On-Campus Interviewing begins mid-August and ends mid-October.

What is Fall OCI?
Law firms and other legal employers visit law schools nationwide during the fall to interview applicants for employment starting the following summer or fall. Most large law firms do the majority of their hiring of new law graduates this way. Firms hire students the summer between their second and third year, and if the student performs well, firms often make offers to them for full-time employment upon graduation.

What types of employer participate in the fall interview program?

• Large Law Firms: These employers are able to establish their hiring needs a year in advance. Occasionally, a mid-size or small firm will participate. In  general, smaller law firms do not. Instead, they recruit when they need to fill immediate openings.
• Government Agencies: Federal, state and local government agencies recruit for their summer intern programs, graduate honors programs or for entry-level attorney positions.
• Accounting & Consulting Firms: Sometimes accounting firms are interested in law graduates with accounting backgrounds for their tax departments. They are generally interested in third year students.

Who is eligible to participate?
Students who will graduate in 2014 or 2015.

What types of credentials are OCI interviewers seeking?
Generally, employers seek students with a high class rank (top 10-15%) and/or other distinguishing academic credentials such as Law Review or Moot Court. Patent firms want a technical background. Government employers generally seek students who are committed to the work of the agency. Because employers often interview at many campuses across the country, the competition for positions is extremely high.

Why do recruiters interview more second year students than third year students?
Large and mid-size law firms tend to fill most of their first year associate needs from their previous year's summer associate class. Therefore, they focus on hiring second year students to fill future hiring needs.

Can I contact large, non-OCI firms directly?
If you are interested in applying to an employer that is not interviewing on-campus this fall, send a cover letter and resume to that employer in early August. If the recruiter is interested in interviewing you, he/she will contact you directly. You can go to www.nalpdirectory.com and do an advanced search of larger law firms in the city of your choice.

How does OCI work?
Students who with to interview with the OCI employers will need to use Symplicity to review the online list of employers and their hiring criteria and to bid for interviews. Employers will then pre-select the students they wish to interview.

How do I bid on employers?
See the Fall 2013 OCI and Resume Collect Symplicity Registration and Bidding Instructions

Employer hiring criteria:
Employers determine their required or preferred hiring criteria. Know the employers' qualifications before bidding. If an employer requires the top 15% and you are ranked at 16%, unfortunately, you may not bid on that employer. If an employer's hiring criteria are listed as "preferred," this means that the employer will typically hire from within this class rank or just outside it. Students should be realistic in their bidding selections.

How will I know who I received interviews with?
We will inform you via email once personal interview schedules will be available for viewing in Symplicity. Hard copies of interview schedules will not be distributed.

What should I expect when interviewing begins?
Interviews are generally scheduled from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. A few recruiters schedule only half-day schedules. Interviews are usually 20 or 30 minutes long. Evening students will need to report their work schedules in such a way that blocks of time are available for interviews (if you have questions about this, please contact us at law-oci@luc.edu). You must show up for your scheduled interview(s). If you do not show up for an interview, you will risk forfeiting all of your upcoming interviews. If an interview opportunity opens up, we will contact you to make you aware of it.

If I get no interviews through OCI, what should I do?
About 90% of the nation's law graduates, including those who graduate from Loyola, do not get hired through OCI. OCI is just one avenue to legal employment and, depending on your academic credentials, career goals and practice interests, it may not be the appropriate avenue for you. If you are uncertain whether this is a program in which you should participate, or if you would like to evaluate other employment opportunities, please make an appointment to discuss your options with a careeer advisor.

Consider Out of State Employers:
If you are interested in an out of state employer, your cover letter should address why you wish to relocate to that city. Also, these employers will take your request more seriously if you tell them that you plan to visit their city on a certain date and that you would appreciate the opportunity to meet with them while you are in town. Keep in mind that if you want access to information about legal employers in other states, you can often gain  the information by getting reciprocity to another law school career services office. To learn more about reciprocity please visit www.luc.edu/law/career/reciprocity.html.

Cover Letters & Resumes:
It is important that you let one of the counselors in the CSO review your resumes and cover letters. In the past, we have seen several poorly written and inappropriate cover letters after they went out to employers. Keep in mind that you will need to market the experience, skills (research and writing skills) and education you have acquired.

How will the Office of Career Services communicate with me regarding OCI?
You should check your Loyola email daily for communications from our office. We will not call you with changes or updates (this includes interview time changes and additional or canceled interviews).

Fall 2013 OCI & Resume Collect Important Dates

Principles and Standards for Recruitment and Hiring:
The National Association for Law Placement (NALP), of which Loyola is a member, has established principles and standards for recruitment that legal employers, law schools and law students must abide by. These principles were created to ensure fair and ethical hiring practices; they explain the behavior expected of both employers and students during the fall recruitment process and provide "Standards for the Timing of Offers and Decisions." Please review these standards and pay particular attention to the 28 day rule. You may also go to http://www.nalp.org/fulltextofprinciplesandstandards to learn more about NALP's standards.