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<blockquote data-quote="James Carrabino" data-source="post: 113977" data-attributes="member: 16764"><p><strong><u>Week 4 - Motivational Interviews</u></strong></p><p></p><p>Motivational interviews are oftentimes the most important interviews for firms to determine which candidates they want to hire. Competency interviews, psychometric tests, written exercises and case studies are important insofar as they are box-ticking exercises to ensure that the candidate is <em>good enough to manage the work</em>. There will usually be more candidates who pass these assessments than training contracts on offer, however, meaning that motivational interviews can make or break an application.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>What are motivational interviews?</strong></p><p></p><p>I am talking about any interview where questions about the interviewee's motivations arise - the classic ones being <strong>1. Why law? 2. Why commercial law? 3. Why our firm? </strong>I will briefly cover other specific examples of motivational questions first, however, before dealing with these broader ones in depth.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Examples of specific motivational questions include the following</strong>:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Why did you pursue your university degree?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What has attracted you to X practice area that you wrote about in your application?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What are you most attracted to about serving professional clients?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Why do you want to do international work?</li> </ul><p>etc.</p><p></p><p>When responding to such questions, I would structure my answer by explaining firstly where my interest first arose, then how my life experiences further informed my interest and finally how I believe that I will fulfil my interest by pursuing what I am apply for.</p><p></p><p>In my opinion, answering motivational questions is about <em>telling a compelling story</em>.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Classic motivational questions</strong></p><p></p><p>I have mentioned <strong>1. Why law? 2. Why commercial law? 3. Why our firm?</strong></p><p></p><p>These come up frequently in application questions and I have many tips on answering motivational questions in application forms as part of my <a href="https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/forum/threads/weekly-application-pitfalls.4525/">Application Pitfalls thread</a>.</p><p></p><p>In motivational interviews, however, I have found that these three questions are often wrapped into one very broad and vague question, such as <strong>'Tell us about yourself' </strong>or <strong>'How have your life experiences culminated in you being here applying for this role?'</strong> These are both questions that I had in interviews and it is important to identify that they are, in essence, motivational questions!</p><p></p><p>For broad questions like these which are often the first things you get asked in an interview, I think that <em><strong>telling a story is key! </strong></em>It is a great skill to be able to convey your life as if it is a carefully crafted novel, with your application to the firm in question serving as a logical conclusion. Doing this effectively can really get your interviewers on your side from the outset!</p><p></p><p>I will offer a brief outline of the story I told in interviews where a broad question like this came up:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I would start by talking about my interest in languages and humanities during school and how I realised that I wanted to enter a cerebral profession where reading, paying attention to detail and being exacting about language were an integral component.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I mentioned how I was personally involved in a lawsuit which made me realise not just how interesting questions of law could be, but how much influence the law could have on people's lives.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I would mention how my additional passion for playing piano (this also gave me an option to mention that I needed time management skills to balance both academics and music) meant that I did not know what I wanted to study at university and so went to a US university where I could combine both.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I discussed how I explored a new course of study (International Relations) as part of my liberal arts curriculum and became passionate about broad issues of global affairs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I tied all of this together to explain how I was particularly attracted to an international career, dealing especially with a regulatory, policy-focused area of law, at a firm where I could also significantly help people through pro bono work.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Finally, I would relate any interesting pieces of work or practice areas where the firm excelled to my own experiences or educational background.</li> </ul><p></p><p>Now this is a very brief overview of the kind of structure I would use to tie my 'story' together, and there are many details left out which I would bring in depending on the firm I was applying to at the time and the kind of work they do. For example, I would perhaps mention relevant work experience I had, or languages that I had developed proficiency in, or my undergraduate thesis if any of it related to work of the firm that I was interviewing for at the time.</p><p></p><p>Nevertheless, this was broadly a method of using my life story to explain why I was there interviewing for that firm at that time, and I think that other motivational questions require a similar approach to a greater or lesser extent. Instead of giving random, disconnected reasons why you want to be a lawyer, for example, see if you can combine all of your reasons and illustrate how they compounded over time to make you know that <em>your</em> <em>calling is to be a lawyer</em>.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I hope that all of this helps when thinking about how to approach motivational interviews <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Carrabino, post: 113977, member: 16764"] [B][U]Week 4 - Motivational Interviews[/U][/B] Motivational interviews are oftentimes the most important interviews for firms to determine which candidates they want to hire. Competency interviews, psychometric tests, written exercises and case studies are important insofar as they are box-ticking exercises to ensure that the candidate is [I]good enough to manage the work[/I]. There will usually be more candidates who pass these assessments than training contracts on offer, however, meaning that motivational interviews can make or break an application. [B]What are motivational interviews?[/B] I am talking about any interview where questions about the interviewee's motivations arise - the classic ones being [B]1. Why law? 2. Why commercial law? 3. Why our firm? [/B]I will briefly cover other specific examples of motivational questions first, however, before dealing with these broader ones in depth. [B]Examples of specific motivational questions include the following[/B]: [LIST] [*]Why did you pursue your university degree? [*]What has attracted you to X practice area that you wrote about in your application? [*]What are you most attracted to about serving professional clients? [*]Why do you want to do international work? [/LIST] etc. When responding to such questions, I would structure my answer by explaining firstly where my interest first arose, then how my life experiences further informed my interest and finally how I believe that I will fulfil my interest by pursuing what I am apply for. In my opinion, answering motivational questions is about [I]telling a compelling story[/I]. [B]Classic motivational questions[/B] I have mentioned [B]1. Why law? 2. Why commercial law? 3. Why our firm?[/B] These come up frequently in application questions and I have many tips on answering motivational questions in application forms as part of my [URL='https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/forum/threads/weekly-application-pitfalls.4525/']Application Pitfalls thread[/URL]. In motivational interviews, however, I have found that these three questions are often wrapped into one very broad and vague question, such as [B]'Tell us about yourself' [/B]or [B]'How have your life experiences culminated in you being here applying for this role?'[/B] These are both questions that I had in interviews and it is important to identify that they are, in essence, motivational questions! For broad questions like these which are often the first things you get asked in an interview, I think that [I][B]telling a story is key! [/B][/I]It is a great skill to be able to convey your life as if it is a carefully crafted novel, with your application to the firm in question serving as a logical conclusion. Doing this effectively can really get your interviewers on your side from the outset! I will offer a brief outline of the story I told in interviews where a broad question like this came up: [LIST] [*]I would start by talking about my interest in languages and humanities during school and how I realised that I wanted to enter a cerebral profession where reading, paying attention to detail and being exacting about language were an integral component. [*]I mentioned how I was personally involved in a lawsuit which made me realise not just how interesting questions of law could be, but how much influence the law could have on people's lives. [*]I would mention how my additional passion for playing piano (this also gave me an option to mention that I needed time management skills to balance both academics and music) meant that I did not know what I wanted to study at university and so went to a US university where I could combine both. [*]I discussed how I explored a new course of study (International Relations) as part of my liberal arts curriculum and became passionate about broad issues of global affairs. [*]I tied all of this together to explain how I was particularly attracted to an international career, dealing especially with a regulatory, policy-focused area of law, at a firm where I could also significantly help people through pro bono work. [*]Finally, I would relate any interesting pieces of work or practice areas where the firm excelled to my own experiences or educational background. [/LIST] Now this is a very brief overview of the kind of structure I would use to tie my 'story' together, and there are many details left out which I would bring in depending on the firm I was applying to at the time and the kind of work they do. For example, I would perhaps mention relevant work experience I had, or languages that I had developed proficiency in, or my undergraduate thesis if any of it related to work of the firm that I was interviewing for at the time. Nevertheless, this was broadly a method of using my life story to explain why I was there interviewing for that firm at that time, and I think that other motivational questions require a similar approach to a greater or lesser extent. Instead of giving random, disconnected reasons why you want to be a lawyer, for example, see if you can combine all of your reasons and illustrate how they compounded over time to make you know that [I]your[/I] [I]calling is to be a lawyer[/I]. I hope that all of this helps when thinking about how to approach motivational interviews :) [/QUOTE]
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