified job interview process. Do what you need to prepare.

[123]

1 hour ago, Turtles said:

Many will have never held employment before or even gone through an interview

Is this true? I don’t recall knowing anyone who had never worked prior to law school, but maybe that’s just my friends or cohort. 

[Turtles]

7 minutes ago, realpseudonym said:

Is this true? I don’t recall knowing anyone who had never worked prior to law school, but maybe that’s just my friends or cohort. 

Among my younger friends who did the undergrad right to law school route, fairly common. Obviously affluence can play a role. 

[BlockedQuebecois]

Even the affluent folks I knew in law school still had some work experience, and every law student resume I've seen (which is neither a huge nor insignificant number) has work experience on it. Everyone in my associate class at my firm had pre-law work experience, as well.

There might have been one or two people I knew whose only pre-law work experience involved working at their family business, and therefore they likely never went through an interview. But even then, I wouldn't be so hubristic to declare they'd never held employment before – a lot of folks I know who worked for their family business worked incredibly hard. 

When I was in law school there was definitely a trope about how K-JD's had never worked a day in their lives, but in my experience those people, if they existed, were an extreme minority. 

All anecdotal, of course. 

Edited September 28, 2022 by BlockedQuebecois