Situational Question:
‘Imagine that you’ve made plans to meet a close friend, one that you rarely see. On your way out the office, you notice that the trainee solicitor in your department is flooded with work. It’s likely that she’ll be working all night. Do you do anything before you leave?’
Suppose I’m an interviewer.
I ask situational questions like these because it gives me an opportunity to see what kind of person you are and whether you have the qualities and attitudes that would make you a good fit for my firm.
It’s also a useful way of determining what you’re really like because these questions are harder to prepare for. Unlike competency questions, you probably haven’t answered something quite like this before, and I may ask follow-up questions to drill down on what you really mean.
All that said, this doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to prepare for these sorts of questions. It’s just a different form of practice. Try to properly understand what trainees do, so you can better understand the scope of their responsibilities. Practice answering these questions aloud.
Now, here are some points to note:
You’ll want to check in on the trainee solicitor. A training contract is tough, but it’s not about competition. It’s about supporting each other when the going is tough. (As our head of podcasts likes to say ‘there’s no I in team’…)
Think about the questions you might ask to see if you could help. Maybe you’ve worked on something like this before. Maybe there’s something you can do to make her workload easier. If there are things you can do and it would make sense for you to do them, you may want to reschedule plans with your friend.
Equally, you should be honest. It’s not about trying to impress me by saying you’ll always drop everything. What about if you can’t help? What about if you’d just end up being a burden?
What about if your own supervisor wanted you in early to work on something else the next day? In those cases, you might check in on the trainee, but you wouldn’t necessarily need to cancel your plans.
You see, the answer itself may not be that hard. In fact, good answers t to these questions are more about your ability to talk through your thought process, than giving a single right answer.
