Kennedys Interview 2018
When was your Kennedys interview?
November 2018
What was it for?
Vacation scheme
Please describe the interview process at Kennedys.
Partner interview (1 hour), group assessment (45 minutes), written assessment (1 hour) – partner interview covered a broad range of topics and felt like effort was taken to get to know you. The other tasks were well managed.
What advice would you give to future applicants for the Kennedys interview?
Prepare for commercial awareness questions and understand the firms competitors. Also go over your letter writing skills and make sure you can read through a large amount of information quickly – ensure you’re vaguely aware of limitation laws for this task. For the group task get the balance right between listening and contributing.
When was your Kennedys interview?
January 2018
What for?
Vacation scheme
Please describe the interview process at Kennedys.
First there is a video interview if you are successful at the critical reasoning test. If successful here, you go on to an assessment centre, which included a group exercise, a written test and a short partner interview. It was very welcoming and one could see the effort they’ve put into the process.
What advice would you give to future applicants about the Kennedys interview?
Video interview:
- Extremely basic. Just three questions one of which was why Kennedys, and the other two were competency questions i.e tell us about a difficult experience, what did you do?.
First interview:
- Group exercises (plural)
- Written test
- Interview
Group exercise: the differentiating factor here was that there was not just one group exercise, but several. The first was typical, we were given a scenario, placed in teams and had to negotiate with the other team. This tested both communication skills and intuition. The other two were very random, as they both involved games, clearly testing collaboration skills. You were explained the rules in case you had never played the game and had to work both on your own, in the first exercise, and again as part of a group, in the second exercise. This was a lot of fun but beware that, this being a game, you naturally will let your guard down, and this is exactly what they are testing. They want to see how you truly communicate with others, how you handle losing/winning and so on. Do NOT treat these as games, essentially.
-Written test: very basic. In my case, I was advising a client who had an accident at his job and wanted advice on what course of action they should take. You are given some hints and you have to develop on these. Structure is as important as content, keep this in mind at all times.
-Interview: 20-30 minutes with one partner. This was mainly competency based, like the video interview, with one commercial question at the end, relating to the firm’s practice areas. Best way to prepare is to answer such general questions in your free time, and during the interview be approachable, smile and answer directly and succinctly.
When was your Kennedys interview?
[For 2019]
What for?
Training Contract
Please describe the interview process at Kennedys.
Very set structure – Interview, written task, group exercise. As this was my first assessment day, I felt slightly caught off guard by having an interview as the first task. However, a written task in the middle was a welcome break to recuperate before my verbal communication was tested again.
What advice would you give to future applicants about the Kennedys interview?
Know your past experiences inside out. Think about how you would respond to common competency/situational answers. Don’t look at commercial awareness and research on the firm in isolation – They will expect you speak about how a commercial issue will impact the firm specifically.
Interview experiences provided by Jeff
When was your Kennedys interview?
October 2017
What for?
Vacation scheme
Please describe the interview process at Kennedys.
The assessment centre comprised of a group exercise, a drafting exercise, and an interview. I started with the drafting exercise, in which I was asked to read a number of documents relating to an incident that occurred and a client that wished to sue for damages. I was asked to draft a letter to those responsible for causing damage to a client’s [redacted] when left in their care, as well as quantifying [redacted] and deciding how much in damages to push for.
The interview had some variation depending on who interviewed you. For some reason, I was asked about any interest I had in the aviation sector, whilst another candidate was asked more specifically about any interest they had in insurance. I suppose the takeaway is to be prepared to talk about any of their sectors. The interview was largely centred around my motivation to join Kennedys and their practice areas.
*redacted minor details.
What advice would you give to future applicants about the Kennedys interview?
Take the opportunity to get to know the firm’s competitors before an interview. This will really give you an idea of what is unique about the firm you approach. Many firms will cover the same areas of work and so having a look at their investment into innovation (be it technological or collaborative) works out to the benefit of their clients.
Kennedys Interview 2018
When was your Kennedys interview?
November 2018
What was it for?
Vacation scheme
Please describe the interview process at Kennedys.
Partner interview (1 hour), group assessment (45 minutes), written assessment (1 hour) – partner interview covered a broad range of topics and felt like effort was taken to get to know you. The other tasks were well managed.
What advice would you give to future applicants for the Kennedys interview?
Prepare for commercial awareness questions and understand the firms competitors. Also go over your letter writing skills and make sure you can read through a large amount of information quickly – ensure you’re vaguely aware of limitation laws for this task. For the group task get the balance right between listening and contributing.
