With the application season in full swing, I was thinking back through some of the trials and tribulations of my own experiences going through the process. With that in mind, I wanted to share the story of my first interview- hopefully, as a bit of reassurance (and a good laugh) for those who are currently in the midst of application madness. Suffice to say, it was a train wreck.
It was November 2018 when I applied for a first year scheme with a Magic Circle firm. It was my first ever 'proper' application and, frankly, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. To my surprise, I received an invitation to an assessment centre.
Now, as a preface to the rest of the story, I had been feeling slightly under the weather for about a week preceding this invitation: I was still recovering from an emergency spinal operation I had needed a couple of months prior (a story for another day), so I put it down to this and duly carried on with life.
I spent the next couple of weeks preparing for this interview, all the while having absolutely no idea what I was doing. This was my first ever interview for literally anything, so it's fair to say I was diving in at the deep end. Soon enough, it was the final days leading up to the interview. I'd been feeling steadily more unwell in the lead up to this, but, in all my wisdom, figured it was best to "just power through", as I put it to a mate at the time, until this interview was over.
As the interview day arrived, I woke up in the AirBnB (I had travelled from Aberdeen to London for the interview), and knew as soon as my alarm went that I was struggling. I felt like death warmed up: clammy, shivering, brain was cloudy and I definitely wasn't firing on all cylinders. I put this down to pre-interview jitters, got suited up and made my way to the firm's office after a couple of strong coffees.
A short while after arriving, I was called to the first competency interview by a Senior Associate whose questions I stumbled and waffled through. My brain and mouth decided it would be a great time to stop working in tandem, and I was barely able to get through the first few questions without a lot of rambling and very little substance in my answers. Unfortunately, I'm a terrible judge of time so had no idea how long the interview was going on for, which really didn't help. Eventually, it was finished... the quality of my answers had picked up slightly towards the end, but I knew it wasn't going well at all.
Little did I know, however, that the competency interview had been a field of dreams in comparison to what was about to happen in the subsequent Partner-led case study interview. Again, I'd never done a case study interview before and this was before I knew of groups like Rare who could offer practice resources.
I'll spare all the toe-curling, wince-inducing detail at this point, but, suffice to say, it didn't go very well. I had absolutely zero idea what I was doing and, worse still, was feeling more and more ill by the minute. From what I remember (I think I've perhaps repressed some of the worst bits in the deepest parts of my subconscious by now), I could barely answer a single question and, for the most part, had almost no clue what I was even being asked.
After the first competency interview, I had become resigned to the overwhelming probability that I would be rejected from the scheme and, by the end of the case study interview, I was desperate to simply be put out of my misery and have the day finish. Mercifully, that time arrived and I left the office utterly dejected and, more pressing, feeling like I was about to keel over at any minute.
I managed to find my way to the nearest hospital (by this time it was about 7pm) and was urgently rushed to have bloods taken. The results? Septicaemia, caused by complications from the scar that was still healing from my spinal surgery prior. I was taken to a ward as I would need some IV antibiotics and also some further surgery to fix the problem... and, believe it or not, completely forgotten about. The staff at the hospital forgot to come and give me any antibiotics and also forgot to put me on the list for surgery in spite of me asking several times. I eventually had to discharge myself at around 1am and, because the tubes were off and I wasn't carrying my wallet (had left it in the AirBnB as it looked awfully bulky in my suit trousers... not a mistake I'll make again) so couldn't pay for anything (hadn't set up Apple Pay on that phone), walked to the next-closest hospital. I arrived about an hour later, explained the situation and was finally taken care of.
A few days later, I was phoned by someone from the Grad Rec team of the firm I'd had the interview at- who didn't know anything of my illness- and, shocker, didn't get the scheme. They certainly didn't pull any punches in the feedback part of the call... although didn't quite know what to say when I explained the full context for my sub-par performance.
I guess the moral to the story is that horror interviews will absolutely happen, it's a part of the journey and, as horrendous as they are at the time, they give you a bar to try and beat in the future. Hopefully nobody reading this will have to go through quite as much of a train wreck as that and, instead, it can serve as a humorous line in the sand for "hey, at least it wasn't as bad as his" to those currently applying. I've learned to laugh at it now, but I still wouldn't recommend attending an interview with blood poisoning.
Please do share your own experiences of car crash interviews below! I think we can all benefit from a little laugh at our own expense every now and then.
It was November 2018 when I applied for a first year scheme with a Magic Circle firm. It was my first ever 'proper' application and, frankly, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. To my surprise, I received an invitation to an assessment centre.
Now, as a preface to the rest of the story, I had been feeling slightly under the weather for about a week preceding this invitation: I was still recovering from an emergency spinal operation I had needed a couple of months prior (a story for another day), so I put it down to this and duly carried on with life.
I spent the next couple of weeks preparing for this interview, all the while having absolutely no idea what I was doing. This was my first ever interview for literally anything, so it's fair to say I was diving in at the deep end. Soon enough, it was the final days leading up to the interview. I'd been feeling steadily more unwell in the lead up to this, but, in all my wisdom, figured it was best to "just power through", as I put it to a mate at the time, until this interview was over.
As the interview day arrived, I woke up in the AirBnB (I had travelled from Aberdeen to London for the interview), and knew as soon as my alarm went that I was struggling. I felt like death warmed up: clammy, shivering, brain was cloudy and I definitely wasn't firing on all cylinders. I put this down to pre-interview jitters, got suited up and made my way to the firm's office after a couple of strong coffees.
A short while after arriving, I was called to the first competency interview by a Senior Associate whose questions I stumbled and waffled through. My brain and mouth decided it would be a great time to stop working in tandem, and I was barely able to get through the first few questions without a lot of rambling and very little substance in my answers. Unfortunately, I'm a terrible judge of time so had no idea how long the interview was going on for, which really didn't help. Eventually, it was finished... the quality of my answers had picked up slightly towards the end, but I knew it wasn't going well at all.
Little did I know, however, that the competency interview had been a field of dreams in comparison to what was about to happen in the subsequent Partner-led case study interview. Again, I'd never done a case study interview before and this was before I knew of groups like Rare who could offer practice resources.
I'll spare all the toe-curling, wince-inducing detail at this point, but, suffice to say, it didn't go very well. I had absolutely zero idea what I was doing and, worse still, was feeling more and more ill by the minute. From what I remember (I think I've perhaps repressed some of the worst bits in the deepest parts of my subconscious by now), I could barely answer a single question and, for the most part, had almost no clue what I was even being asked.
After the first competency interview, I had become resigned to the overwhelming probability that I would be rejected from the scheme and, by the end of the case study interview, I was desperate to simply be put out of my misery and have the day finish. Mercifully, that time arrived and I left the office utterly dejected and, more pressing, feeling like I was about to keel over at any minute.
I managed to find my way to the nearest hospital (by this time it was about 7pm) and was urgently rushed to have bloods taken. The results? Septicaemia, caused by complications from the scar that was still healing from my spinal surgery prior. I was taken to a ward as I would need some IV antibiotics and also some further surgery to fix the problem... and, believe it or not, completely forgotten about. The staff at the hospital forgot to come and give me any antibiotics and also forgot to put me on the list for surgery in spite of me asking several times. I eventually had to discharge myself at around 1am and, because the tubes were off and I wasn't carrying my wallet (had left it in the AirBnB as it looked awfully bulky in my suit trousers... not a mistake I'll make again) so couldn't pay for anything (hadn't set up Apple Pay on that phone), walked to the next-closest hospital. I arrived about an hour later, explained the situation and was finally taken care of.
A few days later, I was phoned by someone from the Grad Rec team of the firm I'd had the interview at- who didn't know anything of my illness- and, shocker, didn't get the scheme. They certainly didn't pull any punches in the feedback part of the call... although didn't quite know what to say when I explained the full context for my sub-par performance.
I guess the moral to the story is that horror interviews will absolutely happen, it's a part of the journey and, as horrendous as they are at the time, they give you a bar to try and beat in the future. Hopefully nobody reading this will have to go through quite as much of a train wreck as that and, instead, it can serve as a humorous line in the sand for "hey, at least it wasn't as bad as his" to those currently applying. I've learned to laugh at it now, but I still wouldn't recommend attending an interview with blood poisoning.
Please do share your own experiences of car crash interviews below! I think we can all benefit from a little laugh at our own expense every now and then.
