“Work all winter, shine all summer / Ride for your brother / You die for your mother / Keep that sh*t a 100.” — Drake

With the on-campus interviewing (OCI) season right around the corner, I thought this was a perfect time to go into our archives and publish a yin-and-yang type article for this summer’s law firm interviewees.

PART I — OCI FAILS

The first part of this article is taken from a column we published a few years back: 7 Epic Examples Of On-Campus-Interviewing Fails. Here are 5 things you definitely should not do during OCI this summer:

1. Knock-Knock

A 2L knocks on the door of an interview room when it’s his turn. Instead of waiting, he walks right in. The interviewer and the student being interviewed both look up, shocked. The student says to them, “MY turn,” and just stands there. The interviewer, after getting past the initial shock, asks to have a couple of minutes to finish up the first interview. The student looks at his watch, pauses, and says, “Well… I suppose….”

2. The Lunchtime Lush

Student goes out to callback lunch with partners and associates. Waiter comes to the table and approaches the student first.

Waiter: “Can I get you something to drink?”

Student: “Yea, I guess . . . I’ll have . . . a . . . vodka redbull.”

-Rest of table looks at him in shock.-

He, again, says, “I’m just kidding!! . . . I’ll just have a long island.”

-awkward laughter at table-

No offer.

3. The People Person

Interviewer asks inevitable, everyone-is-prepared-for-it question: “What do your consider your weaknesses to be?”

Candidate (stratospheric GPA to offer and little else): “Well, I don’t really like other people very much.”

Job not offered.

4. “Forget it, Jake, it’s Koreatown.”

I was conducting a callback lunch interview in Los Angeles when the interviewee starts talking about how he can’t stand living in Koreatown because Koreans were so rude and also bad drivers.

I said, “Dude, my last name is Kim. You know I’m Korean, right?” After an uncomfortable ending to the lunch I called HR and told them if they gave this kid an offer I was quitting. Needless to say, no offer for this guy.

5. Internationally Confused

I was set on working abroad, so I made sure during OCI that I had interviews set up for every firm that indicated it had a foreign office. London, Paris, Hong Kong.

One firm had listed Vienna as one of its offices, but I was so thick that I didn’t realize that it was Vienna, VA (I’m from the West Coast – who ever heard of Vienna, VA?) Of course, my answer to the question “Why are you interested in our firm?” referenced my belief that I could end up working in Austria. That was sure embarrassing.

PART II — OCI TIPS

The second part of this article is taken from a previous column: OCI Is Around The Corner; How Can Law Students Ace The 20-Minute Interview? which is based on a great series of hiring partner Q&As conducted by Vivia Chen, The Careerist’s chief blogger — to reveal what firms are looking for in summer associates. Here are 5 tips from Biglaw hiring partners to ace the interview process:

1. What impresses you in an interview?

Some of the most memorable interviews have been with people who’ve worked with the Peace Corps or Teach for America or went to graduate school. We’ve had great successes with people for whom law is a second career. — Tom Leatherbury, Vinson & Elkins

2. Can we talk about memorable interview moments–good and bad?

I’d rather focus on the positive. The positive ones are those who know a lot about our firm and show drive and interest. Anyone who realizes this is a service business gets a lot of points. — Leigh Ryan, Paul Hastings

3. Ever had a candidate who was great on paper but who blew the interview?

Yes. The ones who were totally unprepared and knew nothing about Skadden. Someone asked us about our T&E practice, which we don’t have. — Steven Glaser, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

4. What turns you off about a candidate during an interview?

If I sense entitlement; if they think they’re better than their colleagues or if they are too focused on themselves. — Gregory Shumaker, Jones Day

5. How do you figure out [the qualities in a potential new hire] in a 20-minute interview?

We engage in substantive conversations. We ask them about their law review notes or their judicial clerkships. You can gauge a lot from how someone explains what they’ve worked on. — Karen Popp, Sidley & Austin

So there you have it: 5 things you definitely should not do and 5 tips to help you succeed during this OCI season. If you are curious about what a summer experience at a law firm is like, the Wall Street Journal’s Sara Randazzo wrote an excellent piece covering this: For Summer Law Interns, The Livin’ Is Easy.

If you’re interested in additional tips for this OCI season, be sure to also check out ATL’s past piece by our Anonymous Recruitment Director: 11 Tips For The Biglaw Interview Day.

As thousands of you are approaching OCI, remember it is much better to be prepared than to be embarrassed. I hope that your interviews go swimmingly. But if for some reason they don’t go as planned, ATL is here for you to share your experiences.

Good luck! And please don’t break a leg during a cocktail reception.

---

Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at [email protected], follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.