End of OCI

My OCI season has ended with a modest bang -- yesterday I interviewed with the top choice firm that I wanted to work for on campus - then the same night, I flew to NYC to do my first callback interview, at one of the top5 firms.

My #2 choice firm called me today for a callback visit, but I haven't heard from my top choice firm yet -- it's kind of a long shot for even very good students since they hire so few people, but I really hope I get a callback because I admire them a lot.

My first callback interview today was initially intimidating, but ultimately went well. The firm is located in one of the busiest and most crowded part of town, in a beatiful building. Even I, who don't like New York very much, was impressed in spite of myself.

The firm itself is nice but a bit depressing. I can't quite picture myself there yet. It looked very corporate - people in suits - bare offices - sallow faces of overworked people... Yes, the view of midtown from the windows are of course stunning, but how often will I really be able to enjoy the view?

I interviewed with two associats and two partners - and finally learned what "private equity," "capital structure," and "merger and acquisition" are. Yes, I'm sad, and so NOT fit to do corporate work. The associates who interviewed me seemed a bit reticent and not really warm. They seem to treat the interview very much like a job and so just wanted to get it over with. One of the partners was nice. The other one was so-so.

I'm back in parent's house to visit them for the weekend before they go to China next week.

I'm feeling really pensive about my future today. I love law school, -- I love the people here, I love the intellectual environment, I love the ready accessibility of camaraderie and good conversations. I'm almost heartbroken at having to leave it. I know I won't have to for another year and a half, but I can already feel it. It will just be like leaving my undergraduate institution - being thrown into the cold, harsh world.

I think today, I saw a glimpse of that cold harsh world and imagined myself being inside it, which made me shudder. To be sure, it's a cold, harsh world very attractively packaged, and there could certainly be worse things. But it's still the world, and not the comfortable coccoon that I have been living in for the past year and a half, where I could think to my heart's content about justice and power and how law influences people's behavior and whether economic misses equity concerns. Words like "capital structure," "IPO," and "document review" don't even enter my consciousness.

...Maybe I should give academia some more thoughts?