Skip to main content

Interview Answer 8

Legal Interview Question 8 (with answer) - Why do you want to leave your current firm?

There is no answer to this question that will result in a positive response - there has to be a negative unfortunately!

The aim with all job interviews is to ensure that everything that is said is positive. If you say something negative, this always gives the interviewer something to come back on. Unfortunately this question does not leave much scope for avoiding this - a response like "I have come as far as I feel the firm can take me" is about as wishy washy an answer you can give and avoid the negative effects of a lot of other responses.

Saying something like "because my senior partner is the most irritating man I have ever met" will not go down well, nor will "I want to leave to avoid the harrassment of the secretaries". Very hard to avoid anything really, but think about it from the firm you are joining - the partners interviewing will immediately look into the future and imagine you going to another firm and complaining about them...!

Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online at www.ten-percent.co.uk/register.htm
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi

I have written a few articles in this area so was drawn to have a look at your 'interview questions series' when I spotted it on Louise's blog links page. Great idea, by the way, I may have to borrow it and break my articles up into a series of blogs.

Anyway, back to the reason for the comment:

I think that there is an almost right answer which is to say that you are not really looking and happy where you are but this job caught your attention and you were compelled to apply, esp since this is a company you have always considered would be great to work for... Clearly you cannot say this is you have been applying anywhere and everywhere for months (since it is likely this will be known) but it does emphasis the pull factor (attracted by the opportunity) rather than the push factor (what to leave where you are).
7 March 2007 at 12:11
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Overpaid Charity CEOs - top 40 of high paid employees - updated 2022

In 2014, we wrote an article about high pay in the charity sector after the Charity Commission started to require all charities to disclose pay of senior executives earning more than £60,000.    We have updated the list for 2022, with a comparison chart so you can see the difference between 2014 and 2022. We have included the source of the most recent salary levels and the year refers to the accounts year we extracted the salary information from.   2022 Top 40 Chart of High Paying Charities Charity Highest salary Year Consumers’ Association £390k-£400k 2020 MSI Reproductive Choices £240k-£250k 2020 Save the Children International £285k-£300k 2020 Cancer Research UK £240k-£250k 2020 The British Red Cross Society £170k-£180k 2020 Age UK £180k-£190k 202...
25 comments
Read more

Is it possible to work as a Paralegal when you are a Qualified Solicitor

  This question comes up all the time and is quite a common query that we imagine the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are getting better at answering due to the sheer number of people asking the question. Many years ago the advice seemed a bit varied at times, but we have recently had a candidate who wanted to work in a locum role in the short term and waiting to go back on the Roll and get a practising certificate after some time spent outside the profession. She has been given fairly concise advice on whether she could work as a paralegal whilst waiting to be readmitted which we are repeating here. This article is written as a discussion point and is not intended to be advice in any shape or form. For full advice on your particular set of circumstances please speak to the SRA (or whoever else you like, but please do not depend on the information in this article!). The SRA have a simple online test to determine if you need a practising certificate and th...
Post a Comment
Read more

What questions are asked in an Investors in People Assessment?

Recently Ten Percent Legal Recruitment was assessed for the investor in people accreditation. We worked very hard on this and spent some time as a company ensuring that all our procedures and policies were in place and that our staff were aware of the various requirements of the Investor in People process. We wondered how the assessment would go and also what the questions were likely to be during the interviews. The assessor was very friendly and explained from the outset what she was wanting to do and we were already aware that we would have thirty minute interviews with the directors and managers and twenty minute interviews with the staff. We also had the Investors in People programme so we were able to look and see what the actual questions would be based on, but there was nowhere to indicate what questions would be asked in the investor in people assessments. So if this helps anyone else, here are the questions we were asked in our investors in people accreditation: The assessor ...
Read more