Before getting to the details of EIW, we just want to remind you all to check the employer details and permitted prerequisites of an employer (e.g., technical background or degree/demonstrated interest in tax/language) before signing yourself into an open slot. If you don’t meet a permitted prerequisite, don’t sign up. If you already did, please cancel it.
As you all know, early interview week begins at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza on Monday, August 4th. Please review your interview schedules on b-Line to ensure that you know the date, time, and room numbers of all your interviews.
Remember to bring copies of your resume, transcript, writing sample and list of references to each one of your interviews. You should also have extra copies for your visits to hospitality suites (see b-Line homepage for a list of hospitality suites/receptions). These suites are commonly staffed by recruiting professionals and/or attorneys from the firm. They are great networking opportunities. Saying hello and introducing yourself (and engaging in casual conversation) in hospitality suites sometimes even leads to an interview if you were otherwise unable get one. If you are on the firm’s schedule (or already interviewed with them), stopping by their hospitality suite is a way of reinforcing a good impression. You can find a continually-updated list of hospitality suites on the b-Line homepage.
WHERE TO GO ON INTERVIEW DAYS
One day before your scheduled interviews, you will receive an email reminder about your upcoming interviews. The room numbers of your interviews will be included in that email, which contains the most up-to-the-minute information about the interview and its specific location. The Hotel sometimes has to make a shift in the interviewer room number assignments since they were originally appeared on your scheduled interview lists on Tuesday, July 29th (and they may need to do so again). The room number in the “day-before” email should govern in the case of any discrepancy. Please make sure you know in which room your interview is being held before you get to the Hotel and try to be there a few minutes in advance of the start time.
When the appointed time arrives, knock on the door (loud enough to be heard) and wait for the interviewer to respond. Interviewers do sometimes run over time, so don’t be surprised if the schedule is running a bit behind, especially if your interview is in the late morning or late afternoon.
We’ve reserved one of the Hotel’s meeting rooms to serve as a student lounge for you to use as a waiting area between interviews. It’s located on the ground floor (walk towards the back of the Hotel and continue down the corridor just to the right of the elevators and into the rear courtyard). The name of the meeting room — Boiler Room A & B — is unfortunate, but it will give you lots of material for bad, tension-relieving puns. The room itself is much nicer than the name would imply and the Hotel tells us wifi is available in it [you’ll find login instructions in the room]. Those of you who participated in the Spring mock interview program will recall this was the room in which the Employer Reception was held.
As a back-up, the schedule of firms interviewing each day, their locations (room numbers), and the interviewer names (if known) will be posted on an easel in the Student Lounge as of about 8:15 am each morning (along with a list of the day’s hospitality suites).
We (CDO staff) will be in the Hotel lobby assisting arriving employers each morning, but there is no need for you to register or otherwise check in with us when you arrive. You are free to go directly to your interview(s) or the Student Lounge.
INTERVIEWER NAMES
It’s not unusual for employers not to know who they are sending to interviews until relatively last minute. We have asked them — as soon as they know — to enter that information into b-Line. If they have done so, you should be able to see them by viewing the interview details (Click on the Scheduled Interviews tab and then on the underlined interview date). Don’t be surprised if they have not done so, or, if you wind up with a different interviewer than the one they’ve indicated because of a last minute substitution. We do track actual interviewer names as they check in on the morning of the interview, and we enter (or revise) them in b-Line by 10:00 am.
BEING FLEXIBLE
There may be last minute employer cancellations or interviewer substitutions. Interview rooms may also be changed. Please check your email frequently (at least once, preferably twice, a day). For these types of messages, we will be using your b-Line Profile email address, so please be sure its up-to-date (especially transfers whose Profiles were created before they had @berkeley addresses). We will give as much advance warning as we can, but please remember we cannot always do so. We know this is a stressful process for you, but we appreciate your being as flexible (and as patient with us) as you can, as we try to accommodate the needs of 200+ employers and 270+ students over the course of more than 5000 interviews.
QUESTIONS
Terry Galligan, along with Marty Grenhart, our Recruitment Programs Manager, and Sarah Cunniff and Kristen Hulse, our private sector attorney-counselors, will be based at the Hotel throughout EIW. We will be suspending our formal appointments and CDO office open hours during EIW week, but, if/when you need us, you will be able to find us either in the Hotel Lobby or in the Student Lounge. If you are not at the Hotel, but need to reach us, we will be in regular email contact. In addition, our office will be open during regular business hours (510-642-4567) and they will know how to reach us. If you encounter a situation during an interview that you feel is inappropriate, please bring it to my attention right away.
CANCELING INTERVIEWS
Remember also that, if you must cancel an interview, you need to do so via b-Line by the cancellation deadline, which is 5:00 p.m. no less than three days prior to the interview date (Go to the Scheduled Interviews page and click on the Cancel button in the far right column). After that, cancellations can only be accepted for emergencies and only by contacting me (do not contact the employer directly or the Hotel Shattuck Plaza).
Unexcused failures to attend will put your remaining interviews at risk.
Remember that you are not free to give away your interview slot to any other student, nor to trade slots. However, in the event of an unforeseen or unexpected conflict, you will be able to seek permission to switch your time slot with any other willing student who is on your same schedule with the same employer (firm and office). Details for how to do this areon the EIW Mechanics webpage.
FIRM DINNERS
As part of their recruiting strategy, some firms invite some (perhaps all) of the students they met during the course of their interviewing day to dinner that same evening.
It is not a very common practice, but if you do get such an invite:
1. You should make every effort to attend if you have any interest at all in the firm (unless, of course, you already accepted a similar invitation with another firm);
2. You should view the dinner as a continuation of your interview (and you will, in fact, continue to be evaluated by them);
3. At the same time, keep in mind they are trying to evaluate you in a social setting, so you do not want to appear like someone who cannot relax in a less formal business setting. Your challenge will be to find a balance between keeping your mind alert and “in interview mode” while not appearing like a “stuffed-shirt.”
4. Be sensitive to the fact that others on a particular employer’s schedule may not have received a dinner invitation.
5. Your attire for the dinner should be at least as formal as your interviewer’s was during the interview (i.e., if they were business casual, you should either stay in your interview suit or, assuming you have time to go home before dinner, change to business casual).
If you have any questions about this practice, or are trying to maneuver between competing invitations, please do not hesitate to ask us for advice.
PROFESSIONALISM
You should maintain a professional demeanor during every moment you are at the Hotel and not just during your actual interviews. Employers will be milling about the Hotel – in the Lobby, the elevators, the hallways (and in their rooms — with the doors open to the hallways — when they are not interviewing) and will have the opportunity to observe you and perhaps (unintentionally) overhear your conversations in the public spaces of the Hotel. Be aware that, on at least 3 of the 5 interview days, an employer’s hospitality suite will be directly adjacent to the Student Lounge (in Boiler Room C).
KEEPING PERSPECTIVE AND BEING SUPPORTIVE
We hope that you will continue to support one another through this process. One of the School’s greatest strengths is the way in which members of our community support one another. EIW can bring out a competitive side in some, which can put a strain on this sense of community. Take it seriously and prepare thoroughly, but remember that getting an offer through EIW does not mean that you are a better person or even that you are more likely to succeed as a legal professional.
If you find you are doing well and getting “call-backs,” that’s great, but please keep in mind that some of the people you may be talking to — or who may be within earshot of you in at the Hotel or elsewhere may be less certain of how they are doing. There are also many of your classmates who have chosen to forego EIW entirely (or who may be interviewing with only one or two employers) because EIW does not fit with their career paths. They may not have their summer job plans finalized until much later. So, please consider the impact of your words on those around you — especially once classes are underway and everyone is together on campus — before you start talking about your EIW results or asking others about theirs.
Best of luck!