Some thoughts on the fall recruiting season

(Posted by Nancy Rapoport)

For those of you who are 2Ls (or 3Ls, or 4Ls), the fall recruiting season has its highs and lows (as I vaguely remember from my own experiences, mostly lows), and I just wanted to pass along a few thoughts:

1. Most people, at most law schools, don't get their first jobs through OCI. OCI interviews screen for a very small group of people: those in a certain percentage of the class who are good at taking law school exams. Even for this small group of people, getting an interview doesn't meet getting the job--or even being successful at the job if hired. If you're not getting interviews through OCI, don't overstress. Regroup. Think of other ways to make connections with lawyers. Look for Boyd alumni who participated in the same activities that you did. Network like mad. (RELS is a great way to network.)

2. Don't link your self-esteem to your interviewing success (or lack thereof). Law school wreaks havoc on self-esteem anyway, so don't add to the problem by basing your sense of self-worth on whether you get many interviews with big firms. (The secret to success isn't getting the job that's right for someone else. The secret to success is finding the job that's right for you.) And, for many people, large law firm life isn't for them. Large law firms interview during fall OCI. Therefore, the secret for your success may well lie outside OCI.

3. Don't assume that, if you do get lots of interviews during OCI, you're somehow "better than" your peers. I still remember those people who were obnoxious during the Fall 1983 interview season. I didn't like them then, and I wouldn't go out of my way for them now. Considering how many of us have ended in good careers, with lots of opportunities for referrals to colleagues, the way that a person behaved in law school can have decades worth of career ramifications.

4. The factors that have the most effect on workplace success include the ability to communicate well, the ability to analyze well, hard work, the ability to integrate disparate ideas into a coherent plan, and the ability to use emotional intelligence to work well with a variety of people. What doesn't matter as much? Class rank; where one attended college or law school; or how many interviews one chalked up.

In short: treat your colleagues with the same care with which you'd want them to treat you. Years later, they'll still remember whether you were helpful, kind, and fair. Law school is stressful enough without adding destructive behavior to it.