News and Announcements
EIW Bidding Opens As Does FIP Application Window
EIW and FIP Application Windows
Bidding and Early Interview Week (EIW) employer interviews is now open. It will close on Monday, July 30th, at 5:00 p.m. sharp -- the bids have to be processed and employers have to be given sufficient time to review the resumes of the students on their schedules (which start on Monday, Aug. 6), so there can be no exceptions to, or extensions of, this deadline.
b-Line is also now accepting application materials for employers participating in the first phase of our Fall Semester Interview Program (FIP). The deadline for applying to Phase 1 FIP employers is 5PM on Sunday, August 5th. (The deadline for Phase 2 FIP employers is August 20th).
You can access all of the key EIW/FIP dates via the link to the calendar on the EIW/FIP homepage.
EIW Bidding and Resumes
The maximum number of interviews you can receive as a result of bidding is 20. After the bids are run, you can add yourself into as many open interview slots as you want. In the past, students have averaged more than 20 interviews (bids and open slots combined) during the on-campus interview process.
For 2Ls who want to insure that they receive the maximum of 20, you should probably submit bids for something approaching 60-70 employers. Bidding on more would be excessive for a 2L in our experience.
3Ls -- the generally small number of designated 3L interview slots, which had gotten even smaller as a result of the Great Recession, has not increased much since the slow recovery began. It continues to be a tough truth that the expected demand for 3L interview slots combined with the small number of employers actually interviewing 3Ls means that you will, at best, likely receive only a very small number of interviews no matter how many employers you bid on. If you find yourself on the job market -- or unsure of your status -- as of the bidding deadline, you will want to be simultaneously pursuing other job search avenues and not just relying on EIW. You should meet with a CDO counselor to do some strategizing about this.
You do not gain any advantage by submitting your bids early. It's only after all of the bids are in that the b-Line randomizes the order of participating students and begins to process bids according to their rank. However, do not wait until the last minute either. It may take longer than you think and there is always the possibility of unforeseen connectivity problems. You should print a copy of your bids for your records because you won't have access to them once bidding closes.
For more information about the bidding process, visit the Bidding and Bidding Strategy section of the EIW Mechanics webpage.
You should also review the instructions on how to attach a particular version of your resume to a bid (which is required in order for the bid to be effective) – and, perhaps more importantly, how to make changes to a resume that you already attached to a bid (because it’s not that intuitive). You should make sure you understand how to do these things well before the bidding deadline because you will be unable to make any changes after that. These instructions are in the “How Employers Receive Your Resume” section of the EIW Mechanics webpage.
NOTE: If you are looking for all of the procedures, rules, and policies of EIW in a printable, indexed pdf format, follow the link to the 2012 EIW Guide at the bottom of the 2012 EIW/FIP webpage; the Guide is essentially a compilation of all of the content of the EIW Mechanics webpage.
You can find answers to common questions involving topics such as bidding for multiple offices of the same employer, the advisability of splitting, determining a reasonable number of bids, how to handle questions about grades, and lots of other things in our EIW/FIP FAQ.
SUMMER EMPLOYMENT EVALUATIONS
Now that the bidding is "live", you are going to need to complete the brief online summer employer evaluation before you will be able to access the OCI section of b-Line. You are able to view other students’ evaluations (and evaluations from prior years) by clicking on the Summer Evaluations link on the b-Line homepage (under “Career Tools and Advising”).
FLEXIBILITY IN TARGETING EMPLOYERS
Flexibility remains one of our watchwords. If obtaining a summer position with a large law firm is a priority for you, it would be a mistake to bid only on firms/offices in the Bay area. The competition for these positions will be nearly as tough as it was last year. The more geographically flexible you can be, the better your odds. You can also increase your odds of success by pursuing other avenues in addition to EIW. Visit our OCI Alternatives webpage for some ideas.
7/23/2012
