Hi, I keep receiving rejections post interview and I am really trying not to lose hope. Rejection post interview hits a lot harder than rejection post online application form. I'm waiting for my feedback, but I am thinking about my approach during interviews, and I would really appreciate some advice.
I have read not to be casual, but to be chatty and show personality. I have tried to show personality, but I am worried that I don't come across serious enough as my personality is naturally bubbly and smiley (not fake, but naturally), and I'm not sure whether to tone it down and talk with less emotion in my voice to be more business like?
Sorry I just feel clueless at this point. Probably overanalysing but curious what sort of tone people go for in their interviews
I also always feel nervous and I think its definitely obvious I'm slightly nervous, but I don't know HOW to not be?!! Do law firms prefer people who just have no nerves? Not sure how to tackle this if that is the case
It saddens me to see people get down about rejections and I only wish you could jump to that point in the future when you're receiving your offer call and can look back and understand how it all worked itself out in the end... I am confident that it will happen for you, as it did for me and the other applicants I know!
Long story short, you most likely do not need to change anything and the firm that rejected you now is just not the right fit for you. I remember coming across some fellow candidates at ACs and on vac schemes who were the most charming, poised and knowledgeable law candidates you could imagine who came out without an offer - whilst there would be candidates getting offers that did not seem to be so strong. Of course this is all very anecdotal and I am sure that every candidate who ends up with a TC has a huge amount to offer, but I do believe that coming across as a 'textbook candidate' in an interview (ie calm, perfectly prepared etc) is simply not that important to firms.
Consequently, I would not worry AT ALL about trying to change your demeanour or the way you come across in interviews - I am sure you are absolutely lovely and that any rejections for these reasons would be solely an issue of not being a good fit with the firm in question. The way to mitigate the disappointment that such rejections cause is simply by submitting as many applications as you can - a post-AC rejection hurts much less when you have a lot more applications in the pipeline (as I know from experience).
To address the specific issue you brought up, however, my first piece of advice would be to get feedback from firms where you are able to do so! When firms provide feedback, I think they will likely point to something tangible that you can work on. I have never heard of feedback that consisted of 'You were too nervous' or 'You were too happy/bubbly' or the like. That said, there may be some comments such as 'You did not seem enthusiastic enough about the firm' or 'You did not convince us of your motivation to pursue a career in commercial law' which may seem to be a critique of your demeanour but are actually much more insightful. To this end, the two areas which I think can be improved are commercial awareness and firm-specific research. If it comes across that a candidate simply does not know enough about the career or the firm that they want to enter then that could be a problem. Make sure you find work that the firm does which really appeals to you and your background and spend as long as you can in your spare time reading about commercial developments in current affairs and thinking about how they may affect the legal industry.
With these approaches, I am sure that you will start finding well-earned success! Do let me know whether you have any more queries about this as I really think it is important that you don't get too down about being in a situation all of us future trainees have been in
