Part 3: The Callback Interview and "Who Did
You Meet With Today?"
In
most cases, the third
and final stage of the interview process is the callback interview to
the firm's office. The general, yet ignorant, thinking of most law
students at this stage is that once you have been offered a callback,
the offer is all but guaranteed. Like most general theories in this
arena, I would dispute this. In fact, a candidate normally meets a lot
more people in the callback interview than they do in the initial
screening interview.
With this in mind, it is
important to have your
Tiger Woods A game on your callback. If you are coming in from out of
town, most firms will fly you in the night before and put you up at a
nice hotel in town. Although typically this is an all-expenses paid
trip, be mindful of the fact that firms, even if they tell you
otherwise, do care if you empty the mini-bar or order filet mignon for
breakfast.
First and foremost, be sure to
be on-time or a
couple of minutes early for your interview. If you show up late, you
will end up wasting the time of people at the firm, and time is money.
You will usually first meet with one of the recruiting coordinators of
the firm. Do not make the mistake of blowing them off or acting
condescending to a recruiting coordinator or any other staff member of
the firm. Recruiting coordinators have a lot more influence than you
would think, and if you are rude to a staff member then, trust me, they
will be sure and let a decision maker know about it immediately and/or
remember it years later if you happen to become an associate at the
firm. After chit-chatting with the recruiting coordinator, you will
generally go through five or six interviews. Most of these will be with
one or two attorneys and you will find that you are answering the same
questions over and over again. As I mentioned in Part 2 above, resist
the temptation to give canned responses, and remember the General Rule.
Engage your interviewer in some form of conversation that will set you
apart. I remember one callback interview where all I did was sit in a
partner's office and talk about stocks I like. Seems odd, but he
remembered that conversation nearly a year later when I clerked and
told me how refreshing it was to not to hear the same crap from me.
Would he have remembered this if I told him about my upcoming moot
court competition? Not likely. In sum, you need to be able to quickly
analyze your interviewer's personality and then adjust accordingly. As
stated in Part 2, I recommend sending a quick thank you email to each
interviewer afterwards, as typically, their comments on you are due a
day or so after the interview has been completed.
In addition to these five or six
interviews, many
firms will have a couple of attorneys take you out to dinner the night
before and/or for lunch after your interviews. Do not be mistaken,
these
lunches and dinners are not because the attorneys need a free meal and
having nothing better to do. Instead, I would equate these meals to an
"informal secret interview" and it was shocking to me
how many
candidates weren't bright enough to pick up on this part of the game.
Although you are not sitting in some attorney's office, you are being
tested on how you can interact socially. I have had people tell me some
of the most unbelievable things in these interviews, so be mindful of
what you say. Additionally, and although I think this is the most
obvious point, don't order the most expensive thing on the menu unless
the attorneys insist that you do. I am quite confident that people have
lost offers over something as stupid as ordering a $35 steak and
lobster special at lunch. You don't have to eat your napkin, but you do
have to use your common sense. Another thing that inevitably happens at
the post-interview meals is that one of the lawyers asks, "Who did you
interview with today?"
From my experience, every lawyer
who meets a
candidate is given a list of other attorneys in the firm that the
candidate is interviewing with. This means either that the lawyer (i)
was too lazy to read his or her sheet (which is the most likely
scenario) or (ii) is trying to make you sweat. If you are good with
names, then do your best to regurgitate the list. If you aren't, it is
completely understandable, especially after you have been through 25
interviews, to not remember everyone you met with that day. My advice
is to bring the lawyer list that most firms give you when you arrive
for your interview with you to the post-interview meal. Make a
preemptive strike by asking question about something on the list before
you are asked. This may sound like overkill, but I was blindsided by
some old crotchety partner when I was on a lunch interview and the
partner was not impressed that I couldn't remember the six people I had
just met with. Interestingly enough, this was the only firm out of
twelve that I went on callback interview with where I did not receive
an offer, or for that matter, any response at all, not even a flush
letter. Once you are through with your interview, the time it takes to
hear from the firm will vary. I actually received one offer at the end
of my on-campus interview (which I later declined because that was just
weird), but this is
extremely uncommon. A lot of the timing depends on where
the firm is
in the interview cycle. If you are one of the first people to
come in
for a callback it may be a few weeks, whereas if you are one of the
last, it may be a day or two.
