As you are making your way back to campus, I wanted to give you another heads up that bidding on interviews with employers coming during the first half of OCIP (Phase I) opens one week from today (8/13) and closes at 5PM on the second day of classes, August 18th.
THE BIDDING PROCESS
You do not gain any advantage by submitting your bids early. It’s only after all of the bids are in that the b-Line randomizes the order of participating students and begins to process bids according to their rank.
However, the process of submitting your bids may take longer than you think (and you may encounter unexpected computer glitches or internet access difficulties), so we recommend that you do not wait until the last minute. Once the processing of the bids has begun, there is no reversing it, so no extensions to the deadline can be granted.
Also, just a reminder that once bidding goes “live”, you are going to need to complete a brief online summer employer evaluation before you will be able to access the OCI section of b-Line.
The maximum number of interviews a student can receive as a result of bidding is 10 for each phase. After the bids are run, you can add yourself into as many open interview slots as you want (see the OCIP Bidding and Bidding Strategy Section of the OCIP Details webpage for details).
In the past, students have averaged 20-25 OCIP interviews (for both Phases combined).
One of the watchwords for this year is flexibility. If obtaining a summer position with a large law firm is a priority for you, it would be a mistake to bid only on firms/offices in the Bay area. The competition for these positions will be tougher than ever — we are estimating that there will be at least 50% fewer callback offers extended this year — the more geographically flexible you can be, the better your odds.
For 2Ls who want to insure that they receive the maximum of 10, you should probably submit bids for something approaching 35-40 employers. Bidding on more would be excessive for a 2L in our experience.
3Ls — the generally small number of designated 3L interview slots has gotten even smaller this year. That means that you will need to bid on an even higher number of employers if you want to maximize your chances of receiving interviews through bidding. A tough truth about this year’s OCIP is that the expected higher than ever demand for 3L interview slots combined with the extremely small number of employers actually interviewing 3Ls means that you will likely not obtain the maximum of 10 interviews per phase no matter how many firms you bid on. In fact, the number of successful bids is likely to be quite small. If you find yourself on the job market — or unsure of your status — as of the bidding deadline, you will want to be simultaneously pursuing other job search avenues and not just relying on OCIP. You should meet with a CDO counselor to do some strategizing about this. Also, fyi, we will be presenting a program on August 19th at the lunch hour (place to be determined) to give you an overview of the current legal market for 3L hiring and to highlight some other programs we have planned for 3Ls.
2Ls and 3Ls — you will have to upload your resume on b-Line before you will be permitted to place bids (because you need to attach a version of your resume to each one). This process may take some time, so, again, do not wait until the last minute. Once the bidding is closed, you will not be able to modify resumes for any of the Phase I employers on which you placed bids.
For details on the mechanics of uploading your resume, see the How Employers Receive Your Resume section of the OCIP Details webpage. For some bidding (and ranking) strategy advice, see the OCIP Bidding and Bidding Strategy Section of the OCIP Details webpage.
If you are wondering how bidding works for firms with multiple offices, consult OCIP FAQ No. 10 and the Bidding and Bidding Strategy section of the OCIP Details webpage.
If, after reading through the Fall 2009 OCIP homepage and OCIP Details page, you have any questions about the bidding process, please feel free to contact our Recruiting Manager, Marty Grenhart at mgrenhart@law.berkeley.edu.
ACTION ITEMS
1. Review the Fall 2009 OCIP homepage, OCIP Details, OCIP FAQs as well as all the resources we link to in the OCIP Resources section of the homepage.
2. Calendar the key OCIP dates (see OCIP Calendar link on the OCIP homepage).
3. Complete the b-Line Summer Evaluation Form (required) — please try to take a minute and provide answers to the narrative questions, as these may be the most helpful to your classmates.
4. Before the 8/18 bidding deadline, fill in information about your Class Schedule/Conflicts under the appropriate tab in the OCI section of the b-Line to avoid the scheduling of any interviews during your classes or during your clinic or field placement obligations (and remember to keep this information current in b-Line). (See the Scheduling Conflicts on the OCIP Details webpage for more information.) Instructions for doing so are posted on the left side of the Class Schedule/Conflicts sub-tab of the OCI section of b-Line.
5. Per my 7/30 email, you should pick up your transcripts (no need to order them — an original transcript will be printed out automatically for each student) in Boalt Room 355 between 8/10 and 8/18. You should pick them up sooner rather than later to insure they are correct because, after 8/18, there won’t be sufficient turn around time to make corrections and print revised copies in time for your first interviews.
Keep in mind that OCIP employers are interested in reviewing your transcript essentially for the purpose of determining how well you did in the courses that you have completed. By and large, they are not interested in the classes in which you are enrolling (or have enrolled) for the coming semester. Accordingly, you should not be concerned about going into an OCIP interview with a transcript that may not reflect last-minute changes/additions/deletions in your course enrollment. The key data that must be accurate are your grades.
6. Keep your @berkeley email account under quota, in good working order, and make sure my email address and Marty Grenhart’s (mgrenhart@law.berkeley.edu) can get past your spam-filter. Your @berkeley account is where we will be sending all general OCIP announcements.
7. Also, keep the email address in your b-Line profile up-to-date because that is the place we will send targeted messages that affect your particular OCIP employer schedules.
TWO REMINDERS
1. Remember that the information contained in the OCI Section of the b-Line is the most up-to-date information as to the employers who are coming to OCIP and the class years for which they are interviewing. We’ve had a few cancellations — but, also a several additions — since the spreadsheets that we link to on the Fall 2009 OCIP website were prepared.
2. The Alumni Association’s Spotlight on Leadership event will take place on the evening of August 20th. It provides networking opportunities for students and representatives of law firms whose Boalt alums have demonstrated strong support for the School — and an equally strong interest in recruiting Boalt students.