You must logon to Symplicity on Saturday morning—be logged on before 8:00 am Mountain Time. At 8:00, you will be able to see if you were “preselected” for interviews and the available interview time slots. You should be preared to quickly select intergview tims slots that work best for you. DO NOT WAIT TO LOGIN (even until 8:03)–most time slots gone very quickly. Remember that you will schedule your own interviews on a “first come, first serve” basis. Failing to be prompt might lead to some scheduling headaches. There are 35 employers coming to campus for interviews, many of whom will be here during the week of August 22-26. Most students who plan ahead, logon at exactly 8:00 am, and are aware of their class schedule and the employer schedule, get the schedule that they want.
SO, before Saturday morning, know your class schedule and the dates/times the employers are coming. Do NOT, however enter your class schedule into your calendar in Symplicity – this will cause problems in scheduling interviews. If you have done this, undo it NOW—it will prevent you from taking interview times that bump up against any class, and you will be very, very frustrated. Try not to miss class, but missing a few minutes of class may be unavoidable. If you must miss class, communicate with your professor about the reason for your absence. Please behave like a professional as best you can. We have emailed the professors the dates for Fall OCI.
Although it seems needless to say, if you are selected for an interview, you must take the on-campus interview unless you have already accepted another job. If that happens, let PDO know about the job offer you have accepted and we will withdraw you. You don’t have to take callback interviews (even if you don’t have an offer), but please discuss any concerns you have about an employer with PDO before you decline an interview—you may have incorrect information.
On the other hand, please do not interview with employers if you have accepted an offer and are not planning to split your summer. We will see if the employer would like to fill the spot with another applicant.
Prepare for your interview by researching the employer and reading the biographies of the interviewers. We will continue to update Symplicity with the names of the interviewers as the employers give them to us. You may also want to talk to students in other classes who have clerked with the same employer. For those of you who have attended panels or events where you were able to meet attorneys from an OCI employer, you have a head start.
Please don’t be too discouraged if you didn’t get any interviews, or didn’t get many. It is really a numbers game. Applying was very likely a useful thing to do, since it also allows you to tell employers (in the future) that you truly were interested in them—as evidenced by the fact that you applied to them! Give us a call if you have concerns.