Has anyone done the AC for
Freshfields direct TC? If so, do you have any tips for the written exercise and the analytical interview? Stressing about AC's and trying to prepare for them anyways...
TCLA crowd doing well with the FBD AC invites. Think this is now the 5th person I know pm here whose got on. Here’s the advice I’ve given everyone else:
personal interview:
Know your personal statement inside out and anticipate the questions you might get from what you have mentioned on there or what might be missing.
don’t purposely try to fit in your motivations with who your interviewers are. Just because your interviewer is a Tax later, doesn’t mean you have to have motivation for Tax.
You don’t have to know what practice areas your preferences will be in, but showing some interest in their core practice areas is a good thing.
don’t over-egg any interest in niche areas or secondments. Yes, you might get a seat/secondment but you are going to have to do seats in other areas and your more likely to qualify into core areas.
be able to explain why the day job and why the career.
be able to explain what you think you’ll be good at and what you think won’t come so naturally.
written exercise
Scrutinise everything. Check for errors in all parts (typos, misspellings, transposed numbers, incorrect dates), look for anything ambiguous or that is unclear. Make sure everything is super clear and concise.
Article interview
read the instructions carefully.
Prepare a summary of the article (and that summary should not be more than 2-3 sentences).
Use specific evidence from the article to back up what you are saying. Also use any external knowledge/opinions.
Don’t be afraid of giving an answer a go even if you aren’t sure. As long as you are clear you are not sure but you are trying to work it out/giving it a go, this will be better than saying “I don’t know”.
think about whether the companies/organisations mentioned in the article would be asking for advice on if they were clients of
Freshfields.
check the date of the article. If it’s more than 6 months old, think about what might have changed since then