Legal Recruitment Blog

Interview Question & Answer – Are you able to supply any references and if yes, who? What do you think they would say about you? Firstly the answer to this question always has to be yes, secondly you need to make sure the references on your CV are legally related if at all possible and thirdly you need to explain that they would have nothing but positive things to say about you. There is really no other answer to this question unless you have very specific circumstances that necessitate further explanation. If you have been in employment recently where you will not be able to get a reference because of an acrimonious departure (whether this is any fault of your own or not) you need to be careful in the way you approach this in interview. Very often people get worried about the issue of references and employers get away with murder as a result because employees are frightened that they may not be able to work again due to the lack of a reference. There are always ...

Interview Question & Answer – Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time? This question is a classic example of why you should never give totally honest answers to questions during interviews. Instead you should always give answers that you think the interviewer will want to hear. The honest answer to both this question and the “Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time” question is probably that you intend to retire, work for yourself, set up a different firm or be happily plodding along in a firm trying to avoid doing very much work at all, but where you are being paid a good salary. This is not however what the employer often wants to hear. They want to hear that you would be happy to be working in the post you are currently interviewing for or possibly having done such a good job you are in line for promotion to a different position. This is because when employers recruit they do not see just the first few months or the first few years in their heads, they see the next decad...

Recently a client has passed this question through to us: What do you think will bring about the end of the world? Good question for a whole host of reasons: 1. It is a very good way of finding out strongly held religious or personal beliefs - eg you are person with strongly held environmental beliefs who thinks the human race is going to destroy the planet. 2. Good to see if you can think quickly on your feet. 3. Can weed out anyone overtly pessimistic who will be able to give a lot of detail to it rather than thinking positively. 4. Whether in fact you think the world is going to end or continue quite happily for many years to come. It is a very Human Resources like question! Probably the best line of approach would be to avoid the question altogether and perhaps come up with a response that you see no reason why the end of the world should happen as after all it has been here for many billions of years already... Anyone else got any thoughts? Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online...

"Tell me how you would market our firm if you joined us". No.1 Interview Question for the Recession? Horrible interview questions do not come much worse... I have recently asked this question in a range of interviews for a fairly heavy sales & marketing role and been astonished at the complete lack of ideas that most of the candidates had. It is true that perhaps some people would be wary to give any information for fear of the firm using it without employing them, but so many people do not seem able to grasp the need for sales & marketing at the forefront of most of the job vacancies and interviews currently taking place in the legal profession. We advise candidates to do the following: 1. Have an idea in your mind of possible opportunities and potential techniques for sourcing work. If you have a look through the back articles in the Legal Recruitment online magazine , it will give you some ideas. 2. Offer to produce a mini-business plan if the firm is interested i...

Job interview question – “Tell me something about yourself” This question was recently asked by a company in London and the candidate was slightly flummoxed by it as she did not know what to say or what exactly the interviewer was looking for. Our advice would be to condense your CV into 45 seconds and give the interviewer a potted history of yourself. This will be particularly relevant if the question was asked at the beginning of the interview as this is often when an interviewer has not yet formulated their questions and answers. So for example, if I was answering this question, I would say: “My name is Jonathan Fagan and I am 35 years old. I live in village in North Wales near to Chester and I am married to a GP and have three children aged one year to four years. I have a full driving licence and my educational background is GCSE, A-level then off to university at Salford, Leicester, De Montfort and Newcastle. I have a Masters degree in Law and LLB and the LPC together with variou...

This question was asked by a City firm recently and I have heard of it before on numerous occasions. It requires you to think carefully from a financial side and also to have a good grasp of financial terminology and an understanding of more general concepts that are effecting the financial markets at the time of the interview. If somebody asked me that question, I would have an answer in my head because I think about where to invest £1 million if I ever had it all the time. I think my answer would be as follows: If I suddenly received £1 million, I would immediately put it all in a savings account whilst I considered what to do with the money. I would be looking for at least 4.5 percent and I would start consulting financial advisors as to where would be the best places to invest. My interest would be particularly in looking to invest or purchase companies to expand my businesses rather than simply to invest in products or savings vehicles. I would be particularly interested in invest...

Interview question – Describe a situation where you have been involved in a team and had to overcome a hurdle to achieve your aims. This sort of question is probably every interviewees’ worst question. People who have been interviewed more than once or who have practiced interviews before attending any will have a stock answer ready and prepared for exactly this sort of question whether it be this sort of thing or something along the lines of describing a situation where you have had to achieve a result and overcome problems within the team etcetera. The first thing to say is that you need to think of something that is actually in a team. You must listen to the question carefully because if the question requires you to describe a situation where you have to overcome a hurdle, you also need a hurdle to overcome. One of the main let downs with this question amongst interviewees is that they don’t listen to the question and just he...

Believe it or not this question was asked in a recent Magic Circle firm in London of a student with a first class degree from a new university as opposed to a red brick university. It was in the context of a question about the status of the university and the achievement of gaining a first class degree. The interviewee admitted being very surprised at the question and felt that she may have come across as defensive when she heard it. One of the things that came out of lecturing to students on an LPC course about CVs and interviews was to be prepared for questions like this, as they are regularly thrown into interviews. In fact, I am glad that I have heard about this because I often get queries from students and clients who have used our career coaching service as to why some of the questioning I undertake is quite hostile. There is really no way to prepare yourself for a question like this without being asked critical questions by someone else and practice answering in an non-defensive...

This question is often asked of potential trainee solicitors to see how successful they have been in finding a training contract. It is a very difficult question to answer truthfully, because you can come across so badly with which ever answer you give. Looking at it from the interviewer’s perspective, I think at time the question is asked more to see how you deal with the question rather than what you actual answer is. For example, if you were to say I have applied for over 100 training contracts, this would mean from the interviewer’s perspective you have a scattergun approach and don’t really care which firm you get the training contract with, nor what field of law or what quality of practice you are aiming at. If you were to say, I have applied for five firms that I have carefully chosen from a very long list and you were one of them, the firm will probably not believe you and also think you are a bit lazy perhaps for not considering more applications to more firms. So what is the ...

We recently had a set of written responses to some of our 100 interview questions given to us by one of our candidates, who had used it to enhance her CV. We thought this was a good idea as it meant that firms could see what their responses were going to be to the interview questions before she went to the interview, and one of the answers was particularly interesting and amusing. The question was, where do you see yourself in five years time, and this is a standard question asked quite regularly by firms up and down the UK. She answered, on a beach, sat in a bar being spoon fed olives by a waiter in a g-string. Underneath this she had written, but seriously… etcetera. This made all the consultants laugh, but brings me to a point that we often discuss as consultants is, how much humour should you use in a job application, when is it appropriate and when should you avoid it. If somebody said this to me in an interview, I would probably be relatively amused, it is a funny thing, quite a ...

It has become increasingly fashionable in interviews to ask a question based on current political and economic issues and to see how well an interviewee handles them. Something like climate change is a massive area and usually the interviewee will be thinking in their mind, “Oh my goodness, what an earth am I going to say”. This is where preparation for interviews comes in very handy. On climate change, you may hold very strong opinions which could include dismissing the theory of climate change as exactly that, something with no evidence. It could also be that you are a passionate environmentalist and regularly activating with Greenpeace at weekends, blocking oil pipes, etcetera. It may also be that you hold no opinion at all on the matter, and simply do not ever think about it very much. Regardless of which camp you fall into, you must come up with a structured answer. Perhaps the best way to consider it would be to think about the positives and negatives and try and relate it as muc...

This question is often asked at the start of an interview, whether it is as you walk into the room or as you sit down and take your coat off. It sounds perfectly harmless as a question, and just one to loosen you up, but it can have alternative implications. Some firms will ask whether you found them alright, and others will just ask how your journey was. If you are living some way away from the firm you are going to for interview, it may be a question they want to ask you to ascertain whether or not you are going to struggle to get into work every day without encountering traffic, or difficulties with the travel. This can be particularly so where a firm have indicated to your recruitment consultant that they are looking for someone locally based prepared to work in the area and commit to the area. It is very easy just to say, fine, thank you, when asked this question and usually stops any further conversation on the point. This may be the best way of dealing with it as if you start to...

Interview question “Is that your natural hair colour?” Believe it or not, this question was asked by a firm of solicitors in the South East of England. How do you answer such difficult questions without appearing defensive, angry or simply wanting to throttle the interviewer? Firstly you should think about whether this is actually a firm you want to work for and how you could end the interview effectively and quickly without too much confrontation. However if you think it’s just a momentary blip on the part of the interviewer and you’re very keen on the firm and the post they’re talking about, there are a couple of things you could do to deal with this question. 1. Answer it in a humorous way i.e. perhaps you could suggest my hair is normally pink but I have to dye it green and then black to get it into its current state. 2. Hit the ball back into their court and ask whether they dye their hair and if that’s why they’re wondering what brand you used to dye yours. 3. Ask them if they’re...

Interview Question - activities and interests. A common question in an interview is to ask the interviewee what interests and activities they have outside of work. It is an interesting question, as it tends to throw a lot of people who have spent many years studying followed by many years working. However I have noticed something during my time as a recruitment consultant, which is that those who make it in the profession tend to have something they do out of hours which is interesting or sporting. It is rare to find a lawyer who just does law, reads the paper, and watches football. There is almost always something else there, whether it is playing rugby for a local team, working as a volunteer for a local charity - you name it they do it. My advice to anyone joining the profession is to look for something you do that will make you stand out of the crowd - what about taking up a new sport or hobby, and getting so into it you are able to talk about it passionately? It doesnt have to be ...

Interview Question 12 (with answer) - Would you describe yourself as ambitious? I have to confess I asked someone this once, and he said "oh no, I have never been ambitious - I just want to earn some money", which is an honest enough answer! In fact most employers would love this as in reality this is what they are looking for - a solicitor who is not going to recruit half their clients and set up over the road in a few years time. However as an interviewer I would not recommend this approach - although it is ideal, and I realise that this is very clear and helpful, at the same time it made me wonder about this person's approach to the work - afterall if you have no ambition, would you put as much effort into your work as someone with ambition to succeed? Again, another question with an answer that clearly is v.obvious, but one that may not be as clear cut once you think about it from the employers perspective. I have to concede that an ambitious lawyer may be one to ...

Legal Interview Question 11 (with answer) - what contribution do you make to a team? A cursed question to anyone who has not worked with business speak before. Includes myself I must confess, as I don't understand such words, but realise when I play cricket that it isn't just me trying to bowl out the opposition or bat to a century each match. The same thing applies in law. The reality is that the concept of teamwork is somewhat different in a law firm - the majority of decisions are made at senior level, and although more junior staff are informed that they need to be 'team players', very often the people who make this sort of comment are not at all in any way! The concept of teamwork is usually - if you smile when you make me a cup of tea, you are clearly a team player, but if you glare at me and drop it in my lap and then smile, you clearly lack social skills. The contribution you make to a team must be that you offer up your enthusiasm and skills, and that if you ar...

Legal Interview Question 10 (with answer) - If you did not have to work, what would you do? This is quite an easy question to answer, as to a certain extent it has no hidden agenda, unlike a lot of questions, and does not leave you open to too much cross examination. One thing to be aware of is that if you come up with "I'd travel the world as I have a real interest in travelling and I hope to do this one day for an extended period" type of answer, you may get a very quick response from a partner asking you to clarify your commitment to a legal career. Similarly a response such as "I'd like to be a kissagram or pole dancer" may not go down too well. However something relatively jocular such as "I would buy an island and go and sit on it" would be OK, or "I would like to be a well known philanthropist" would be fine. A question in summary that you can enjoy answering, and not have to think too much about it! Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Perce...

Asking technical questions in a legal job interview As recruitment consultants, we are not sure that this is good practice. Firstly, at an interview a candidate is nervous and slightly wary, secondly partners of law firms are notorious for asking questions that no-one on the interview panel knows or understands, and thirdly the questions tend to be so long that the interviewee has forgotten what the start of the question was before you get to the end! We think the better option is to have a file of work ready, hand it to the interviewee, and ask them what they would do in a particular scenario. You can then keep adding extra tasks or problems as you go on. You can also ask the interviewee to explain particular matters arising from the file, and assess their abilities to interact with clients, handle files, deal with their caseload, and how they deal with a stressful situation. Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, ski...

Legal Interview Question 10 - What is your alternative career, should law not be the avenue for you? This is a loaded question really - on the one hand you can say - well, I don't expect to be anything but a solicitor, and I always get to be what I set out to be, and on the other hand you may feel this smacks of arrogance, and say that you would like to be an accountant, as you are pretty good with numbers. Hard to give a definite response to the question - you could try the humour route, and say you would like to play for Aston Villa or be a rock star, but interviews with lawyers tend to be pretty humourless experiences, and some partners have a very peculiar sense of humour! My best advice is to aim for something fairly vague - to try and avoid giving too much indication that you have thought much about it (ie you think you may fail to get work as a solicitor) and go for either something business related (eg set up a small business) or lighthearted - eg a legal secretary! Jonatha...

Discussing flexible hours or matters related to child care in an interview When interviewing for a job, it is important to see things at all times from the employee's perspective - they will almost certainly be trying to guess what you are wanting, thinking and going to say to them and will want to get certain things confirmed about your firm before they commit themselves. This is particularly so when interviewing candidates who want or may want flexible hours or part time arrangements. The legal profession is notorious for its attitude towards anyone who dares to want to work less than a 40 hour week - and particularly so against women with kids. Some firms almost shy away from the whole idea instead of thinking about the benefits to them of having staff on flexible hours, particularly in small market towns where the Ten-Percent candidate database is not particularly bursting at the seams. I have heard recently of an interview where a partner of the firm indicated to a female cand...