Reed Smith Hong Kong Winter Vacation Scheme Question

[jq]

@Jaysen @Jessica Booker @Daniel Boden @Dheepa
Hi TCLA team, I am currently applying for the Hong Kong vacation scheme and would love your input on this. What exactly are employers looking for in this question, and how would I be able to stand out in my answer?

"If you and your competitor together appear before a potential customer to pitch for a business opportunity, and after both of you have presented your respective proposals, the potential customer raises his voice at both you and your competitor, how would you handle the situation?"

The answers I can think of are very general, like displaying professionalism and showcasing that we care for our customers by ensuring their needs are heard. I also mentioned that it is necessary to draw the line if customers are unwilling to cooperate, but there's really limited concrete and specific answers I can think of. I believe there are two elements in this question: a) dealing with the angry customer; b) differentiating ourselves from our competitor at the same time. I appreciate any suggestion or advice. Thank you!

 

[Jessica Booker]

@Jaysen @Jessica Booker @Daniel Boden @Dheepa
Hi TCLA team, I am currently applying for the Hong Kong vacation scheme and would love your input on this. What exactly are employers looking for in this question, and how would I be able to stand out in my answer?

"If you and your competitor together appear before a potential customer to pitch for a business opportunity, and after both of you have presented your respective proposals, the potential customer raises his voice at both you and your competitor, how would you handle the situation?"

The answers I can think of are very general, like displaying professionalism and showcasing that we care for our customers by ensuring their needs are heard. I also mentioned that it is necessary to draw the line if customers are unwilling to cooperate, but there's really limited concrete and specific answers I can think of. I believe there are two elements in this question: a) dealing with the angry customer; b) differentiating ourselves from our competitor at the same time. I appreciate any suggestion or advice. Thank you!

It is hard to know the specifics but I suspect there are something here about mutual respect and that given the raised voice is for both parties that this isn’t the opportunity to bad-mouth the competition, but instead support them as best you can whilst still trying to sell your product/services.

Your competitor can easily be someone you still have to work with in the legal sector, or could be a future potential employee/colleague and so to me there is something here about supporting them too in this situation.

I could be wrong though - it really depends on the firm’s culture.

 

[jq]

@Jessica Booker thank you so much for your reply! in addition, would i be expected to include my own experience or any of the firm's value in the answer or sticking directly to answering the question of what I would do will suffice?

 

[Jessica Booker]

@Jessica Booker thank you so much for your reply! in addition, would i be expected to include my own experience or any of the firm's value in the answer or sticking directly to answering the question of what I would do will suffice?

I would just stick to the answer unless you feel you have a previous example that really aligns with /is very similar to this scenario.

I think you can try to weave in one or two of the firm’s values if they naturally fit into the answer/scenario though.