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OCI Nuts and Bolts / Tutorial Notes
Last week the CDO released four video tutorials walking you through the OCI bidding process. This blog post is mostly text\par
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INTRODUCTION / FOUNDATIONAL INFORMATION\par \par Remember that On-Campus Interviews are just one tool for you to use to find employment. If OCI does not work for you, we want to work with you and encourage you to meet with us ASAP to create a job search strategy. Please do not wait until the spring quarter or Spring OCI! \par \par Remember that we will have two fall OCI sessions this year. Session 1: August 18-22 and Session 2: October 6-10.\par \par Session I bidding/applying: August 4 through 11:59 pm on August 5. For those of you in Scotland, please remember that is 11:59 pm CST. This deadline will not be extended for any reason.\par \par You will bid for interviews, upload documents, and schedule interviews through Symplicity. \par \par All of you have a Symplicity account and should know how to log in. As a reminder, you can access Symplicity through the CDO’s homepage.\par \par You should log into Symplicity and upload all requested documents as soon as possible. Please let Monica Wright know if you have any problems logging in. Please do not create a new account! \par \par Thee area few tabs in Symplicity you will need to be comfortable with using for oci.\par \par •Homepage\par \par •Profile page: Before you bid, you will need to update your class year. Everyone should be listed as a 2L, unless you are seeking post-graduate opportunities, when you should list yourself as a 3L.\par \par •Documents tab – This is where you will upload and manage all documents for OCI and for other job postings (see Documents Tutorial).\par \par •OCI tab\par \par Within the OCI tab note the Sessions Dropdown Menu, and you should see:\par \par •2014 Fall Direct Contact Program\par \par •2014 Fall Resume Collection Session One\par \par •2014 Fall On-Campus Interviews Session One\par \par You'll also see the Session Two options which, for now you don't need to be concerned with.\par \par If your class year is listed correctly in your profile, you should be able to see employers listed below (roughly 50 for 2L, 11 for 3L). \par \par If you are selected to interview by an employer to whom you bid, you are REQUIRED to interview. Please research each employer before bidding for interviews. While we encourage you to bid broadly and to use as many of your bids as possible, please restrict your bids to those, based on your research, in which you have a strong interest.\par \par If you plan to apply to employers, especially large firms, not participating in Baylor’s OCI, you should apply to these employers at the same time that you bid for Baylor on-campus interviews. Large firms will have recruitment information on their websites about how to apply; please refer also to the spreadsheet Daniel is sending out with specific large firm information.\par \par EMPLOYER RESEARCH\par \par Researching employers is a critical piece to getting the most out of your OCI experience. This tutorial discusses pre-bidding employer research. \par \par First, check the employer’s interview date and make sure you’re available on that day.\par \par After confirming that, click on “review.” In this screen is the majority of the employer’s information you’ll need. \par \par Employers may display any selected practice areas, the office (note not the firm) size, as well as the dates of their summer program. \par \par The options are 1st half summer (typically mid-May through June), 2nd half summer (typically July 1 through mid-August), no restriction or other. If the employer selects other, they should state the details of their program in the “Other” text box below.\par \par In the “Employer's Schedule” table, you can see when they will be on campus, which office(s) they are interviewing for, any additional requests they have from applicants and their hiring criteria.\par \par What most of you want to see the most is Hiring Criteria. As a reminder: if a criterion is required, there’s no wiggle room (e.g. Top 31% student cannot apply for Top 30% required position). If it’s preferred, there is some reasonable wiggle room. We provided detailed information for you in your yellow/pink sheet.\par \par You'll also be able to see which document the employer is requesting/requiring. Only the documents being requested will appear (and prior to the bidding you’ll see “not selected” next to each one. Don’t get confused; that’s just how Symplicity labels them prior to the bidding window being open. It’s saying you, the student, have not yet selected a document to submit to that employer. You’ll of course do that once the bidding window is open).\par \par We strongly encourage you to have every commonly requested document (resume, cover letter, transcript and writing sample) ready to go prior to bidding. Angela has a separate tutorial on OCI documents that I highly recommend you view before the bid dates.\par \par Below the requested documents is the employer’s contact information. This is for your use in cover letters and thank you notes only. You are not to submit application materials directly to the contact person listed. All application documents are to be submitted through Symplicity, as described in the OCI Bidding Tutorial.\par \par To make your research a little easier, the CDO created a spreadsheet with links to OCI firm websites and NALP forms for those who are NALP members. You will find it in the Related Resources window on the far right-hand side of the page: Titled “2014 OCI Employer Information.” \par \par That's everything for pre-bidding employer research. I'll have more to say on this topic as you prepare for your interviews.\par \par UPLOADING DOCUMENTS INTO SYMPLICITY\par \par Please note that all required application materials for OCI must be uploaded in Symplicity BEFORE you bid on August 4 and 5.\par \par Here are a few notes about each type of document you might need for OCI before moving on to Symplicity.\par \par Resumes: Most of you have your final resume approved in Symplicity. If you do not have a resume uploaded in Symplicity, it must be uploaded and approved by August 2. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to verify that you have an approved, updated resume in Symplicity before you bid.\par \par Please also remember that, for your resume, you are required to use the class rank found in BearWeb, not the approximate class rank found on the Baylor Law website. \par \par Cover letters: You will upload your cover letter in the documents section in Symplicity. Cover letters should be tailored for each employer based on your research. \par \par Please note that even if an employer includes a contact name and address for the cover letter, you will still submit your cover letter through Symplicity. Do not send your materials directly to the employer (if OCI or Resume Collection Session; Direct Contact Session Employers (currently just two) will request you send materials directly).\par \par You do not need to sign your cover letter and scan it into Symplicity. \par \par If an employer has not requested a cover letter, they do not want a cover letter. Please do not send a letter directly to them. It is important to show that you can follow application instructions.\par \par Transcripts – There are two ways to get a copy of your unofficial transcript to upload in Symplicity: One is to scan in and upload an unofficial transcript (which you get from the Tower). The other is cut and paste” the transcript information from your BearWeb account into a Word document (you may also want to convert to PDF prior to upload). \par \par Writing samples – Your writing sample should be approximately five pages in length, unless otherwise noted by the employer. If your writing sample is longer than five pages, you can choose a portion of the writing sample to submit. In that case, you will want to provide a short introduction to give the employer some context.\par \par If you have legal writing samples other than a first-year memo, I encourage you to use it. If not, a memo will be fine.\par \par If you plan to use a writing sample from work performed for an employer this summer, please remember to get approval from your employer. You may need to redact confidential information.\par \par Also, it goes without saying, that your writing sample must be entirely your own work. If you plan to submit your appellate brief, you may only submit the sections you authored. \par \par Adding documents to Symplicity is simple. Go to the documents tab in Symplicity. Scroll down to “add new.” Add a name for your document in the label field. \par \par Please include your first and last name when saving documents and when naming documents in Symplicity. For cover letters, include the name of the firm in the title of the document so that you will not get confused during bidding. You do not want to send the wrong cover letter to the wrong firm!\par \par Select the type of document you are uploading, and browse your computer for the appropriate file. Then, hit submit. If you upload a Word document, Symplicity will convert it to a PDF for you (though we encourage you to double-check the formatting to make sure it looks right/good).\par \par You can upload several different versions of your resume and cover letters if you would like. The only type of document that requires approval before you bid is your resume. If you want to use more than one version of your resume, both versions must be approved. Again, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to verify that you have an approved, updated resume in Symplicity by August 2. At the top of the documents page, you will see an approved documents tab and a pending documents tab. Your resume will stay in “pending documents” until Angela approves it.\par \par Again, it is your responsibility to upload all documents before bidding begins on August 4. You are strongly encouraged you not to wait until the last minute.\par \par BIDDING (A.K.A. APPLYING)\par \par During the bid dates (Aug 4-5): \par \par 1)\tab You will go to the OCI tab in Symplicity to bid. \par 2)\tab Click “Review” next to the employer you wish to bid for.\par 3)\tab On the right-hand side where you previously saw a list of required documents, you’ll now see drop-down menus next to each. You’ll also see a “Bid/Application” drop-down menu. Click on that and select the number 1 (The only number you need to be concerned with is 20, as that is your last allowable bid). \par 4)\tab Go into each document (e.g. resume) and select which document from your document library you wish to submit. For cover letters you’ll want to locate the employer specific cover letter in the drop-down and select it.\par 5)\tab If applicable, enter the preferred location into the text box labeled as such.\par 6)\tab Select the “Apply” button. You’ve now bid for that employer.\par 7)\tab You can now go into the next employer’s “Review” page, and in the “Bid/Application” drop-down select “2”, select the appropriate documents, and hit “Apply.”\par 8)\tab Continue this process until you have used all of your 20 bids (or as many up to 20 as you wish, though we encourage you to use them all).\par \par Note: You are able to make changes to your bids any time during the bidding window (which ends at 11:59pm August 5th.) After that no bidding changes are allowed. You may, however, make changes to your documents (e.g. new grade comes in and you want to update your transcript) after bidding has closed. Contact us for more details.\par \par Note: You might notice an exclamation mark within an orange triangle noting something called “No Multiple Interviews.” For the most part, you can ignore this. This is for employers who have, or are interviewing for, more than one office location. If they indicate “no multiple interviews,” it simply means that you must select one office location with which to interview, or in the case of an employer only listing one office, you’re interviewing for that office only.\par \par Note: you will use the same process for Session Two BUT there is NO bid limit. You can bid to all Session Two on-campus interview employers if you would like. Bid dates for Session Two are: September 22 to 11:59 pm September 23.\par \par Note: Occasionally employers not participating in OCI will post a job in the Job Posting section of Symplicity for a 2L summer clerkship. I've highlighted one example below. Please check the job postings regularly for these opportunities.\par \par That is everything for the OCI bidding tutorials. Again please contact us if you have any questions.\par \par Connect with Daniel at Daniel_Hare@Baylor.edu and/or @BaylorLawDaniel on Twitter.\par \par Job of the Week: Each week I highlight a job in Symplicity you might be interested in but may have missed. This week's job is: Summer Associate at Arnold & Porter in Houston (2L) Log in to Symplicity to view this job and apply. \par ]]>\par
INTRODUCTION / FOUNDATIONAL INFORMATION\par \par Remember that On-Campus Interviews are just one tool for you to use to find employment. If OCI does not work for you, we want to work with you and encourage you to meet with us ASAP to create a job search strategy. Please do not wait until the spring quarter or Spring OCI! \par \par Remember that we will have two fall OCI sessions this year. Session 1: August 18-22 and Session 2: October 6-10.\par \par Session I bidding/applying: August 4 through 11:59 pm on August 5. For those of you in Scotland, please remember that is 11:59 pm CST. This deadline will not be extended for any reason.\par \par You will bid for interviews, upload documents, and schedule interviews through Symplicity. \par \par All of you have a Symplicity account and should know how to log in. As a reminder, you can access Symplicity through the CDO’s homepage.\par \par You should log into Symplicity and upload all requested documents as soon as possible. Please let Monica Wright know if you have any problems logging in. Please do not create a new account! \par \par Thee area few tabs in Symplicity you will need to be comfortable with using for oci.\par \par •Homepage\par \par •Profile page: Before you bid, you will need to update your class year. Everyone should be listed as a 2L, unless you are seeking post-graduate opportunities, when you should list yourself as a 3L.\par \par •Documents tab – This is where you will upload and manage all documents for OCI and for other job postings (see Documents Tutorial).\par \par •OCI tab\par \par Within the OCI tab note the Sessions Dropdown Menu, and you should see:\par \par •2014 Fall Direct Contact Program\par \par •2014 Fall Resume Collection Session One\par \par •2014 Fall On-Campus Interviews Session One\par \par You'll also see the Session Two options which, for now you don't need to be concerned with.\par \par If your class year is listed correctly in your profile, you should be able to see employers listed below (roughly 50 for 2L, 11 for 3L). \par \par If you are selected to interview by an employer to whom you bid, you are REQUIRED to interview. Please research each employer before bidding for interviews. While we encourage you to bid broadly and to use as many of your bids as possible, please restrict your bids to those, based on your research, in which you have a strong interest.\par \par If you plan to apply to employers, especially large firms, not participating in Baylor’s OCI, you should apply to these employers at the same time that you bid for Baylor on-campus interviews. Large firms will have recruitment information on their websites about how to apply; please refer also to the spreadsheet Daniel is sending out with specific large firm information.\par \par EMPLOYER RESEARCH\par \par Researching employers is a critical piece to getting the most out of your OCI experience. This tutorial discusses pre-bidding employer research. \par \par First, check the employer’s interview date and make sure you’re available on that day.\par \par After confirming that, click on “review.” In this screen is the majority of the employer’s information you’ll need. \par \par Employers may display any selected practice areas, the office (note not the firm) size, as well as the dates of their summer program. \par \par The options are 1st half summer (typically mid-May through June), 2nd half summer (typically July 1 through mid-August), no restriction or other. If the employer selects other, they should state the details of their program in the “Other” text box below.\par \par In the “Employer's Schedule” table, you can see when they will be on campus, which office(s) they are interviewing for, any additional requests they have from applicants and their hiring criteria.\par \par What most of you want to see the most is Hiring Criteria. As a reminder: if a criterion is required, there’s no wiggle room (e.g. Top 31% student cannot apply for Top 30% required position). If it’s preferred, there is some reasonable wiggle room. We provided detailed information for you in your yellow/pink sheet.\par \par You'll also be able to see which document the employer is requesting/requiring. Only the documents being requested will appear (and prior to the bidding you’ll see “not selected” next to each one. Don’t get confused; that’s just how Symplicity labels them prior to the bidding window being open. It’s saying you, the student, have not yet selected a document to submit to that employer. You’ll of course do that once the bidding window is open).\par \par We strongly encourage you to have every commonly requested document (resume, cover letter, transcript and writing sample) ready to go prior to bidding. Angela has a separate tutorial on OCI documents that I highly recommend you view before the bid dates.\par \par Below the requested documents is the employer’s contact information. This is for your use in cover letters and thank you notes only. You are not to submit application materials directly to the contact person listed. All application documents are to be submitted through Symplicity, as described in the OCI Bidding Tutorial.\par \par To make your research a little easier, the CDO created a spreadsheet with links to OCI firm websites and NALP forms for those who are NALP members. You will find it in the Related Resources window on the far right-hand side of the page: Titled “2014 OCI Employer Information.” \par \par That's everything for pre-bidding employer research. I'll have more to say on this topic as you prepare for your interviews.\par \par UPLOADING DOCUMENTS INTO SYMPLICITY\par \par Please note that all required application materials for OCI must be uploaded in Symplicity BEFORE you bid on August 4 and 5.\par \par Here are a few notes about each type of document you might need for OCI before moving on to Symplicity.\par \par Resumes: Most of you have your final resume approved in Symplicity. If you do not have a resume uploaded in Symplicity, it must be uploaded and approved by August 2. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to verify that you have an approved, updated resume in Symplicity before you bid.\par \par Please also remember that, for your resume, you are required to use the class rank found in BearWeb, not the approximate class rank found on the Baylor Law website. \par \par Cover letters: You will upload your cover letter in the documents section in Symplicity. Cover letters should be tailored for each employer based on your research. \par \par Please note that even if an employer includes a contact name and address for the cover letter, you will still submit your cover letter through Symplicity. Do not send your materials directly to the employer (if OCI or Resume Collection Session; Direct Contact Session Employers (currently just two) will request you send materials directly).\par \par You do not need to sign your cover letter and scan it into Symplicity. \par \par If an employer has not requested a cover letter, they do not want a cover letter. Please do not send a letter directly to them. It is important to show that you can follow application instructions.\par \par Transcripts – There are two ways to get a copy of your unofficial transcript to upload in Symplicity: One is to scan in and upload an unofficial transcript (which you get from the Tower). The other is cut and paste” the transcript information from your BearWeb account into a Word document (you may also want to convert to PDF prior to upload). \par \par Writing samples – Your writing sample should be approximately five pages in length, unless otherwise noted by the employer. If your writing sample is longer than five pages, you can choose a portion of the writing sample to submit. In that case, you will want to provide a short introduction to give the employer some context.\par \par If you have legal writing samples other than a first-year memo, I encourage you to use it. If not, a memo will be fine.\par \par If you plan to use a writing sample from work performed for an employer this summer, please remember to get approval from your employer. You may need to redact confidential information.\par \par Also, it goes without saying, that your writing sample must be entirely your own work. If you plan to submit your appellate brief, you may only submit the sections you authored. \par \par Adding documents to Symplicity is simple. Go to the documents tab in Symplicity. Scroll down to “add new.” Add a name for your document in the label field. \par \par Please include your first and last name when saving documents and when naming documents in Symplicity. For cover letters, include the name of the firm in the title of the document so that you will not get confused during bidding. You do not want to send the wrong cover letter to the wrong firm!\par \par Select the type of document you are uploading, and browse your computer for the appropriate file. Then, hit submit. If you upload a Word document, Symplicity will convert it to a PDF for you (though we encourage you to double-check the formatting to make sure it looks right/good).\par \par You can upload several different versions of your resume and cover letters if you would like. The only type of document that requires approval before you bid is your resume. If you want to use more than one version of your resume, both versions must be approved. Again, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to verify that you have an approved, updated resume in Symplicity by August 2. At the top of the documents page, you will see an approved documents tab and a pending documents tab. Your resume will stay in “pending documents” until Angela approves it.\par \par Again, it is your responsibility to upload all documents before bidding begins on August 4. You are strongly encouraged you not to wait until the last minute.\par \par BIDDING (A.K.A. APPLYING)\par \par During the bid dates (Aug 4-5): \par \par 1)\tab You will go to the OCI tab in Symplicity to bid. \par 2)\tab Click “Review” next to the employer you wish to bid for.\par 3)\tab On the right-hand side where you previously saw a list of required documents, you’ll now see drop-down menus next to each. You’ll also see a “Bid/Application” drop-down menu. Click on that and select the number 1 (The only number you need to be concerned with is 20, as that is your last allowable bid). \par 4)\tab Go into each document (e.g. resume) and select which document from your document library you wish to submit. For cover letters you’ll want to locate the employer specific cover letter in the drop-down and select it.\par 5)\tab If applicable, enter the preferred location into the text box labeled as such.\par 6)\tab Select the “Apply” button. You’ve now bid for that employer.\par 7)\tab You can now go into the next employer’s “Review” page, and in the “Bid/Application” drop-down select “2”, select the appropriate documents, and hit “Apply.”\par 8)\tab Continue this process until you have used all of your 20 bids (or as many up to 20 as you wish, though we encourage you to use them all).\par \par Note: You are able to make changes to your bids any time during the bidding window (which ends at 11:59pm August 5th.) After that no bidding changes are allowed. You may, however, make changes to your documents (e.g. new grade comes in and you want to update your transcript) after bidding has closed. Contact us for more details.\par \par Note: You might notice an exclamation mark within an orange triangle noting something called “No Multiple Interviews.” For the most part, you can ignore this. This is for employers who have, or are interviewing for, more than one office location. If they indicate “no multiple interviews,” it simply means that you must select one office location with which to interview, or in the case of an employer only listing one office, you’re interviewing for that office only.\par \par Note: you will use the same process for Session Two BUT there is NO bid limit. You can bid to all Session Two on-campus interview employers if you would like. Bid dates for Session Two are: September 22 to 11:59 pm September 23.\par \par Note: Occasionally employers not participating in OCI will post a job in the Job Posting section of Symplicity for a 2L summer clerkship. I've highlighted one example below. Please check the job postings regularly for these opportunities.\par \par That is everything for the OCI bidding tutorials. Again please contact us if you have any questions.\par \par Connect with Daniel at Daniel_Hare@Baylor.edu and/or @BaylorLawDaniel on Twitter.\par \par Job of the Week: Each week I highlight a job in Symplicity you might be interested in but may have missed. This week's job is: Summer Associate at Arnold & Porter in Houston (2L) Log in to Symplicity to view this job and apply. \par ]]>\par