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Aspiring Lawyers - Applications & General Advice
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<blockquote data-quote="James Carrabino" data-source="post: 93678" data-attributes="member: 16764"><p>Oh boy [USER=17165]@George Maxwell[/USER] thanks for this thread, have I had some of these too! 🤣 </p><p></p><p>The worst has to be when I went for a paralegal interview a couple years back (oh have I come such a long way since then) and I read up on the firm and thought I was well prepared. The interviewer asked me if I wanted to work in corporate or litigation and I just had no clue what that meant!! I asked the interviewer 'What is that?' and the worst part is that I believed it was always good to be honest if I did not know something so I had no sense of just how embarrassing my question was <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big Grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p><p></p><p>How about the time I thought I was having a great rapport with my interviewers and when they asked why I wanted to be a commercial lawyer I meant to say something about the versatility of the career but my answer came out as 'Because I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life'! In the moment I thought I sounded super confident and charming and then immediately afterwards I was like 'NOooo wait that's not what I meant; I just mean I have a lot of options of different practice areas...'</p><p></p><p>I remember getting distracted and talking about hedge funds when the topic was private equity and the interviewer interrupted me to ask 'James, do you know the difference between hedge funds and private equity funds'? I actually managed to save that one since I did know the difference but it definitely made me freak out in the moment.</p><p></p><p>I had a scary interviewer who told me that my background was too broad and that he knew I would quit law in a few years. I was completely stumped as to how I should respond to that. I literally asked him, 'Is that a question'?</p><p></p><p></p><p>The lesson here is not to worry because if you think you screwed something up, chances are others have screwed it up worse! Interviewers are used to seeing candidates under pressure and for the most part are very understanding. In a decent number of the above interviews (I won't say which ones) I was successful and in other interviews that I thought went swimmingly I was unsuccessful. Just try to avoid being phased by unpredictable questions and feel completely free to take time on the spot to think about your answer or clarify the question <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: 93678, member: 16764"] Oh boy [USER=17165]@George Maxwell[/USER] thanks for this thread, have I had some of these too! 🤣 The worst has to be when I went for a paralegal interview a couple years back (oh have I come such a long way since then) and I read up on the firm and thought I was well prepared. The interviewer asked me if I wanted to work in corporate or litigation and I just had no clue what that meant!! I asked the interviewer 'What is that?' and the worst part is that I believed it was always good to be honest if I did not know something so I had no sense of just how embarrassing my question was :D How about the time I thought I was having a great rapport with my interviewers and when they asked why I wanted to be a commercial lawyer I meant to say something about the versatility of the career but my answer came out as 'Because I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life'! In the moment I thought I sounded super confident and charming and then immediately afterwards I was like 'NOooo wait that's not what I meant; I just mean I have a lot of options of different practice areas...' I remember getting distracted and talking about hedge funds when the topic was private equity and the interviewer interrupted me to ask 'James, do you know the difference between hedge funds and private equity funds'? I actually managed to save that one since I did know the difference but it definitely made me freak out in the moment. I had a scary interviewer who told me that my background was too broad and that he knew I would quit law in a few years. I was completely stumped as to how I should respond to that. I literally asked him, 'Is that a question'? The lesson here is not to worry because if you think you screwed something up, chances are others have screwed it up worse! Interviewers are used to seeing candidates under pressure and for the most part are very understanding. In a decent number of the above interviews (I won't say which ones) I was successful and in other interviews that I thought went swimmingly I was unsuccessful. Just try to avoid being phased by unpredictable questions and feel completely free to take time on the spot to think about your answer or clarify the question :) [/QUOTE]
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