What to ask at Q&A panels?

[Y]

For open day Q&A panels, does anyone have any questions that they find helpful to ask/look impressive?

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

For open day Q&A panels, does anyone have any questions that they find helpful to ask/look impressive?

Don’t try to impress....

just ask genuine questions you want the answer to that cannot be found out from their marketing materials (website/brochure).

You also need to think carefully about who is on the panel and whether they are the right/suitable person to answer your questions (eg don’t ask a trainee/associate/partner questions about technical questions about the recruitment process).

 

[Alice G]

For open day Q&A panels, does anyone have any questions that they find helpful to ask/look impressive?

Yeah honestly this isn't the approach to take. I have sat in the audience of panel discussions where partners have had to ask a candidate to explain what they mean/give context and background as they have tried so hard to 'impress' and use technical jargon that the lawyers did not grasp what was being said or asked.

Go in with genuine and authentic questions. Don't ask what the firm specialises in maybe as this is easy to Google and seek for yourself, but try to ask all the things you care about which are not so easy. For instance, what is the firm doing to advance mental health awareness? How does mentoring at the firm manifest? What has been the most challenging and rewarding aspect of your career to date?

Just take the opportunity to seek the answers which you cannot glean online and try to maybe frame questions which will help you collate evidence for your app to that firm too

 

[D]

I echo all of the sentiments and comments above. There is nothing worse than someone who asks a question that is clearly intended to "score points" when, as mentioned above, it is doing the opposite.

I had a series of questions that I would want answers to from the firms I was interested in. Some were personal, some were generic. Often, your generic questions are asked by others so you can wait to see what is pertinent to ask. But! As mentioned above, there's no point asking a question that can be cleared up online. If I had a deeply personal question and I felt it inappropriate to ask a panel, I'd simply wait until the next stage of the networking event (usually when the panel hit the floor) and ask then.