Ask TCLA's New Community Managers Anything!

[Jessica Booker]

Hello guys. Hope you all are doing well. Could you please tell me what I should do if there is actually not a single news story that I'm deeply interested in? This is not to say that I'm not interested in the commercial world but what I mean is that I am not deeply in love with any particular news piece and I'm worried about "Tell me about a news story that you like?" Is there any general advice that you'd like to give me? I don't want to fake an interest in something that sounds impressive because I'm sure that the recruiters can sense it but I do have a few stories that I like (Travis Scott's Astroworld legal battle) but I think there isn't a lot that I can say about it.

Thanks for your time.

I'd find it hard to believe anyone is "deeply in love" with a news piece. I'd be a bit worried if they were.

The legal world is a broad spectrum that covers a range of topics or matters. You just have to find the topics that you naturally gravitate to - you are never going to be able to read everything even within a niche of law, so this is just a case of finding the things you are more interested in and so you choose over all the other topics you could potentially be drawn to.

If it's the Astroworld example, then you then to think carefully about the link to the firm. Do they work on these matters/with these types of clients? How could the story impact the firm or its clients? There needs to be some form of connection for it to be relevant to your application. Why is the topic relevant to you and to the firm? This is the part most candidates completely forget about - they just choose something to try and impress, but they aren't really thinking about the relevance to the broader document or conversation.

If you are really struggling, then it sounds really brutal, but you have to question whether this is the right career for you. And I come from that as someone who is not interested in these topics at all. Even if you can fake your interest in an application or interview, you are going to have a pretty miserable career feigning this interest for the next 40 years.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

I'd find it hard to believe anyone is "deeply in love" with a news piece. I'd be a bit worried if they were.

The legal world is a broad spectrum that covers a range of topics or matters. You just have to find the topics that you naturally gravitate to - you are never going to be able to read everything even within a niche of law, so this is just a case of finding the things you are more interested in and so you choose over all the other topics you could potentially be drawn to.

If its the Astroworld example, then you then to think carefully about the link to the firm. Do they work on these matters/with their clients? How could the story impact the firm or their clients? There needs to be some form of connection for it to be relevant to your application. Why is the topic relevant to you and to the firm? This is the part most candidates completely forget about - they just choose something to try and impress, but they aren't really thinking about the relevance to the broader document or conversation.

If you are really struggling, then it sounds really brutal, but you have to question whether this is the right career for you. And I come from that as someone who is not interested in these topics at all. Even if you can fake your interest in an application or interview, you are going to have a pretty miserable career feigning this interest for the next 40 years.

Thank you so much. This clarified a lot of things.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. Could you please help me with a question? I am stuck with "What are your core values?" If I say that I respect other people's time, personal space and opinions, how should I demonstrate this? I don't want to turn to my work experiences for this so can my examples be from everyday life? For example, I’m always the person who reaches some place at least 5-10 minutes before the scheduled time because I don’t want to keep other people waiting or I don’t put other people on hold when I’m talking on the phone. Is this a good enough example for demonstrating that I respect other people's time?

Thanks.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. Could you please help me with a question? I am stuck with "What are your core values?" If I say that I respect other people's time, personal space and opinions, how should I demonstrate this? I don't want to turn to my work experiences for this so can my examples be from everyday life? For example, I’m always the person who reaches some place at least 5-10 minutes before the scheduled time because I don’t want to keep other people waiting or I don’t put other people on hold when I’m talking on the phone. Is this a good enough example for demonstrating that I respect other people's time?

Thanks.

Why don't you want to use your work experience?

I am not really convinced that turning up early is a strong enough example. I think you can say one of your values is being respectful to others, and then I would focus more on how you have done this with people's different opinions/approaches. The things you have mentioned are just common courtesy that many people will do, so I think you need more unique examples of really showing excellence in this "respectful" value, rather than what many will just consider a basic level.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Why don't you want to use your work experience?

I am not really convinced that turning up early is a strong enough example. I think you can say one of your values is being respectful to others, and then I would focus more on how you have done this with people's different opinions/approaches. The things you have mentioned are just common courtesy that many people will do, so I think you need more unique examples of really showing excellence in this "respectful" value, rather than what many will just consider a basic level.

I don't want to use my work experience because I am too reliant on it and therefore I'm only planning on using it for competency questions. But thank you so much for your answer.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. I was trying to think over my reasons for "Why you?" and I've only been able to come up with 2 points till now. Is there a threshold with these questions? Do we have to have atleast 3 reasons for such questions or will 2 fully developed ones do? I have tried to come up with more but to be honest, even I'm not convinced with the ones that I have to force as opposed to the other 2 that come very naturally to me.

Thanks.

 

[AvniD]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. I was trying to think over my reasons for "Why you?" and I've only been able to come up with 2 points till now. Is there a threshold with these questions? Do we have to have atleast 3 reasons for such questions or will 2 fully developed ones do? I have tried to come up with more but to be honest, even I'm not convinced with the ones that I have to force as opposed to the other 2 that come very naturally to me.

Thanks.

There isn't a number per se- what you should be aiming for is to convince an interviewer as to why you're a suitable, self-aware candidate. Try to think of what your USP is- what makes you 'you' and lead with that/those points. Then have a few more points to support these main, headlining points. These could do with your soft skills, work experience, initiative to learn more about a career in commercial law, transferable skills etc.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

There isn't a number per se- what you should be aiming for is to convince an interviewer as to why you're a suitable, self-aware candidate. Try to think of what your USP is- what makes you 'you' and lead with that/those points. Then have a few more points to support these main, headlining points. These could do with your soft skills, work experience, initiative to learn more about a career in commercial law, transferable skills etc.

Thanks for your response, Avni.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello guys, hope you all are doing well. I had a slightly personal question around "Why you" which I cannot ask on the forums but since it is not related to mitigating circumstances, I thought of asking this here instead of tagging Jessica. Could I DM any one of you?

Thanks.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hello guys, hope you all are doing well. I had a slightly personal question around "Why you" which I cannot ask on the forums but since it is not related to mitigating circumstances, I thought of asking this here instead of tagging Jessica. Could I DM any one of you?

Thanks.

You can PM me for things like this.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

You can PM me for things like this.

Thank you so much.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me, for the interview question "What skills should a trainee possess?", should we automatically cover instances wherein we've displayed those particular skills or should we wait for the interviewer to follow up for those details?

Thanks.

 

[AvniD]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me, for the interview question "What skills should a trainee possess?", should we automatically cover instances wherein we've displayed those particular skills or should we wait for the interviewer to follow up for those details?

Thanks.

I think going into demonstrating how you possess those skills is unnecessary at this point- waiting for the interviewer to follow up makes more sense.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

I think going into demonstrating how you possess those skills is unnecessary at this point- waiting for the interviewer to follow up makes more sense.

Thank you, Avni.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me, for competency questions, is it necessary that we should mention the month and the year of the event from which we're trying to draw the competency? The problem is that I have quite a few work experiences and I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to give them the exact month and the year under pressure, what should I do?

Thanks.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me, for competency questions, is it necessary that we should mention the month and the year of the event from which we're trying to draw the competency? The problem is that I have quite a few work experiences and I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to give them the exact month and the year under pressure, what should I do?

Thanks.

No - that isn't necessary.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. I had a question around competency questions again and the general tip around answering these questions is to quantify the result because that makes the answer look a lot better. I totally agree with the statement because I can really feel that when I'm answering questions and I include facts and figures- it does make the answer more convincing. I was wondering, how could we get the same result when answering questions that have no scope of facts and figures to be included, for example, "When have you made a mistake" or "When have you been in a difficult situation?"

Thanks.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hello, guys. Hope you are doing well. I had a question around competency questions again and the general tip around answering these questions is to quantify the result because that makes the answer look a lot better. I totally agree with the statement because I can really feel that when I'm answering questions and I include facts and figures- it does make the answer more convincing. I was wondering, how could we get the same result when answering questions that have no scope of facts and figures to be included, for example, "When have you made a mistake" or "When have you been in a difficult situation?"

Thanks.

I think you are probably looking at this too literally. Your example is a fact as it happened.

I would probably challenge you on your thinking around facts and figures though. These rarely make an answer more convincing. Firms are not interested in you reciting facts (as in figures), they want to see your opinion and analysis.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

I think you are probably looking at this too literally. Your example is a fact as it happened.

I would probably challenge you on your thinking around facts and figures though. These rarely make an answer more convincing. Firms are not interested in you reciting facts (as in figures), they want to see your opinion and analysis.

I'm not too sure about what I should do now because "quantifying" the results was always this golden rule that everyone talked about.

 

[Jessica Booker]

I'm not too sure about what I should do now because "quantifying" the results was always this golden rule that everyone talked about.

You can quantify something without facts and figures. You can use your thinking, analysis and opinions to back up your claims.

Context is great (for instance how many days you had for a deadline, how many people worked in your team, how much budget you had to manage) and often facts and figures can help to bring that context to life. But the interviewer is really looking for what YOU did - your decision making/your efforts/your input rather than the numbers that surround the circumstances. That is actually what is important.

With questions like when you failed or when you were in a difficult situation, the facts/figures for context can still be used. You still need to provide the context of why you failed or why the situation was challenging. But the interviewer is far more interested in what you did. How you overcame the challenge/How you dealt with the failure.