General Discussion Thread 2020-21

[Velikilawyer123]

Mine was competency based. Personally think strength based are easier though as you can just think logically about it, rather than being thrown off by having prepared quite a rigid answer.

Sorry if it's a bit of a dumb question, but can someone clarify what the difference is between a competency-based and a strength-based interview?

Thank you!

 

[acceleratedlaw]

has no one heard back from trowers (london) yet?

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Sorry if it's a bit of a dumb question, but can someone clarify what the difference is between a competency-based and a strength-based interview?

Thank you!

Sometimes people use the terminology incorrectly (even recruiters!) so it can be confusing...

A competency question is pulling on your past experiences to demonstrate you have the skill needed to do the job. The questions will typically start with something like “tell me about a time you have done X” “how have you done/learnt/developed Y”

Strengths based questions are supposed to be forward thinking to see how you would respond in the job. They are often scenario based questions asking you to think about how you will deal with particular situations you may face in the job or how you may react to those situations. You will typically be asked questions about how you may feel/what you may enjoy.

Sometimes companies will actually merge both of these approaches. Eg: “How would you deal with a situation where as a trainee you had been given multiple work loads by different colleagues you know you won’t be able to complete by the deadlines” and then being asked “have you had a similar situation in the past, where you have had to juggle multiple commitments? How did you manage it and how did you feel”

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

I really don’t like following up with grad recruitment if they don’t respond, but how long would you wait until emailing again? I received an email on Friday that said that if there are any questions to ask her or email grad rec in general, so I responded to her on Friday after lunch and have not heard back yet. Any advice?

you are expecting someone to respond within less than 14 hours?

How urgent is the question?

 

[Dala]

Hey everyone, just wondering if anyone has heard back from stephenson harwood? Has anyone applied to their HK or Dubai VS?

 

[AH9891]

you are expecting someone to respond within less than 14 hours?

How urgent is the question?

Well, it’s difficult to measure. If I were to take longer than an hour during office hours to respond to an email, I’d be out of a job very quickly, but then again what I do is a lot more time sensitive, which is why I wanted to clarify what would be reasonable. It’s not urgent per se, but a bit of clarity would be helpful nonetheless. The email was regarding the summer scheme still being planned to go ahead as planned as things stand, but I was on the spring one, have never been told that we are confirmed to having been moved to the summer, nor would I be able to attend as the dates don’t work for me.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Well, it’s difficult to measure. If I were to take longer than an hour during office hours to respond to an email, I’d be out of a job very quickly, but then again what I do is a lot more time sensitive, which is why I wanted to clarify what would be reasonable. It’s not urgent per se, but a bit of clarity would be helpful nonetheless. The email was regarding the summer scheme still being planned to go ahead as planned as things stand, but I was on the spring one, have never been told that we are confirmed to having been moved to the summer, nor would I be able to attend as the dates don’t work for me.

that’s completely unrealistic. Most jobs do not require you to respond to an email within an hour.

For a graduate recruiter, they may not even have read the email in that 14 hours let alone be able to respond to it. I would quite regularly get over 150 emails a day when I worked in-house, so trying to read, let alone respond to emails the same day was often not possible.

They probably don’t have an answer for you yet. Once they do, they will be in contact. If you have told them you cannot attend a summer scheme, then they probably need to speak to other people to see what else they can offer (if anything).

If you haven’t heard anything the start of next week, then contact them. They may have clearer answers then as it might be clearer what is happening with lockdown too.

 

[ZA]

has no one heard back from trowers (london) yet?

No I have not heard back from Trowers yet! The interviewer I had said I would hear back on Friday 17 or Monday 20 April. I am hoping we will hear soon.

 

[Popal]

No I have not heard back from Trowers yet! The interviewer I had said I would hear back on Friday 17 or Monday 20 April. I am hoping we will hear soon.

Assuming this is for vac scheme?

 

[AH9891]

that’s completely unrealistic. Most jobs do not require you to respond to an email within an hour.

For a graduate recruiter, they may not even have read the email in that 14 hours let alone be able to respond to it. I would quite regularly get over 150 emails a day when I worked in-house, so trying to read, let alone respond to emails the same day was often not possible.

They probably don’t have an answer for you yet. Once they do, they will be in contact. If you have told them you cannot attend a summer scheme, then they probably need to speak to other people to see what else they can offer (if anything).

If you haven’t heard anything the start of next week, then contact them. They may have clearer answers then as it might be clearer what is happening with lockdown too.

Yes I completely get that. Thank you for clarifying. I’ll wait and see I suppose.

 

[ZA]

Assuming this is for vac scheme?

yes I did the online AC for Trowers vac scheme, London

 

[Changes]

Sometimes people use the terminology incorrectly (even recruiters!) so it can be confusing...

A competency question is pulling on your past experiences to demonstrate you have the skill needed to do the job. The questions will typically start with something like “tell me about a time you have done X” “how have you done/learnt/developed Y”

Strengths based questions are supposed to be forward thinking to see how you would respond in the job. They are often scenario based questions asking you to think about how you will deal with particular situations you may face in the job or how you may react to those situations. You will typically be asked questions about how you may feel/what you may enjoy.

Sometimes companies will actually merge both of these approaches. Eg: “How would you deal with a situation where as a trainee you had been given multiple work loads by different colleagues you know you won’t be able to complete by the deadlines” and then being asked “have you had a similar situation in the past, where you have had to juggle multiple commitments? How did you manage it and how did you feel”

Second the first line. One firm explicitly said their VI was x questions and all competency based. None of them were competency questions by the usual definition. They did also say you couldn’t prepare for the questions, which was accurate.

 

[Andre]

Anyone heard from Mayer Brown post-tests for direct TC? What is the situation with VS?

 

[AH9891]

Second the first line. One firm explicitly said their VI was x questions and all competency based. None of them were competency questions by the usual definition. They did also say you couldn’t prepare for the questions, which was accurate.

i have a feeling I know exactly which firm you mean! I hated that interview! The questions were so random and I really don’t see the point in exclusively asking curveball questions And trying to trip someone with every single question. All well and good not being able to over-rehearse the answers, but that was just a bit too much!

 

[Changes]

i have a feeling I know exactly which firm you mean! I hated that interview! The questions were so random and I really don’t see the point in exclusively asking curveball questions And trying to trip someone with every single question. All well and good not being able to over-rehearse the answers, but that was just a bit too much!

Haha, yeah. Especially with only 30 seconds to prepare. The first question was a nightmare. I was surprised to hear I was successful. I guess it tests how well you think on your feet and how you cope with pressure. As well as giving some insight into your personality but that first question I was racking my brain for a time I’d been in that situation and can only assume most others struggled as much as I did.

 

[csyn]

Hey everyone, just wondering if anyone has heard back from stephenson harwood? Has anyone applied to their HK or Dubai VS?

PM'd!

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Second the first line. One firm explicitly said their VI was x questions and all competency based. None of them were competency questions by the usual definition. They did also say you couldn’t prepare for the questions, which was accurate.

Competency questions can be non "tell me about a time questions" - basically they are just anything that is assessing a competency (e.g. team working, communication, analytical skills, commercial awareness. So "what do you think of the government's response to Covid-19?" could still be a competency question as such.

Strengths based questions are often looking for the same "competencies" or attribute, it is just that they are asking them in a much more open ended manner. Competency questions tend to be more direct and specific, while strengths based questions tend to be more open to interpretation, so you can literally show off YOUR strengths rather than the competency you are being asked to demonstrate in competency questions.

In my view, a good interview would have a mix of both sets of questions and the idea that an interview is either strengths or competency is a load of HR Marketing spin by business psychologists who need to sell products to employers.

 

[gg999]

Well, it’s difficult to measure. If I were to take longer than an hour during office hours to respond to an email, I’d be out of a job very quickly, but then again what I do is a lot more time sensitive, which is why I wanted to clarify what would be reasonable. It’s not urgent per se, but a bit of clarity would be helpful nonetheless. The email was regarding the summer scheme still being planned to go ahead as planned as things stand, but I was on the spring one, have never been told that we are confirmed to having been moved to the summer, nor would I be able to attend as the dates don’t work for me.

This is seriously unrealistic, you can't be serious can you? Expecting someone to reply to all emails that come in within an hour is extremely unrealistic.

In the grand scheme of things, your query is not that important. Grad rec are probably working extremely hard with sorting important things out and will update you once they have more clarity on the situation. You have to remember alongside replying to emails, they are busy with organising a million other things and dealing with current worried trainee intakes. I would wait patiently or look at their social media to see if there have been any updates made. I do understand this is a worrying and uncertain time but everyone is in the same boat.

If you just named the firm in question, someone may already know the answer and that would have maybe saved you time waiting for a answer from gred rec (not sure why people on this forum don't do this anyway, especially since a lot of people are anonymous on this platform and the questions asked generally wouldn't impact vacation scheme/training contract interviews/offers.)

 

[AH9891]

This is seriously unrealistic, you can't be serious can you? Expecting someone to reply to all emails that come in within an hour is extremely unrealistic.

In the grand scheme of things, your query is not that important. Grad rec are probably working extremely hard with sorting important things out and will update you once they have more clarity on the situation. You have to remember alongside replying to emails, they are busy with organising a million other things and dealing with current worried trainee intakes. I would wait patiently or look at their social media to see if there have been any updates made. I do understand this is a worrying and uncertain time but everyone is in the same boat.

If you just named the firm in question, someone may already know the answer and that would have maybe saved you time waiting for a answer from gred rec (not sure why people on this forum don't do this anyway, especially since a lot of people are anonymous on this platform and the questions asked generally wouldn't impact vacation scheme/training contract interviews/offers.)

If you had read my whole post you would have seen that my question was specifically about how many days one should wait. At no point did I suggest that anyone should respond within an hour, I merely said that I’m expected to, so would like some input as to what is normal. So instead of attacking me, maybe read the whole thing first!

 

[ZH]

Hi all - I haven't posted here on a while but since social distancing or the few weeks after we stayed at home, the forum seems to have some tensions - I hope we are all staying healthy and patient, positive and calm. It gets difficult and its easier said than done but we can choose kindness over anger and understanding over ignorance Let's keep this forum as positive as it always has been!!