OCI bidding and interview strategy

OCI means on-campus interviewing, even though the process may be virtual. At schools that use bidding, a bid is how a student expresses interest in interviewing with a particular employer or office.

What OCI Is

OCI means on-campus interviewing. It often does not happen on campus anymore. Interviews now run over video, in hotels, at employer offices, or through school recruiting platforms. Some schools use other names, such as EIP or EIW. The basic idea is the same: the school organizes a recruiting channel, students express interest or submit materials, and employers conduct first-round interviews.

A few terms come up constantly:

• Bid: an expression of interest in interviewing with an employer. Depending on the school, students rank firms, employers preselect students, or a lottery combines both. A bid does not guarantee an interview.
• Screener: the short first-round interview, often with one or two lawyers.
• Callback: the longer final round, usually several separate conversations with attorneys.
• Summer associate: a paid law student working at a firm, usually between 2L and 3L. Many full-time entry-level offers come from the summer class.

OCI is one lane among several. Direct applications, employer-sponsored programs, fellowships, job fairs, and networking can run at the same time. Keep one tracker with the office, application route, contact, status, interview date, follow-up, and deadline for each firm.

Why Bidding Is an Allocation Problem

The word "bidding" makes the process sound like a game. It is really an allocation problem: you have limited interview opportunities and imperfect information, so you need a list that gives you both upside and a reasonable chance of producing actual interviews.

The goal is not to win the most prestigious schedule. The goal is to meet firms you would seriously consider joining.

Start with your school's actual rules

OCI systems vary. A school might use:

• a student lottery;
• employer preselection after resume review;
• ranked student preferences;
• a combination of lottery and preselection; or
• a matching process with school-specific rules.

Some programs guarantee interviews through a lottery. Others let firms select most candidates. Some treat each office separately. Bid limits and deadlines also vary.

Before reading strategy advice, answer these questions from your career office materials:

1. How many bids do you receive?
2. Does bid order matter?
3. Are employers selecting candidates?
4. Are offices separate choices?
5. Can you decline an assigned interview?
6. When are schedules released?
7. What happens to unused interview slots?

A brilliant strategy for another school's system can be useless in yours.

Build the firm list before ranking it

Do not begin with Vault and work downward until you run out of bids. Begin with constraints that affect the job:

• Market: Where are you actually willing to live?
• Office: Does this office do the work that interests you?
• Practice: Are you looking for broad rotation or a specific group?
• Structure: How are summers and juniors assigned?
• Personal reasons: Do you have family, school, work, or community ties?
• Selectivity: How does the office usually recruit from your school?

You may not know your practice area. That is fine. "I want a broad summer in Chicago and would like to test corporate and restructuring" is already more useful than "I want a top firm."

Use the firm directory to compare offices and practices, then read how to tell firms apart.

Use three buckets, but do not worship them

Students often label firms reaches, targets, and likelies. The framework is helpful as long as you remember that law-firm hiring is not a college admissions calculator.

Reaches

These are offices where your grades, school, background, or experience may make an interview or offer less predictable. A reach can still be worth a bid if you have a genuine reason for the firm.

Targets

These are firms where your credentials and interests appear reasonably aligned with past recruiting patterns. Targets should usually form the center of the list.

Likelies

These are firms where you appear comparatively competitive. Do not call them safeties. No BigLaw interview is guaranteed, and office demand can change from year to year.

The point of the buckets is to notice imbalance. If every choice is an aggressive reach in the same market, your list may produce very few interviews. If every choice is conservative and none excites you, you may be wasting access to the program.

Bid the office, not the logo

Students say they are interested in a firm when they usually mean one office of that firm. The New York office may be enormous and transactional. The Washington office may be smaller and regulatory. The summer experience, practices, and hiring needs can differ.

For every bid, write one sentence:

I am bidding on this office because...

If the sentence contains only prestige, culture, or "great work," keep researching.

Account for direct applications

OCI is one channel. If a firm accepts direct applications, you may be able to use OCI bids for offices that are harder to reach outside the school program.

That does not mean direct applying to a firm guarantees the same consideration. It means your bid list and direct-application list should be planned together.

For example:

• Bid on firms that recruit heavily through your school.
• Direct apply to serious targets that do not attend.
• Avoid duplicate submissions if the firm or school prohibits them.
• Track each office and route so you do not accidentally apply twice.

Read how to apply before or outside OCI before turning every unbid firm into an email.

Common mistakes

Ranking only by prestige

Prestige can be one data point. It should not replace market, practice, office, or fit.

Using bids on firms you would not join

An interview is not valuable merely because you can obtain it. If you already know you would decline the offer, the bid has little strategic value.

Ignoring geography

You do not need to have grown up in a city, but you should be able to explain why you want to work there. A coherent market story becomes more important when the office is smaller or the city is outside your obvious background.

Treating below-median grades as a command to give up

Grades affect strategy, not your worth. Broaden firms, offices, application routes, and markets. Look for actual connections and experiences. Keep a few ambitious choices while giving the list enough depth to work.

Asking the internet to predict exact outcomes

Anonymous posters do not know your school's system, the employer's current demand, or the complete application. Use historical information as context, not fate.

A practical final review

Before submitting, check:

• Every bid is an office you would interview with.
• You can explain each market.
• You have a mix of selectivity levels.
• Your list is not accidentally concentrated in one practice.
• You followed the school's rules.
• You identified direct-application targets separately.
• You saved a copy of the final submission.

Then submit and move on. Bidding is important, but it is not improved by staring at the list for another six hours.

Your preparation for the actual conversation matters too. Once schedules arrive, use the OCI interview questions guide and focus on the people in front of you rather than the bids you did not receive.