Hi
@anna_d!
Welcome to the forum! It is great to have you join the community 🏆.
Unfortunately I cannot speak from personal experience about the
Macfarlanes interview process.
However, I can try to give you an insight into the steps I took when I heard that I had been progressed to interview.
I did a few things:
- I was a Watson's Daily subscriber and I made sure that I read all the latest editions of the newsletter to make sure I was familiar with commercial news in the lead up to my interview. I cannot recommend this resource enough (there is likely a post below which says the same thing!). Sometimes I would print these out and literally revise from them. If a particular news story caught my eye I would then research more deeply using BBC News, The Guardian etc.
- I revised using Jake Schogger's Training Contract Handbook (particularly the section on important legal terminology)
- I went through my application and pulled out potential questions that could be asked. I then prepared for these questions. I would repeat this process for the CV I submitted
- I went through a long list of competency questions and made sure I was comfortable pulling two/three relevant examples for each. See @Jaysen's list here. I would then write these down (in short form) and test myself
- I typed the firm I was interviewing with into the forum search bar and scoured the posts that came up for information
- I tried to reach out to future trainees/trainees/associates at the firm I was interviewing with to hear about their experience. If I spoke with them, I took notes and incorporated this into my preparation. Often I had already done this at application stage, but I also did this before interviews. If I had already spoken to people at the firm I reviewed the notes that I had taken during our call(s).
- I looked at recent news and other information involving/about the firm using: the firm's GR and recent news pages, The Lawyer, Lawcareers.net, Legal Cheek (particularly their trainee survey), RollOnFriday (taking what was said with a pinch of salt), The Legal 500, Chambers Student, Chambers & Partners, Lex100, LinkedIn (the list goes on). I have linked Macfarlanes' pages for you there to save you some time!
- I reviewed any notes that I had taken during any events run by the firm (e.g., law fairs, presentations, open days etc.)
- I would do a practice interview with family and/or friends
After taking the notes from the resources I listed above, I would then consolidate the highlights onto a single document. I quite like using physical paper so often it would be in a notepad. I would then double-down on my "three whys" answers (and other predictable questions) using the information that I had compiled.
Apologies for providing such a long list. I may have missed out some steps, but I hope that gives you some ideas!
One further tip:
If something goes wrong with technology during the interview, do not panic. During one of my (successful) interviews my internet went down and the Partners were left waiting for 20 minutes.
These things happen. If it were to happen, like mine were, your interviewers should be understanding. Just do your best to put it right and try not to worry!
For more
general tips for (virtual) interviews/ACs, here is a list of links from the forum:
- @AvniD's AC tips
- If the interview is CV-based, some tips from @Dheepa
- Some ideas about questions to ask at the end of interviews. More thoughts here
- @Alice G's tips for (video) interviews (these are largely still applicable to live interviews too!)
- All the links to @Jacob Miller's FANTASTIC articles. Definitely check these out.
- Advice if the interview revolves around/includes strength-based questions. Here is a useful of strength-based questions (for practicing)
- Tips for if the interview is a scenario/case study. Additional links here
Please do ask if you would like anything clarifying from the above.
If you do not have any questions, please do reach out if there is anything else!
In any event, let me know how it goes 🚀
