Strengths based interviews

[Demna87]

Hi everyone,

I have a telephone interview coming up which is strengths based. I've only just got my head around competency interviews and the STAR format so I'm at a loss with this one. Has anyone had a strengths based assessment and is able to share some tips? Specifically with how to format an answer?

Equally, does anyone have any tips for a telephone interview?

Thanks!

 

[Abstruser]

Hey there! I recently did my first telephone interview so here are a few tips I would offer on telephone interviews more generally:

• Use a pair of earphones with a built in microphone! This is probably really obvious, but by leaving your hands free you can silently flick through notes while the interviewer is asking you questions.
• Prepare some notes. I personally typed out bullet point answers on a Word document, highlighted headings, and silently scrolled through the document as the interview progressed. This is more discreet than flipping a paper which your interviewer may hear! However, you should be careful not to read your notes out mechanically - try to use them as prompts.
• Common questions. Some really common questions are 'why law', 'why X firm', and something about teamwork, eg 'tell me a time you worked with a difficult team member'. You might also get asked about your greatest strength or weakness. Remember also to prepare a couple of questions you might want to ask at the end of the interview - I was a bit sidelined by this at the end of my interview, but I simply asked about the structure of the future assessment day.
• Have your application printed out. I didn't do this, and kind of wish I did. My interviewer asked me about my secondary education and all of my work experience starting from first year of university, and it was actually a bit tricky to remember everything I had mentioned in those sections off the top of my head!
• Practise speaking out loud. You have more of a chance to control your tone of speech in a telephone interview because the person isn't actually facing you, so practice speaking out loud in a measured, clear voice, so your interviewer can hear you well.

Regarding structuring answers, STAR is generally the way to go when giving example-type answers (ie competency questions), but I'm not so sure what you mean by strengths-based questions!

 

[Salma]

Hi everyone,

I have a telephone interview coming up which is strengths based. I've only just got my head around competency interviews and the STAR format so I'm at a loss with this one. Has anyone had a strengths based assessment and is able to share some tips? Specifically with how to format an answer?

Equally, does anyone have any tips for a telephone interview?

Thanks!

Hey @Demna87, during the live session on Friday, Rachael will be discussing how she prepared for her Reed Smith strength based interview

Please do join us if you can

 

[Oliver Gilliland]

Hi everyone,

I have a telephone interview coming up which is strengths based. I've only just got my head around competency interviews and the STAR format so I'm at a loss with this one. Has anyone had a strengths based assessment and is able to share some tips? Specifically with how to format an answer?

Equally, does anyone have any tips for a telephone interview?

Thanks!

Think this provides a good summary on how to prepare/what to expect

https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/interview-tips/strength-based-interviews

But I would also say the STAR approach would work equally well with strength based interviews. Although from personal experience I find the answers tend to be a little shorter due to the nature of the questions.

 

[Oliver Gilliland]

Hi everyone,

I have a telephone interview coming up which is strengths based. I've only just got my head around competency interviews and the STAR format so I'm at a loss with this one. Has anyone had a strengths based assessment and is able to share some tips? Specifically with how to format an answer?

Equally, does anyone have any tips for a telephone interview?

Thanks!

Theres also some forum posts around the more tricky strength based interview questions such as 'biggest weakness' you might want to take a look at.

 

[Demna87]

Thanks so much everyone! All of this is really helpful