Bird & Bird Video Interview

[cc800]

Hi! I have to complete a video interview with Bird & Bird this week and am struggling to find information about it online.

Specifically, does anyone have any insight into the questions they ask and roughly how long they give you to think between presenting the question and the recording beginning.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! This is my first recorded video interview so feeling a bit nervous.

Thanks!

 

[Daniel Boden]

Hi! I have to complete a video interview with Bird & Bird this week and am struggling to find information about it online.

Specifically, does anyone have any insight into the questions they ask and roughly how long they give you to think between presenting the question and the recording beginning.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! This is my first recorded video interview so feeling a bit nervous.

Thanks!

Hi Courtney,

Happy to help and know that you are always welcome to ask people questions on here - it's a very friendly community

The questions are taken from a huge bank of competency questions so it's hard to know what you'd be asked but the ones I got asked last cycle were these:

What aspects of a career in law have attracted you to pursue this career?

If you could improve something at work or with your studies - what would it be and how would it make an improvement?

What qualities did a piece of work that you did well in, possess?

How would your work colleagues describe you?

Some pretty strange ones! Funnily enough, last year with their video interview software, after the question came up it would ask for flash player permissions which would pause the timer so you effectively had as much time as you wanted to give an answer! A technical glitch but definitely worked in my favour haha

In terms of the timings, I can't really remember so it might be worth shooting GradRec an email just to ask what the structure of the VI is.

Hope this helps!

All the best,
Dan

 

[PrincessTotoro]

Thank you so much for this Daniel! I've applied to Bird & Bird as well so this helps a lot! This is my first application so I am quite terrified of every aspect of the whole application process. I am currently sweating over doing this Watson Glaser first though...

 

[cc800]

Hi Courtney,

Happy to help and know that you are always welcome to ask people questions on here - it's a very friendly community

The questions are taken from a huge bank of competency questions so it's hard to know what you'd be asked but the ones I got asked last cycle were these:

What aspects of a career in law have attracted you to pursue this career?

If you could improve something at work or with your studies - what would it be and how would it make an improvement?

What qualities did a piece of work that you did well in, possess?

How would your work colleagues describe you?

Some pretty strange ones! Funnily enough, last year with their video interview software, after the question came up it would ask for flash player permissions which would pause the timer so you effectively had as much time as you wanted to give an answer! A technical glitch but definitely worked in my favour haha

In terms of the timings, I can't really remember so it might be worth shooting GradRec an email just to ask what the structure of the VI is.

Hope this helps!

All the best,
Dan

Thanks Dan!!! This is so helpful I really appreciate it.

 

[SA123]

Hi! I have to complete a video interview with Bird & Bird this week and am struggling to find information about it online.

Specifically, does anyone have any insight into the questions they ask and roughly how long they give you to think between presenting the question and the recording beginning.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! This is my first recorded video interview so feeling a bit nervous.

Thanks!

Hi!

I’m in the same position as you re having a Bird & Bird VI. I know that they use the platform Shortlist.Me and on that website you can do a practice test.

On the practice test they were purely competency-based questions, but from what I gather to be a huge bank of them, so very difficult to predict what questions you’ll get.

In that practice test I was given 20 seconds to prepare my answer and then 2 minutes to speak. I actually really recommend doing the practice test because after you record your answer to each question they take you to a checklist so you can self-assess whether you have answered all parts of the question and then give you the option to re-record as many times as you want. It’s completely private so Bird & Bird won’t be able to see your answers .

I haven’t done the official test yet so sorry I can’t give any insight on that but hope the info about the practice test helps!

Good luck!

 

[Ricky]

Went to the Open Day.

There will be four competency questions and one on commercial awareness.

You have 1 minute to prepare and 1.5 minutes to answers. However, it's better to be concise, if you finish your answer in 1 minute don't try and continue just for the sake of it. Better to end it there.

To prepare, create a list of all your examples from which you can draw from to demonstrate your skills. Use STAR. Look into the camera, not the screen.

Smile.

 

[PrincessTotoro]

Thanks Ricky, I also went to the Open Day, I can confirm this was exactly what the graduate recruitment emphasised.
To add, please make sure you are appropriately dressed (let's do learn the lesson from the gentleman who had a VI with Eversheds).
Make sure you are not disturbed and try to speak normally as you would do in a real-time interview.
Having said all this, I still haven't worked up my courage to do mine.
Good luck everyone!

 

[Rey]

Hi all

I've got a VI to do for Bird & Bird and was wondering if someone had already taken the test. If so, what questions can I expect and what is the timing like?

All responses are useful and appreciated in advance!

 

[Daniel Boden]

Hi all

I've got a VI to do for Bird & Bird and was wondering if someone had already taken the test. If so, what questions can I expect and what is the timing like?

All responses are useful and appreciated in advance!

See my post above

 

[Carolinec12]

Hi all,
Not sure if anyone still needs to complete the VI but I just completed one and won't lie it was so much harder than I thought. I spent at least few hours to prepare for it only to run out of time with my answers. 90 seconds is really short, especially when machine cuts you off in the middle of the sentence. The questions I got had nothing to do with STAR method or anything to present my skills on the basis of a certain experience. Equally I didn't get Commercial Awareness question despite being so fully prepared for one.

 

[Sara Moon]

Hi, not sure whether this thread is still alive but are we allowed to write notes during the video interview or do we have to plan the answers in our heads?

 

[Mash239]

Hi, not sure whether this thread is still alive but are we allowed to write notes during the video interview or do we have to plan the answers in our heads?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. You have 60 seconds to plan your answer (based on comments above), which you can write on paper, and then the countdown timer starts and the camera starts recording.

In other news, anyone has done this year's VI and have example questions?

 

[Sara Moon]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. You have maybe 15 to 30 seconds to plan your answer, which you can write on paper, and then the countdown timer starts and the camera starts recording.

In other news, anyone has done this year's VI and have example questions?

This was exactly what I was asking thank you!

 

[Mash239]

This was exactly what I was asking thank you!

Whoop I realised that I was slightly misleading. Just for clarification, the countdown timer for the prep stage starts (60s) where you can plan your answer on paper, then a second countdown timer will start (90s) where you will answer.

*Timing based on comments above

 

[Yev]

Hi everyone,

I just sat my Video Interview over the weekend and I can confirm that it takes about 15 minutes max. You are given 60 seconds to prepare and two minutes to respond to each question (you do not have to take the entire time up).

It is composed of four questions which are mostly competency-based and commercial awareness. My note would be to not over prepare as the questions are fairly general (I made the mistake of trying to put post its of every competency on the wall and this actually flustered me more than helped). That being said, from above, it seems like they have a giant pool of questions, so it could really vary for each applicant.

 

[Deleted member 8599]

Hi everyone,

I just sat my Video Interview over the weekend and I can confirm that it takes about 15 minutes max. You are given 60 seconds to prepare and two minutes to respond to each question (you do not have to take the entire time up).

It is composed of four questions which are mostly competency-based and commercial awareness. My note would be to not over prepare as the questions are fairly general (I made the mistake of trying to put post its of every competency on the wall and this actually flustered me more than helped). That being said, from above, it seems like they have a giant pool of questions, so it could really vary for each applicant.

Second that. I sat the Bird & Bird video interview earlier this week. The questions were actually really fun. Mostly competency-based, innovative thinking and general reasons for becoming a solicitor.

 

[cmaj]

Thanks for the above guys!!! I have to sit the Bird & Bird VI this weekend so this is really helpful. Did they ask 'why our firm' at all?

 

[Deleted member 8599]

Thanks for the above guys!!! I have to sit the Bird & Bird VI this weekend so this is really helpful. Did they ask 'why our firm' at all?

No they didn't ask any question to that regard.

 

[cmaj]

No they didn't ask any question to that regard.

Wonderful thank you

 

[SanaraT]

For the commercial awareness question is it just 'demonstrate a time you displayed commercial awareness' or a question about general commercial news now to test your commercial awareness? Thanks