Number of In-Firm Interviews Received Associated with Increased Employment Success

Receiving 5 or more invitations and attending 4 or more interviews were independently associated with a 90%+ chance of employment

As 2L students participating in the 2022 Toronto Recruit recover from an exhausting two days of OCIs and turn their minds to in-firm interviews, many may be wondering “What, if any, does the number of in-firm interview invitations tell them about their odds in ultimately finding employment?” While all it takes is one in-firm interview to secure a position, data from Ultra Vires’ 2021 Toronto Recruit Survey suggests that more in-firm interview invitations correlate with higher odds of securing employment.

As the table below illustrates, students who received a greater number of in-firm interview invitations were more likely to secure employment (defined as at least one offer). In last year’s recruit, more than 90% of students who received five or more in-firm interviews ultimately secured employment. Logistical regression analysis also revealed that this association was statistically significant (β = 0.7436; p-value = 0.0003). In other words, each additional in-firm invitation is associated with e^0.7436 or 2.1 times higher chance of securing employment. This is unsurprising because candidates who demonstrate stronger interview abilities may be more successful during OCIs, which helps them receive more in-firm invitations in which they are successful again. While there is no cause-effect relationship between the number of in-firm invitations a candidate receives and how well they perform during in-firms, candidates tend to perform better if they already demonstrated success at the OCI stage as evidenced by securing a larger number of in-firm invitations. 

Two caveats are in order. First, this data is self-reported so its accuracy is limited. Second, candidates who receive a relatively smaller number of in-firm invitations may still perform better than a student who has more invitations. For example, a student focused on a select number of boutique firms may express interest in a smaller number of firms and therefore receive a fewer number of in-firm invitations, regardless of their interview performance. 

A similar trend is also observed when comparing the number of in-firm interviews a candidate has attended with their odds of success. This association was also statistically significant (β = 0.7529; p-value = 0.0001). In other words, each additional in-firm invitation is associated with e^0.7529 or 2.1 times higher chance of securing employment. The data suggests that more than 90% of students who attended four or more in-firm interviews secured employment. However, similar to above, there are different reasons why a student may attend a lower number of interviews. For example, a student may attend a small number of interviews because they received a limited number of invitations or because they’re more selective in their preferences despite receiving numerous invitations. But when viewed in the aggregate, there is a significant association between the number of interviews attended and ultimate employment.