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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ojharrison" data-source="post: 229676" data-attributes="member: 43505">Hello - future trainee here!I have not done the telephone interview myself, but I would imagine it will be quite competency- and motivation-focused, and a bit more conversational than a VI, but they’ll still be assessing structure and clarity in your answers. From my experience, it’s worth preparing for a mix of:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Why commercial law / why Clyde & Co: make sure you can clearly articulate why their sector focus (insurance, transport, energy, aviation, etc.) genuinely appeals to you, rather than just listing practice areas. Link it to your own experience and interests to make your answers personal.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Competency questions (teamwork, resilience, communication, problem-solving): have 2–3 strong examples ready and use a clear structure (STAR works well).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Commercial awareness: often fairly light-touch in phone interviews, but be ready to discuss a recent issue affecting one of their core sectors and explain why it matters to the firm and why you were interested by that particular issue.</li> </ul>A few practical tips for telephone interviews specifically:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It might be worth having a one-page prompt sheet in front of you (key points for motivation, examples, and one commercial topic) - so long as you don’t read from it and don't feel overly attached to it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Practise answering concisely; it’s easier to waffle on the phone without visual cues.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Smile when you speak - it genuinely makes a difference to how engaged and confident you sound.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Go beyond with your intonation, emotions etc. Things come across far less enthusiastic over the phone, even if the same speech would come across positively in person. You don't have body language and other sorts of cues to rely on. It might feel very strange, but try to be slightly more over-the-top with how you're speaking so that you're charisma comes across to the interviewer. (Needless to say there is a fine line with this though!).</li> </ul>They will likely also be testing whether you come across as someone clients and colleagues would be comfortable speaking to, so aim for calm, friendly and thoughtful rather than overly polished.Hope that helps, and best of luck - feel free to post back if you want any further help with preparation.</blockquote>

Verification: Our company is called, "The Corporate ___ Academy". What is the missing word here?

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