Hearing Back from Law Firms, Assessment Centres & Interview Tips - 2019 - 2020

[Daniel Boden]

Getting a lot of questions about norm groups.

Basically don’t worry about them. You are worrying about the wrong things if this, percentiles and raw scores are what you are fixating on.

To explain:

raw score - how many questions you get right (eg 18 out of 20)

norm group: who you are being benchmarked against. This could be your fellow applicants, it could be last year’s applicants, it could be a 1000s of people who have applied to a similar job to you across different companies.

It’s never as crude as this, but to explain. You do a WG assessment and get 5 out of 10 as a raw score. You are benchmarked against a norm group of toddlers, you’ll probably get a very high percentile. You are benchmarked against high performing qualified lawyers, and you will probably get a low percentile, even though the assessment is the same.

percentile: this is your ranking if you lined up everyone in the norm group in performance order. Those with the 99th percentile will be the strongest performers, those with the 1st percentile are the bottom performing against the norm group.

You could get 8 out of 10 as a raw score and still be lower than the 10th percentile. You could get 2 out of 10 and still be above the 90th percentile.

Thanks for this explanation @Jessica Booker - that clears it up!

 

[kslwnd]

Anyone know when it would be appropriate to contact a law firm about the status of an application? I applied to HSF quite early and got the "formally under review" email on October 7th and I've yet to hear from them...

 

[Jessica Booker]

Anyone know when it would be appropriate to contact a law firm about the status of an application? I applied to HSF quite early and got the "formally under review" email on October 7th and I've yet to hear from them...

Not until you confidently know they are interviewing for the role

 

[kslwnd]

Not until you confidently know they are interviewing for the role

I do know for sure several people have heard back with acceptances and rejections - just thought it particularly odd as I am also aware that some of these people applied after I did and I was informed that HSF reviews applications on a rolling basis. I don't want to come off as impatient though. Thank you for your help!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Just

I do know for sure several people have heard back with acceptances and rejections - just thought it particularly odd as I am also aware that some of these people applied after I did and I was informed that HSF reviews applications on a rolling basis. I don't want to come off as impatient though. Thank you for your help!

Applicants can often be held somewhere in the middle before deciding what to do with them.

Recruiters will often hold a small number of applicants back to see how their interviews go and also see what acceptance rates are like before deciding what to do with those who are on hold.

There is no harm in calling or emailing to ask for an update though. Before you do, take the following steps though:

1. log back into your application to check the status of it (if you can) and also that your email address is correct
2. Check your junk mail folders

Used to be the case that around 70-80% of people who use to contact me for an update, had been updated and just hadn’t picked up the email telling them so.

 

[Brandon93]

Just received a Bird & Bird VI invite. Can anyone who has done it before offer some guidance on what to expect? Thanks

 

[Jaysen]

Hi, with the interview question "why not consulting?" how do people formulate a really strong answer, I obviously know they're different but as I've never really considered consulting I just wanted to know if anyone has a good answer to this?

As Jess said, I'd be surprised if it's phrased this way unless you had indicated some kind of interest in consulting or made a general statement about your interest in commercial law that sounded like it could crossover to any finance profession.

Like you, I can't say I know much about what consultants do, so I think it's easier to just be open that you haven't considered it and focus on your positive interest in commercial law (whatever your reasons are), rather than trying to suggest what you wouldn't like about consultancy.

I was asked something like this before ('why not be an investment banker and be the one to drive a transaction forward?') and I used to just lean on my interest in the law as a subject.

 

[Jaysen]

Just received a Bird & Bird VI invite. Can anyone who has done it before offer some guidance on what to expect? Thanks

Great to hear Brandon, well done!

 

[Daniel Boden]

Just received a Bird & Bird VI invite. Can anyone who has done it before offer some guidance on what to expect? Thanks

Feel free to drop me a PM and I'll share my experience from last year

 

[Brandon93]

Great to hear Brandon, well done!

Thanks Jaysen!

Feel free to drop me a PM and I'll share my experience from last year

Will do Daniel!

 

[Jai C.]

Received a VI invite for Mischon De Reya - Any thoughts or previous experiences - please do share - Thank you!

 

[ikky123]

Just received TC offer from HSF.

Thanks for all the help guys

 

[123454321]

Does anyone know how long A & O take to get back to you after interview?

 

[Jaysen]

Just received TC offer from HSF.

Thanks for all the help guys

Amazing, well done you!

 

[Alice G]

Just received TC offer from HSF.

Thanks for all the help guys

Amazing!! Really well done!!

 

[arcnor]

Does anyone know how long A & O take to get back to you after interview?

At my interview last week they mentioned that we will be hearing from them this week. Did you interview on Thursday last week in the afternoon?

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Also just received my Bird & Bird VI invite. Anyone got any tips for this?

 

[Frank]

Anyone else had the AS with A&O and is happy to answer some questions please?

 

[arcnor]

Anyone else had the AS with A&O and is happy to answer some questions please?

I had an AC/Interview if that is what you mean?
Happy to help!

 

[Frank]

Yes, AC/Interview! That would be perfect, yes please - have sent you a line in pm. Thanks

 

[wwood]

I wouldn't worry! I got a call to interview for the Ashurst winter vac scheme a few days before after no contact for weeks! I got the impression they had not yet started interviewing for summer vac

Thanks for your kind message! I'm not in my penultimate year so I am a bit weary. Good luck and hope you ace it!