This is an article in a series of articles called Your Ultimate Guide to Law Student Recruitment. Don’t forget to read the previous article here: Law Student Recruitment
Introduction
Now that you know what law student recruitment is, let’s take a deeper look at how the law student recruitment process works. Generally, the Recruit is divided into three phases: the application process, interviews, and call day. Each of these is discussed in turn below.
The Application Process
This is the initial stage of the Recruit. Basically, applications will open at a set date e.g. January 20. It will remain open for about a week or so and then close e.g. January 28. During the time that applications are open, that’s when you can apply to firms that are hiring students and participating in the Recruit. Some firms will require you to apply through a centralized portal that you’ll be given access to (follow the instructions from your law school’s Career Services). Others will want you to apply through their own website or by email so make sure you do your research beforehand!
To apply, you have to submit an application package. This would include your cover letter, resume and law school transcripts. Depending on the firm, they might also want additional materials like reference letters or writing samples.
Although there’s usually a set amount of days when applications are open in the centralized portal, different firms will have different deadlines so be aware of those and submit your applications on time!
Interviews
Once you’ve submitted your application, the next stage of the recruit process is interviews. Interviews will happen during a set number of days, usually for a week. This is often called the “interview week” and interviews have to take place during this week. Firms can’t interview you before then. Depending on your school, your interview dates and times might be set for you or you may be required to schedule them yourself. If you’re scheduling them yourself, firms will call you to request an interview. Although firms can’t interview you outside of interview week, they may call you to request an interview from the time you submit your application up until the day that interviews start. Interviews can last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour during which time you’ll be asked several interview questions. Some interviews are more formal and rigorous than others. It really depends on the firm and who your interviewers are. Some interviews might also be done in stages so you’d have to go back for a second or third or even fourth interview! Again, it depends on the firm.
Call Day
Call Day is also known as Offer Day and it’s the day that everyone is both anticipating and dreading for. It’s when firms begin calling students to offer them a summer or articling position. Call day happens on a specific day at a specific time. Actually, it’s a time range e.g. 8 am to 4 pm. But since most firms are also competing with each other to secure their top choice students, most calls happen at exactly the time that firms are allowed to start calling students (the Law Society sets when firms can contact students and it’s a whole strict process). So if call day starts at 8 am, most calls go out at that time and the whole thing is generally over by 8:30 am. If you didn’t get a call during that time, the chances of you getting one go down significantly. Not to say that getting a call later on is impossible though! It can still happen just not likely. If you get a call on call day, congratulations! You’ve got a summer/articling position. If not, don’t beat yourself up. There will be plenty of other opportunities and you should take this as a win because the Recruit experience in itself is invaluable.
Conclusion
The Recruit process is complicated, especially if you’re new to law school and/or this is your first exposure to job hunting. If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, that’s okay! Just remember that there are three phases to the Recruit: the application process, interviews and call day. Submit your application package on time, show up to your interview prepared, and hope for the best on call day. You will figure everything else out. Good luck!
This is an article in a series of articles called Your Ultimate Guide to Law Student Recruitment.
Next Article: Should I Participate in the Law Student Recruit?
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