Ask A Graduate Recruiter Anything!

[Mxkry]

What's the general advice regarding capitalisation of roles and positions of responsibility?

 

[SA123]

Sorry - it is really difficult (even impossible) to give guidance on this when it is 17 words out of 250!

Ah, sorry! I’ll give some clarification. My current answer discusses: conducting market research to ensure there is demand, types of funding available and advice on investment agreements, legal structures available, discussion of whether the business is online or brick-and-mortar and the legal requirements for each (e.g. insurance, T&Cs and data protection law), IP protection and guidance on importing/exporting rules.

Because I have mentioned so many other things, I haven’t left myself room to explain the legal structures available. Feel my answer covers a lot of bases and I’m not sure whether I’m sacrificing showing my legal knowledge.

 

[Jessica Booker]

@Jessica Booker Hello ma'am, hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me, how many questions should we ask at the end of the HR and the Partner interview. My guess would be 1 question each. What are your views?

doesn’t need to be as prescriptive as that. Be mindful of how much time you have left and just think how many questions you could reasonable ask and be answered in that time (leaving 3-5 mins at the end for them to wrap up)

 

[Sam55]

yes - probably best to do this. Be aware that they may still say you can only go forward for the Spring scheme though

Ok, thank you!

 

[Jessica Booker]

What's the general advice regarding capitalisation of roles and positions of responsibility?

If it is in a heading (like in your CV) you can capitalise it. If it is in general body of text, in most cases than not it isn’t capitalised.

This might help:

https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/capitalization/capitalization-of-job-titles.html

 

[Kopperskjold]

@Jessica Booker Hi! I hope you're good. I'm studying an LLM and I got a scholarship that covered most of my fees. Do you think I should specify the percentage in my CV or should I just say "part of my fees"? As it was a high percentage I think it may be an advantage to be specific? But maybe I'm wrong so I'd rather ask.. thanks so much!

 

[Jessica Booker]

@Jessica Booker Hi! I hope you're good. I'm studying an LLM and I got a scholarship that covered most of my fees. Do you think I should specify the percentage in my CV or should I just say "part of my fees"? As it was a high percentage I think it may be an advantage to be specific? But maybe I'm wrong so I'd rather ask.. thanks so much!

Yes - makes sense to explain this whether it’s a percentage or a fraction.

 

[Kopperskjold]

Yes - makes sense to explain this whether it’s a percentage or a fraction.

Thank you so much!

 

[KS94]

Hi @Jessica Booker

I was wondering if you could give any tips on approaching situational interview questions? I know the most common tips are "answer as if you were a trainee in that position" but I often find my answer lacks depth. How might I go about improving this?

Thanks!

 

[LaCampanella0616]

@Jessica Booker Hi Jessica! My situation is a bit unusual - I'm currently a master's history student at LSE and hold a PhD offer for Sep 2021 entry. However, I'm not certain if I'd stay in academia after 3 years of PhD, and having studied legal history it has inspired me to look into a career in law.

I was wondering, if I take up the PhD, whether it'd be a good/bad idea to enrol in part-time GDL at the same time? Or would it appear to be a lack of focus on my career goals, and better to do a full-time GDL and withdraw from the PhD? I'm not quite sure how firms think of PhD applicants.

My undergraduate degree was also from LSE with an average of 69%, and on track for a high merit for my master's.

Thank you very much for your time!

 

[doublesalchow]

Hi Jessica,

I was wondering whether it's perfectly fine to email grad rec to ask who will be my interviewer during the AC? Or should I wait until further notice? My AC is booked on the 9th of Feb, so it's still quite far out and I'm assuming they might not have finalised the interviewers' schedules yet.

Thank you!

 

[Holly]

Hi Jessica,

I was wondering whether it's perfectly fine to email grad rec to ask who will be my interviewer during the AC? Or should I wait until further notice? My AC is booked on the 9th of Feb, so it's still quite far out and I'm assuming they might not have finalised the interviewers' schedules yet.

Thank you!

I’m not Jessica, but from my experience, the firm will either tell you who the interviewer is nearer the time or they will not tell you at all. They will do the same for all candidates to make it fair and equal.

I hope that helps!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jessica Booker

I was wondering if you could give any tips on approaching situational interview questions? I know the most common tips are "answer as if you were a trainee in that position" but I often find my answer lacks depth. How might I go about improving this?

Thanks!

The questions are often multi layered due to the potential variables that haven’t been defined.

So think about:

- what resources do you have to support you
- who will be able to guide you (you aren’t expected to be the expert in this situation)
- what ways of managing your time/workload will be more efficient?
- what are the risks?
- what will be better in terms of efficiency and outcome (typically for the client)?
- what will help you learn and develop?
- how will you ensure you maintain good working relationship with others over the short and longer term?

 

[Jessica Booker]

@Jessica Booker Hi Jessica! My situation is a bit unusual - I'm currently a master's history student at LSE and hold a PhD offer for Sep 2021 entry. However, I'm not certain if I'd stay in academia after 3 years of PhD, and having studied legal history it has inspired me to look into a career in law.

I was wondering, if I take up the PhD, whether it'd be a good/bad idea to enrol in part-time GDL at the same time? Or would it appear to be a lack of focus on my career goals, and better to do a full-time GDL and withdraw from the PhD? I'm not quite sure how firms think of PhD applicants.

My undergraduate degree was also from LSE with an average of 69%, and on track for a high merit for my master's.

Thank you very much for your time!

A big question to consider is whether you want to do the traditional route or not. If you want to take the existing qualification route, you would need to start the GDL this year. If you didn’t, you would have to take the SQE qualification route.

I haven’t heard of someone holding down a PhD and a part time GDL at the same time. I think you underestimate the work needed for both of them.

I have recruited several PhD students in my time. They are rare though I think for two reasons - 1) they don’t apply in great numbers and 2) sometimes a PhD doesn’t really set you up well for life in a law firm, especially a high pressured international environment. Academia and a law firm environment couldn’t be much more different and so sometimes PhD candidates struggle to demonstrate they are either suited or ready for that transition.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica,

I was wondering whether it's perfectly fine to email grad rec to ask who will be my interviewer during the AC? Or should I wait until further notice? My AC is booked on the 9th of Feb, so it's still quite far out and I'm assuming they might not have finalised the interviewers' schedules yet.

Thank you!

perfectly fine to ask - not all firms will tell you though.

I wouldn’t ask until a few days before your assessment day though.

my advice is that generally it is not important to do this as the interview is not about your assessors, it is about you. Spending time researching individual assessors is a waste of time in my opinion.

 

[WannabeTrainee1301]

Hi @Jessica Booker,

Looking for a little help on an application I'm doing.

One question is "what did you know about us prior to applying" then another is "why did you apply to us for a training contract".. I'm quite stuck because I feel like my answers to both of these will be very similar as for the former I would say what I know then why those points are attractive to me, then for the latter I would say the same.. Or am I tackling this wrong?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jessica Booker,

Looking for a little help on an application I'm doing.

One question is "what did you know about us prior to applying" then another is "why did you apply to us for a training contract".. I'm quite stuck because I feel like my answers to both of these will be very similar as for the former I would say what I know then why those points are attractive to me, then for the latter I would say the same.. Or am I tackling this wrong?

What an awful first question ....

I think with the former I would say what I learnt but provide more evidence on how I had learnt about it - what researched I had done/what events had attended, who I had spoke to, what had naturally intrigued me to research more. I could also talk about more obvious things about the firm that aren't necessarily my motivations for applying to. Also it is very much about “us” rather than be opportunity you are applying to which suggests talking about the firm more generally rather than the training contract/vacagon scheme.

Then with the second question I could focus on my motivations and my evidence of what I have done that backs up those motivations.

 

[JayB]

Hi @Jessica Booker

I submitted an application last night, and just re-read the application submitted and can see 3 typos, I’m starting to worry will the law firm reject me on the basis of this? I really love the firm, so I’m thinking I have now blown my chances

 

[Lauren]

Hi,

When answering a question about what I enjoy from paralegal work, does it make sense to mention the collaborative approach, the variety of work and the opportunity to produce a tangible output to be used by an associate/client?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jessica Booker

I submitted an application last night, and just re-read the application submitted and can see 3 typos, I’m starting to worry will the law firm reject me on the basis of this? I really love the firm, so I’m thinking I have now blown my chances

It's not ideal unfortunately. Its hard to say how much this will impact your application, but it won't have helped.