#cold-call

[whystudywhenicanmeme]

On the first day of class when a professor asks me how I arrived at my answer

[lawstudentstruggles]

When someone gets cold-called and they admit they haven't done the reading, I'm like

[dimeseo]

[website-leads-blog]

[marketing-werbung]

“Himmel noch mal. Wie konnte dieses Gespräch nur so aus dem Ruder laufen?” Ich bin sicher, Sie kennen das. Mir passiert das immer wieder mal. Besonders ärgere ich mich dann über mich selber, wenn ich so auf diese Art – durch ein zerfahrenes Gespräch – potenzielles Geschäft verliere (oder besser: nicht gewinne).

[lemonadeandotherthings]

"Let's see... Ms. Grossman, is it?"

A few hours ago in contracts class, I heard these dreaded words for the first time: "Well let's see... Ms. Grossman, is it?"

And thus began the first cold-call of my law school career. For those of you not in law school, a cold-call is when you are randomly chosen out of your auditorium-seating class to provide details on one of the cases from the readings. Depending on your professor, this can either be a breeze or a situation more like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaQbC5bgh2s

I started out strong with an easy question- "Who were the parties in this case?" Piece of cake. Nailed it.

But then things got tricky. The Professor follows up with the following: "Great. Now can you please tell me (and then the rest of the question was delivered in what sounded to me like a foreign language)?"

I blink, hesitate for a second, and then respond "What?" in what I was later told was a pretty indignant manner. 150 of my classmates turn to look at me, the Professor misses a beat as he looks at me questioningly. I then realize that I need to provide more information on my confusion lest I look like a moron who can't answer basic questions, so I follow up with "Sorry, I didn't hear that question." The class laughs, letting out the nervous energy that accumulates whenever you're worried that you're about to watch someone bomb a question.

Turns out, it's another basic question, this time giving the name of a German company (hence all the confusing non-English parts) and asking who they are. No problem. 

From there, we spent the next 30 minutes of the class piecing together the case. I was asked questions about the facts of the case, the court's holding, and how and why the Uniform Commercial Code came into play in the decision. Luckily for me, this was a case I understood well. I only stumbled on one question, but after I didn't answer correctly, neither did any of the other 10 people he called on for guesses, so I didn't feel too bad. (On a side note, I still think my answer was correct, but that's another story...)

After class, several people told me that I had done well, and I felt confident that I, at the very least, hadn't totally embarrassed myself. I'm really liking all of my professors so far (which doubles my desire to not look like an idiot in class), and still find the cases and subject material interesting. Plus, now I can say that I've survived my first cold-call (the first real test of law school), and I no longer have to worry about how long my not-getting-called-on streak will last. 

Oh, and for those of you with a burning curiosity (to be honest, probably just my brother who recently graduated from law school himself...) the case I got quizzed on was Harlow & Jones, Inc. v. Advance Steel Co. 

[careerforum]

Is it too late to cold-call for internships right now (May/June)?

No. Your “hit rate” will be lower, but if you target tiny firms it’s never too late to call because they often take on interns year-round.