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What helped me was to take a step back and properly reflect on what I wanted from my career in general. Sitting myself down and asking ‘what do you want from your career’ led me to very generic words like ‘challenge’ and ‘client facing’. But then I asked myself why I enjoyed these things, which tied in with what I’ve enjoyed from my experiences to date. Once I clarified that, I asked myself ‘how will commercial law give you that fulfilling career,’ and that’s when my understanding of what a commercial lawyer does, and motivations to do it myself, made more sense.

It takes time, but working from a very broad starting point helped me as I could more easily establish my motivations and how they aligned with a career in law. It’s a case then of structuring your answer to ensure those motivations come across, rather than just reiterating what a lawyer does. After all, a recruiter knows what a lawyer does. They’re not interested in hearing that, they want to know what motivates you to become one.

I’d encourage you to try the exercise and see if it works for you! Start broad, without even thinking about the law, and then hone in on why commercial law.