"They are disappointed because it is expected that you get a summer position through OCI," he said. "And now they are kind of scrambling to find other venues."
Krammer noted that all of his friends who are in the last years of their programs have lined up employment for after graduation, though some will not be taking the Big Law jobs that they envisioned when they enrolled.
Susman Godfrey associate Patrick Bageant went through OCI at UC-Berkeley in fall 2008, just before the balance of power shifted. Firms were still bullish about the market and recruiting large classes. In conversations with partners, the collapse of Lehman Bros. was just an icebreaker, he recalled.
Though Bageant graduated from UC-Berkeley in 2010, he still moderates Nuts & Boalts, a blog where students document their experiences during OCI. He is amazed by how much the process has changed since he went through it. But each year, he sees students wising up to the market.
"There's just as much hand wringing," he said, "but less of a sense of personal rejection if it doesn't work out."
