I thought, for kicks, that you'd like to see what I write down about firms after I see them, so that I can remember them later for decision-making purposes. This is what I wrote after seeing a firm I wasn't too enthused about:

PEOPLE MET
- Interviewer #1: 2nd year banking associate, expecting baby in winter. 1 year and 1 week at firm. Low point was last Friday, when his office mate gave him stuff from a closing and said everything was fine but he ended up staying until 1 am to finish. On up side, he didn’t work over the weekend. He gets in probably one weekend day without work and has only once worked overnight and worked the next day too (til 6 am and then back at noon). Said the finance group had good training. Said that partners were asked to leave last year bc they weren’t making enough money. Mighty Big Firm has a “complex” about profits per partner not being comparable to Other Mighty Big Firms. There are no billable hours requirements – you hope you’re the guy who’s billing 1800 and not 2400. Typically leave around 8 pm, get in at 9:30. Recommended doing the max # of groups during the summer: 3. They insist on you taking your vacation – he’s taken 15 days out of 4 weeks in the first year. Nervous and very precise.
- Interviewer #2: Partner. Seemed affable enough. We talked a lot about tax and estates.
- Interviewer #3: retired but still working. An odd, but charming old bird. Made me pick which business card I liked better. Trying to get pro bono work counted as billable hours. In a roundabout way, said that the “part of the capitalist engine that makes the world go round” justification was BS. Which it is.
- Interviewer #4: partner in tax. Jacket was too big on him. The toughest of them. Felt like he was reserving judgment on me, but also that he took an ironic approach to the whole interview thing.
- Interviewer #5: 3rd (?) year associate, just got own office. Very nice, sharply dressed, said he knew some people who’d gone abroad.

OVERALL IMPRESSION
Partners seemed affable enough, and the associates were both really nice. But all white male interviewers? And sharing offices? I think probably not.