Oci orientation powerpoint_fall2011

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello. Welcome to the On-Campus Interview Orientation. During this presentation we will go over what is OCI, the types of employers that participate in OCI, how to view the participating employers and apply. We will also cover Resume Referrals and how to apply. If you have any questions, please email me at rmarsey@law.fsu.edu
• #3: What is the On-Campus Interview program? During the Fall and Spring semesters, employers visit the law school to conduct interviews. Students can obtain summer and permanent positions as a result of OCI interviews. To participate in OCI, you must have an active Symplicity account to view and apply to the participating employers. At anytime you have difficulty logging in to symplicity, or you cannot remember your username and password, please contact the Placement Office and we can assist you with resetting your account.
• #4: Most of the OCI interviews are short, typically 20 minute interviews, that are what we call a “pre-screen” interview. Interviewing attorneys use these interviews to determine those students they wish to bring back for a more in-depth “call back” interview. Call back interviews can last several hours and are usually at the employer’s office. Students that go on call back interviews should be prepared for a lengthy interview process, including meeting with several attorneys in the office.
• #5: While OCI is typically the most visible recruiting program, it is not the only way to a summer position. Nationally, about 20-25% of students receive offers through OCI. At any time you wish to discuss your job search please visit the Placement Office and we can assist you with other job search ideas. In addition, during the fall semester the Placement Office will also hold a workshop on how to find a job outside of the OCI process.
• #6: When making your summer travel plans, please be aware that the Fall On-Campus Interviews will being on August 15 th . This is two weeks before the classes start. Typically, the larger employers tend to recruit as early as possible. Interview dates will vary, according to dates that are most convenient for the employer. The deadlines for application for employers are two weeks prior to the interview date, putting the first deadlines as early as August 1. Again, please be mindful of this when making summer plans. If you are away because of school, work, or any other reason, and there is an employer you wish to apply to, but you will not be available for the interview, please contact the Placement Office so we can determine the best way for you to reach out to these employers outside of the OCI process.
• #7: What employers participate in OCI? During the fall, typically the larger law firms come to recruit for summer associate positions. These firms know well in advance if they will have the need and resources to support a summer clerk or a new associate position for the following summer. Specifically these firms target students entering their second year of law school. These firms do tend to set higher academic standards and will often list a required or preferred class rank / or GPA hiring criteria. If you do want to work for a large firm, you must participate in OCI as most firms hire from summer associate positions. Later in the presentation I will discuss the hiring criteria in more detail.
• #8: The Spring On-Campus Interview program tends to attract the medium to smaller firms as well as government employers. Most of the spring firms that interview are looking to fill entry-level positions. Unlike the fall OCI program, the spring is often more geared toward 3L students. We do, however, have employers that come and wish to interview 1L and 2L students for summer positions that were not filled through the Fall OCI process.
• #9: Some of the typical larger firms that recruit at FSU during the Fall OCI are Carlton Fields, Baker Hostetler,
• #10: Gunster, White & Case.
• #11: Gray Robinson and Holland & Knight to name a few. Many of these firms have hired students to fill summer associate positions as a result of the On-Campus Interview program.
• #12: How do I view a list of participating employers? Under the OCI tab in Symplicity, you will see a list of participating employers. However, you will ONLY see those employers that are interviewing for your class year.
• #13: In order for students to view the complete list of participating employers, the Placement Office will send out a weekly e-mail with a complete list of all the participating employers along with the class year the employer is recruiting, the interview date, and the application deadline. If you see an employer on this list that is not recruiting for your class year, but you are very interested in this particular employer, please contact the Placement Office and we can provide you with the contact information so you may reach out on your own. On a side note, we do encourage students to use any connections that you have with the firms coming to recruit. A prime example. Last year a student used his connection with an attorney in the firm, and the recruiter added this student to the interview schedule. Here the personal connection the student had with the attorney resulted in an interview, but sometimes, connections can be made with the information that appears on the resume. For example, another student played baseball in his undergraduate program. While it may seem trivial to have this information on a resume, it actually worked to the students advantage. The recruiter’s son played baseball and because of this, the recruiter took an active interest in the student’s resume and ultimately the student was selected for an interview.
• #14: Prior to applying for any position, whether it is through OCI or via a job posting, it is always important to research the employer. The information obtained through your research can be used to write a more convincing and targeted cover letter and resume. A valuable resource, particularly for the large firms that recruit through OCI is the NALP Employer Directory. Here you will obtain a great amount of information about the firm.
• #15: Other resources for researching employers include the firm web site. Also determine if the firm has a Facebook or LinkedIn presence. Martindale.com as well as WestLaw and Lexis are a great way to research the firm, as well as any big cases the interviewing attorneys or the firm has handled or is currently working on. We also highly encourage you to reach out to any faculty, alumni placement mentors, students, and contacts that you may have. On numerous occasions the Placement Office has helped to connect students that have previously worked in the firm as a clerk. The information obtained through student contacts and alumni is invaluable and can provide you with the nuances of the firm otherwise you would not obtain through other research.
• #16: Earlier I mentioned that the large firms that come for OCI typically have more stringent academic requirements. When reviewing the criteria for each employer you will see either a “Required” or a “Preferred” criteria. For those firms that place a requirement on GPA or class rank, we ask that you respect this, and do NOT apply to this employer if you do not meet the specific “Required” criteria. While many firms do have academic requirements, only about 30% of the employers that come for OCI have a GPA or class rank required criteria. For any firm whose required criteria you do not meet, but you want to apply to this firm, please contact the Placement Office so we can provide you with the contact information and you can reach out to the employer outside of the OCI process.
• #17: If the firm or employer lists a “preferred” criteria, I encourage you to submit your resume even if you do not meet this criteria. Often times when an employer lists “preferred” there are other experiences you may have listed on the resume that the employer may find valuable. It is not always about the grades.
• #18: One of the common questions asked by students is related to a lack of legal experience on the resume. At this stage in your career, it is very common for you to have very little or no legal experience. If this is the case, for previous employment or leadership positions, in any of your duties, try to highlight any transferable skills. Transferable skills are key skills that can transfer from various careers and positions. For example, if the legal industry, some key transferable skills are writing, research, leadership, and communication to name a few. If at anytime you have had these experiences, highlight these on your resume. While grades can be important to a large firm, it may also be relevant to highlight any undergraduate academic achievements. If you have questions on how to highlight any of these skill sets or achievements on your resume, you may make an appointment with the Placement Office to have your resume reviewed. In addition, the Placement Office will provide an online presentation, such as this one, that is specifically geared toward preparing your resume for OCI.
• #19: In addition to the OCI Recruiting program, many employers take advantage of our Resume Referral program. Firms that wish to recruit Florida State University students, but are unable to travel to Tallahassee for interviews will often recruit through our Resume Referral program. These positions are found under the Jobs & Resume Referral tab in Symplicity. I will provide detailed instructions on how to apply to resume referrals later in the presentation. At the end of the application deadline, our office will send the employer all of the application materials. At that point the employer will follow-up directly with the student to schedule an interview. Typically interviews will be phone interviews, or they could take place at the employers location. If you do receive a phone interview as a result of a resume referral, we highly suggest you conduct the telephone interview on a land line. If you do not have access to a landline, you may contact the Placement Office and we will arrange for a private room and landline for you to use for the interview. In addition, our office is happy to coordinate video conference interviews. Should the employer wish to conduct a video conference interview, please contact the Placement Office so we can make the necessary arrangements.
• #21: Some important things to know prior to applying and participating in OCI include. #1 – Research the employer! This extremely important as many employers limit their OCI interviews. If you are not interested in the employer, you may be taking away an opportunity from someone that would like to work for that employer. In addition, in regards to ethics and job offers, you should only apply to those firms that you wish to work for. #2-A Records Request can be submitted to the Registrar’s office to obtain an unofficial transcript and GPA/class rank information used for application in the OCI process. Simply click on the link contained in this presentation to access the records request. Hard copies are also available in the Admissions / Records office. #3-Please do not use transcripts obtained through Blackboard. The transcripts for the law school and GPA are in a 100-point scale and this is what employers expect to see. Blackboard transcripts are in a 4.0 scale used by main campus. #4-Please take advantage of the Placement Office to update your resume for OCI. #5-It is important to carefully review and become familiar with the No Show Policy prior to participating in OCI. One of the most important items to remember is if you apply to the OCI employer, you are agreeing to accept an invitation to interview with that employer. If you are selected for an interview, you are REQUIRED to sign-up for an interview time as soon as possible. I will review how to sign up for an interview time later in the presentation. #6 – Again, please research and prepare for the interview.
• #22: #7 – Please check with the Placement Office prior your interview to ensure the room location has not changed. You should plan on arriving for your interview a few minutes early. #8 – Please come prepared with questions for the interviewer. #9- Send a thank you note to the people you interviewed with. Thank you notes should be handwritten, or if you have poor handwriting, a typed note will be fine. Use a conservative thank you card and nothing that is cutesy, flowery, or does not present a professional image. If you are writing a thank you note to multiple interviewers, tailor each one and say something unique – do not simply write the same note for each employer. #10-Please let the Placement Office know if you receive a call back interview. We are here to help you prepare and can also help get you in touch with any student that may have clerked for the firm in the past. #11- Again, if you are interested in any of the employers that are not recruiting for your class year, or you do not meet the required criteria, please contact me in the Placement Office and I can provide the contact information for the employer. #12-Please let the Placement Office know if you accept an offer and if you have oustanding interview commitments. We are here to help you best navigate the situation.
• #23: During this portion of the presentation I will walk you through applying for the OCI employers. In addition to this presentation, a hard copy user guide is available on the OCI section of the Placement web site and in the document library section of Symplicity.
• #24: In order to participate in OCI you must be able to log on to Symplicity. Please contact the Placement Office at 850.644.4495 if you are unable to log on to your account. Second, you will need to have an updated resume and other required documents, typically a writing sample and unofficial transcript. Third, please be mindful of the interview dates and the application deadlines. We cannot forward late materials to the employer.
• #25: To log on, please go to symplicity.com/students. Your username will be your email address.
• #26: From your home page, we see the main tabs on the navigation bar. The areas we will focus on will be the profile, documents and OCI tabs.
• #27: Once you click on the profile tab, you will see the following screen. Here you will be asked to submit your practice area, please select at least one. If you do not know, this is fine. Geographic preferences will NOT limit your employer or search. Please select those areas you are most interested in working. You only have to pick one. You will be required to complete this information before applying for any OCI or searching for jobs. In order to save the changes, you must click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the screen.
• #28: The second tab is the documents tab. Here is where you will add your resume, transcript, cover letters, and writing sample required by employers. To add a new document, simply click the Add New button.
• #29: You will be taken to the following screen. Here you will label the document you are uploading. Please be mindful of the titles that you give to documents. Employers can see titles, and you also want to ensure you upload the correct resume when applying to a specific employer. Make sure to identify the type of document, Resume, Cover Letter, Writing sample, or other document. Other documents can be references or a specific document requested by the employer. Browse to find the file on your computer. To complete, you must click the submit button at the bottom of the page. It is important to note that Symplicity has a maximum file size for each document. Anything above 250 MB will not upload and you will need to reduce the file size. If you have any issues uploading documents, please contact the Placement Office.
• #30: Here you see a list of documents that have been uploaded. The Document Title column will show the name you have given to each document, the document type column is the type of document. Notice one item, resume, is in bold. The bold indicates this is the “default” resume. The default resume will be the first option you see when applying to employers. I would like to reiterate that any transcripts uploaded in the system should be your unofficial law school transcripts and not the transcripts obtained from blackboard.
• #31: To view the OCI employers, the hiring requirements, and documents requested, click on the OCI tab at the top of your homepage. You will come to the on-campus interviewing screen. To make sure you are viewing he correct session, select the appropriate session from the Session menu. The table below will list the employers,
• #32: The submission deadline and the interview date. To view details for each firm click the review button for more information. To apply, simply select the apply button.
• #33: When you click review, this screen will appear. Here you will see the hiring criteria. Notice this is where you will see a “required” or “preferred” hiring criteria. Toward the right of the screen you will see the application materials requested by this employer. Select the necessary documents by click on the appropriate box and selecting from your uploaded documents. In order to complete the application process, you will need to submit the “apply” button.
• #34: Once you have successfully applied for an OCI employer, you will see a “withdrawal” button under the bidding / application column. You are able to modify your application up until the submission deadline listed. All deadlines occur at 11:59 pm on the date indicated. Please remember, simply applying for an OCI does not guarantee you an interview.
• #35: Once you have applied you will see several different notifications. Although you will see these notifications in Symplicity, please ONLY rely on an email from me regarding whether or not you were selected for an interview. You will see the “Not Invited” status if you have not been selected for an interview, but also if the employer has not made the interview selections within a specific number of days of the interview. When you are selected for an interview, you will receive an email from me and your status will change to a “Accept Preselect” When you get this notification you will select an interview time. Our next slide will cover how to select an interview time. Once you have successfully signed up for an interview time, your status will change to “Preselect Accepted”. The “Pending” status is displayed once the deadline has passed and the employer has not selected the candidates to interview. Again, please only rely on emails from regarding your interview status. I will send a Congratulations email or an email simply letting you know you were not selected.
• #36: To accept an interview time, you will click on the “Accept Preselect” status. This screen will appear. Here you can confirm the interview date, the location of the interviews. Please note the room location will not necessarily be displayed here. As a reminder, please come to the Placement Office a few minutes prior to your interview time to confirm the room location. From this screen you will select the interview time that best works for your schedule. You must click the Signup button at the bottom of the screen to complete the process. Interview times are selected on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any issues selecting an interview time or conflict arises, please contact me immediately so I can assist.
• #37: At any time you may login to your Symplicity account and review your interview times. You will see the date of the interview, the name of the firm, the interview time, and finally, the room location. Again, please confirm the room location at the Placement Office the day of the interview.
• #38: In this section we will review how to apply for Resume Referrals in Symplicity. A hard copy user guide is also available online under the OCI section of the Placement web site and in the document library section of Symplicity.
• #39: Resume referrals will also be advertised in the weekly OCI email at the bottom of the OCI calendar. To view the resume referrals in Symplicity, you will click the Jobs and resume referral tab at the top of the screen. This will bring up the screen that you see here, the job postings screen. To view only the resume referrals, select resume referral from the position time and click search. If you do not click search, the positions will not appear. The active resume referrals will appear below as you can see here. To view more about this position simply click on the apply button.
• #40: You will come to this screen where you can view details about the posting. To apply for a resume referral, click the apply button on the right hand of the screen.
• #41: A pop up box will appear over the job information and you will see the required documents. Notice that a resume already appears in the resume box. This is your default resume. If you wish to use a different resume you may click on the drop down arrow or you can select add new to upload a new resume. Under the Other documents section you can view, and submit the other required documents. To complete the application process, you must click the submit button.
• #42: Once you have sucessufully applied, the Applied button will be green and have a check mark. Once you upload your documents for a resume referral, unlike OCI, you will not be able to remove and modify your documents prior to the application deadline. If you need to update or you have possibly uploaded an incorrect document, please contact me and I can assist by remove your application and you can reapply.
• #43: Thank you for taking the time to review this OCI Orientation. We wish you the best of luck during OCI and as always, the Placement Office is here to assist with resume preparation, interviewing questions, and any other job search questions you may have.