When was your Allen & Overy interview?
February 2018
What was it for?
Training contract
Please describe the interview process at Allen & Overy.
The assessment centre is split into two interviews - the first is a case study, then a competency interview. Before the case study, you're given half an hour to read through a huge number of documents, and to prepare answers to a number of questions. You then present your findings to the partner for the first 15 minutes of the interview, and then they'll probe and ask further questions.
The second interview felt very structured - it was clear there was a list of questions prepared, and it was very much so back and forth. The second interview was pretty standard and easy to prepare for, but the first was a lot more challenging because it's quite unusual and extremely (extremely!) time pressured.
What advice would you give to future applicants for the Allen & Overy interview?
For the case study, you don't have time to read anything properly, only to skim read. Try to prepare before hand by reading a number of articles in a set amount of time and summarising what they said after skim reading them. I think this would help prepare for you thinking clearly and organising your thoughts under pressure.
For the competency interview, prepare model answers and practice them with friends or family, or to yourself in front of the mirror so that you know what you'd say. But definitely don't memorise them - it's a structured interview but you want to make your delivery as natural and conversational as possible. Also, prepare questions to ask at the end of both because my interviews had quite a lot of time at the end for both.
