Ask A Graduate Recruiter Anything!

[CK74]

Hi @Jessica Booker,
For the question "Please tell us what you consider to be your key achievements and interests to date" (300 words), is this literally just asking for the achievements? Or should I bring up the skills I developed through the interests/achievements and link those skills back to why that's good for commercial law? (This is for Baker McKenzie, if it's relevant)
Thank you!

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi @Jessica Booker,
For the question "Please tell us what you consider to be your key achievements and interests to date" (300 words), is this literally just asking for the achievements? Or should I bring up the skills I developed through the interests/achievements and link those skills back to why that's good for commercial law? (This is for Baker McKenzie, if it's relevant)
Thank you!

No need for skills, but it doesn’t just have to be achievements. Your interests are clearly important too given the question.

 

[CK74]

No need for skills, but it doesn’t just have to be achievements. Your interests are clearly important to given the question.

Great, thank you!

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello @Jessica Booker , hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me if "why law" and "why commercial law" the same question, or do these two questions need different answers? Ofcourse while answering "why law", we could also explain "why commercial law" but essentially I just wanted to know if the recruiter is expecting different answers to both these or is it the same?

Thank You.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hello @Jessica Booker , hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me if "why law" and "why commercial law" the same question, or do these two questions need different answers? Ofcourse while answering "why law", we could also explain "why commercial law" but essentially I just wanted to know if the recruiter is expecting different answers to both these or is it the same?

Thank You.

They are different questions, although will have some cross over.

I wouldn't expect a recruiter to ask both of these questions though - it would be likely to be one or the other.

 

[LawGrad19]

Hello Jessica, I hope you are well. I have an interview for a paralegal role at a magic circle firm and they have said that I have to do an assessment but I have no idea what/how to prepare for it? All the email said was that I would need to review/amend documents. I know this is not a typical grad recruiter question but I was wondering if you had any insight at all? Many thanks in advance!

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hello Jessica, I hope you are well. I have an interview for a paralegal role at a magic circle firm and they have said that I have to do an assessment but I have no idea what/how to prepare for it? All the email said was that I would need to review/amend documents. I know this is not a typical grad recruiter question but I was wondering if you had any insight at all? Many thanks in advance!

You can't really prepare for these types of exercises (they are designed that way!). It sounds like a drafting/document review exercise

There is some advice here on things to consider when you get the exercise though (post 3245)

(1) General Discussion Thread 2020-21 | The Corporate Law Academy Forum

 

[djqb]

Hi @Jessica Booker

I'm just wondering whether it would be alright to email GR now asking for an update on the status of the application process, if the firm (Winston & Strawn) said in their application confirmation email that they would get back to us February latest?

They sent out some rejections in mid/late Feb, but there hasn't been any word about applications moving ahead to any candidates. Haven't heard anything from them post-app.

Thank you as always!

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi @Jessica Booker

I'm just wondering whether it would be alright to email GR now asking for an update on the status of the application process, if the firm (Winston & Strawn) said in their application confirmation email that they would get back to us February latest?

They sent out some rejections in mid/late Feb, but there hasn't been any word about applications moving ahead to any candidates. Haven't heard anything from them post-app.

Thank you as always!

Yes - not a problem to contact them given the circumstances.

 

[djqb]

Yes - not a problem to contact them given the circumstances.

Thank you Jessica!

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi @Jessica Booker

I was just wondering how you would advise someone to respond to this scenario as I ended up feeling very confused from this one experience:

At the end of an interview with a law firm, I was asked the usual "Do you have any questions?". I first asked whether the interviewer could tell me more about their time at their previous firms and what they learnt from their experiences before coming to their current firm. Surprisingly, they started using foul language at other firms and went on this monologue about how law firms need to focus on processes. After a productive dialogue where I politely acknowledged the interviewer's comments, I was then asked whether I had another question, so I asked what long-term plans the interviewer had for the local office (they were pretty senior). I was then shot down again and criticised for suggesting that firms had long-term plans. At the end, I just politely acknowledged the interviewer's comments again and tried to portray the whole exchange as a productive one.

I don't have any negative feelings about the interviewer or the whole experience at all; I would just like some advice from someone who has run graduate recruitment initiatives in a professional manner before so that I can learn from this experience.

1. Do my questions seem inappropriate? I genuinely tried to ask something well-thought-out instead of the usual generic questions, so I was rather surprised by the reaction I got.
2. Was it acceptable to conduct myself the way I did, i.e., stay calm and polite towards the interviewer? Should I have been more assertive? Perhaps the interviewer was trying to test emotional intelligence?

Thanks!

You didn't do anything wrong - your questions were appropriate. Sounds like your specific questions just weren't appreciated by one individual - they might be focused on "processes" but I bet someone (or many people) in their firm is concerned about the long term strategy of the firm and would have been better placed to answer that question.

That isn't an appropriate way to assess emotional intelligence. The fact they talked so negatively about the firms they have worked for previously shows more that their own emotional intelligence is lacking (quite common in this profession unfortunately).

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

hello @Jessica Booker hope you are doing well. Could you please answer two questions that I have regarding interviews?

1- Regarding the HR/Grad Rec interview , how much time should answers like "why law", "why this firm" , "tell me about a time when" actually last? My guess is 1 mins 30 secs - 2 mins max per question.

2 -Is it okay if parts of your answers repeat across a few questions? For example, my answer to "why you" will repeat incidents that I had already mentioned in " why commercial law" (this is of course assuming that I will be asked both these questions )

Thank You

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

hello @Jessica Booker hope you are doing well. Could you please answer two questions that I have regarding interviews?

1- Regarding the HR/Grad Rec interview , how much time should answers like "why law", "why this firm" , "tell me about a time when" actually last? My guess is 1 mins 30 secs - 2 mins max per question.

2 -Is it okay if parts of your answers repeat across a few questions? For example, my answer to "why you" will repeat incidents that I had already mentioned in " why commercial law" (this is of course assuming that I will be asked both these questions )

Thank You

I wouldn’t focus on trying to make an answer a certain length. I would focus on making it a well structured answer instead. For one person that could result in a 30 second answer for the next it could be a 3 minute answer.

I wouldn’t repeat detail though. You can reference through phrases like “as I mentioned earlier” but repeating detail in an interview is wasteful.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi Jessica, I am a second year student of a four year degree and I can’t stop feeling scared. I have been rejected from Every single insight scheme I have applied to. Like Linklater’s rejected me from Pathfinders despite scoring 98% on the Watson Glaser. I do think it is my fault for scoring soo low in exams, but can anything make up for poor grades. I was bullied severely throughout year 13 and the first semester of university. These are my grades so far:
A levels: BBC
First year Module Marks: Criminal Law(50%), Foundations of Private law(64%), Legal Systems ( 55%), Contract Law (68%), Introduction to the English Legal System (68%), English Criminal Law (78%), Constitutional Law ( 64%), Delict and Unjustified Enrichment (64%)

Second year Module Marks: Management and Organisations (86%), EU institutions and laws (72%), Property Law (80%), Civil and Administrative law (67%)
How do I make up for this terrible academic record. Is it always gonna come back and haunt me forever. I do not even mind if someone tells me commercial law is out of my league. At least then I will have clarity on what career to undertake. I have done so many extra curricular activities yet I have gotten 7 straight rejections in a row. I have not even gotten to the interview stage. I feel really worried.

You haven’t got a terrible academic record - your module grades are if anything strong.

Were your school aware of the bullying? I don’t think it is worthwhile claiming any extenuating circumstances to your first term at university given your grades but it is slightly different for your A-levels as many firms will expect to see A and B grades.

 

[j2134]

Hi Jessica,

How common is it for people to qualify into an area of law that they did not do a seat in during a TC (if this happens at all)?

Thanks

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi Jessica,

How common is it for people to qualify into an area of law that they did not do a seat in during a TC (if this happens at all)?

Thanks

I wouldn't say it is common. It does happen but ultimately not that often and usually in less popular areas (e.g. Finance) or in areas where there is a lot of cross over with the work they have done in other seats, or maybe if they have done a secondment that is related to the area they qualify into.

If you have a strong indication of where you want to qualify into, the best thing to do is to maximise your chances of qualifying there by completing as many seats/secondments in that area or areas that compliment it.

 

[M1999]

Should I be worried if I haven’t had a holding email from a firm I applied to? I cannot find anyone on the forums who applied but hadn’t been sent the holding email. I’m worried they lost my app somehow

 

[Haz]

Hi @Jessica Booker - I recently received a VS offer and still have a couple of outstanding applications (both using apply4law). Is adding supplementary information in relation to my VS offer something people commonly do or is it something that the other firms might frown upon if I add it?

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi @Jessica Booker - I recently received a VS offer and still have a couple of outstanding applications (both using apply4law). Is adding supplementary information in relation to my VS offer something people commonly do or is it something that the other firms might frown upon if I add it?

It won’t be frowned upon unless they are exceptionally different firms (eg small regional and niche firm in Bristol vs large full service international firm in London). In more cases than not I’d be putting this in as additional information if I could update my application.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Should I be worried if I haven’t had a holding email from a firm I applied to? I cannot find anyone on the forums who applied but hadn’t been sent the holding email. I’m worried they lost my app somehow

Probably worthwhile checking - it could be human error or a technical hitch (like your email bouncing back email comms). So no harm in checking if you are confident Otis of other people have heard back.