Ask A Graduate Recruiter Anything!

[R203]

Hi Jessica!

Would like to hear your advice for this question:
Our strategies are driven around our clients and our people. both go hand in hand, and one cannot succeed without the other. Please tell us what client focus and people focus mean to you, in a successful organisation like Baker McKenzie. Include any personal experience you think may be relevant to these discussions. (500 words max)

I am struggling with the "people focus" part. I don't really understand what does that mean. How should I showcase the firm's approach to people focus and then relate that back to myself?

Thank you so much!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Sorry to jump in on someone else's question. I have a training contract and will be starting my LPC next year, and my firm has said I can do the MSc in Law, Business and Management, or the LLM Legal Practice, or just the regular LPC.

Am I write in concluding from what you've said I might as well just take the LPC as there is no advantage (from what I can tell) in doing any of the MSc or LLM option (I have sponsorship, I'm not an international candidate and I presume the SQE doesn't affect me?).

Thanks

if they are giving you the choice, then it’s completely up to you. I don’t think there is any benefit in doing the additional module(s).

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi! What would count as 'buzz words' Thanks

if they did exist, it would depend on the firm.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica!

Would like to hear your advice for this question:
Our strategies are driven around our clients and our people. both go hand in hand, and one cannot succeed without the other. Please tell us what client focus and people focus mean to you, in a successful organisation like Baker McKenzie. Include any personal experience you think may be relevant to these discussions. (500 words max)

I am struggling with the "people focus" part. I don't really understand what does that mean. How should I showcase the firm's approach to people focus and then relate that back to myself?

Thank you so much!

It’s the firm’s approach to its employees and also any links to people who are not their clients.

 

[R203]

Thanks so much Jessica!

Could I also hear your advice for this question:

Cover Letter
What excites you in becoming a Commercial Solicitor; - What drives you to apply to Baker McKenzie; and - Three key skills you are developing to ensure you are ready to start your Training Contract.

With regards to the "Three key skills you are developing"

- Should I only use experiences (work, internships, extra-curricular that are very recent/ongoing?) Or could they be a few years back? Given that I have to be currently developing them.

Thank you so much!

 

[wwood]

Hi Jessica,

Thanks for all your advice, I find it very useful! Would be absolutely grateful to hear your thoughts on this - how would you approach "What does the role of a commercial lawyer in business mean to you"? Should I only demonstrate my knowledge of being a commercial lawyer, or link it back to myself personally? Thank you so much! The word limit is 250.

 

[Sammie]

Hi Jessica and Jaysen,

How fatal to your chances is it to accidently interpret a "end of day tomorrow" deadline for completing an online test, as literally 11.59pm of that day, rather than the end of the business day?

Should you email in and apologise/say something?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thanks so much Jessica!

Could I also hear your advice for this question:

Cover Letter
What excites you in becoming a Commercial Solicitor; - What drives you to apply to Baker McKenzie; and - Three key skills you are developing to ensure you are ready to start your Training Contract.

With regards to the "Three key skills you are developing"

- Should I only use experiences (work, internships, extra-curricular that are very recent/ongoing?) Or could they be a few years back? Given that I have to be currently developing them.

Thank you so much!

Considering you won’t have much word count to describe examples, I don’t think it’s necessarily relevant. It can be things you have done for a while but I’d suggest they need to be things you are still doing.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica,

Thanks for all your advice, I find it very useful! Would be absolutely grateful to hear your thoughts on this - how would you approach "What does the role of a commercial lawyer in business mean to you"? Should I only demonstrate my knowledge of being a commercial lawyer, or link it back to myself personally? Thank you so much! The word limit is 250.

It needs to be linked back to you - most things in an application do.

To me this is a good opportunity to get across your motivation for the job.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica and Jaysen,

How fatal to your chances is it to accidently interpret a "end of day tomorrow" deadline for completing an online test, as literally 11.59pm of that day, rather than the end of the business day?

Should you email in and apologise/say something?

If you have missed the deadline, it’s fatal. If you still have time to do the assessment, do it ahead of 5.00pm just to be safe.

Unless you have mitigating circumstances, don’t email in - just learn the lesson as one not to do again.

 

[wwood]

It needs to be linked back to you - most things in an application do.

To me this is a good opportunity to get across your motivation for the job.

Thanks so much!

 

[R203]

It’s the firm’s approach to its employees and also any links to people who are not their clients.

Hi Jessica, just to add on;

- once I have identified the firm's approach towards employees, how best should I link that back to my own personal experiences?

Thank you!

 

[Sammie]

If you have missed the deadline, it’s fatal. If you still have time to do the assessment, do it ahead of 5.00pm just to be safe.

Unless you have mitigating circumstances, don’t email in - just learn the lesson as one not to do again.

Thank you Jessica, definitely noted. Do you think "end of day" would imply 5pm for a weekend deadline, just as it would a weekday deadline? I didn't really think twice about it potentially meaning 5pm at the time to be honest, because it was a "end of day sunday" deadline.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica, just to add on;

- once I have identified the firm's approach towards employees, how best should I link that back to my own personal experiences?

Thank you!

Unfortunately this is a difficult question to answer without knowing specifically what the links are from the firm to you.

But some instances/examples could be:

• if the firm is very strong on diversity, why is this important to you/when have you sought working with diverse groups.
  
• If the firm values entrepreneurship in it's employees, how have you demonstrated this attitude
  
• If the firm values community, again where or when have you shown this same attitude

Basically you need to show how the firm’s values towards people align to yours or why it would provide you with an environment in which you would thrive

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thank you Jessica, definitely noted. Do you think "end of day" would imply 5pm for a weekend deadline, just as it would a weekday deadline? I didn't really think twice about it potentially meaning 5pm at the time to be honest, because it was a "end of day sunday" deadline.

Thank you Jessica, definitely noted. Do you think "end of day" would imply 5pm for a weekend deadline, just as it would a weekday deadline? I didn't really think twice about it potentially meaning 5pm at the time to be honest, because it was a "end of day sunday" deadline.

There isn't such a thing as 5.00pm/close of business on a Sunday as it isn't a day that people work on. End of day on a Sunday is most likely to mean 23.59.

If you can access the test just complete it. If you can't, you've missed the deadline.

 

[ZH]

Hi Jessica,

A firm I'm applying to uses a sector approach - A question in the application form is:

Which sector interests you most?

• I am interested in Real estate because I work in property, achieved highest grades in it, enjoy transactional work and the firm is one of the UK's largest real estate teams.
• However, tech is also interesting to me and I recently attended several tech networking events and I am blogging about this to further my understanding in this growing and 'current' sector. The firm is innovative and has been involved in more tech

Which sector would you advice me to answer considering the above - both are interesting to me.

 

[Jaysen]

Thank you for such a quick response, Jessica. I'll keep that in mind.



Hi Jaysen, thank you for your reply! That's what I've done so far - I've been talking about the times I've met with the firm, when I was able to tour their office, stand out conversations with representatives and the event I set up for them. Does that sound about right? Or, should I focus more on my qualities vs what they look for?

All the best

Generally, I'd keep the answer focused on you/what makes you stand out.

I still think those are unique points worth mentioning though and would try to fit them in. For example, you might say you believe your experiences make you well suited to the firm based on what you learned meeting them (and then reference your experiences to back this up). Alternatively, you could have a short paragraph where you justify your motivation for the firm.

 

[R203]

Thank you so much!

Unfortunately this is a difficult question to answer without knowing specifically what the links are from the firm to you.

But some instances/examples could be:

• if the firm is very strong on diversity, why is this important to you/when have you sought working with diverse groups.
  
• If the firm values entrepreneurship in it's employees, how have you demonstrated this attitude
  
• If the firm values community, again where or when have you shown this same attitude

Basically you need to show how the firm’s values towards people align to yours or why it would provide you with an environment in which you would thrive

Thank you so much!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica,

A firm I'm applying to uses a sector approach - A question in the application form is:

Which sector interests you most?

• I am interested in Real estate because I work in property, achieved highest grades in it, enjoy transactional work and the firm is one of the UK's largest real estate teams.
• However, tech is also interesting to me and I recently attended several tech networking events and I am blogging about this to further my understanding in this growing and 'current' sector. The firm is innovative and has been involved in more tech

Which sector would you advice me to answer considering the above - both are interesting to me.

I can’t tell you which one. Also there is no right or wrong answer.

Things you should consider though:

1) where is the firms strength?
2) are you more likely to gain experience in one over the other as a trainee?
3) are you more likely to qualify into one than the other?
4) will your total application look one dimensional if you list that? (Ie - is everything else also just about the same sector).

If when thinking of the above the answer could still be both, then just choose which one you think you are most interested in.

there’s nothing stopping you putting an exceptionally brief sentence into your answer to reference you have a similar level of interest in the sector you don’t describe.

 

[R203]

Hi Jessica,
I am presently working on an application which has a few questions and a cover letter.

One of the questions is:
Please detail all your key achievements and interests to date. Use this section to tell us any academic prizes, events, societies or roles with community programmes that you feel are significant in supporting your application (300 words max)

Am I required to "fill in the holes" in my application by writing about the stuff I did but did not cover in the rest of the questions and cover letter? Or am I supposed to write about everything I did again, but phrased in a different way? Presently I am holding a committee position at uni, but have already covered that in the cover letter. Should I write about it again?

Thank you so much!