Hi
@summer207, I am copying over the same answer that I used to respond to your post in the thread,
Keep getting ACs but always feel like I fail them... so that I can respond to your answer here as well and perhaps reach a wider audience in the process
I rarely felt that I had 'done enough', but I also knew when to stop. I only felt
unprepared for an interview if I had not thoroughly gone back over all of the following six things in advance of the interview (which only happened once I think, when I had a coursework deadline the night before an interview):
- First and foremost, I compiled a thorough document dedicated to my research about the firm, including deals, partners, awards etc. and a structured list of bullet points on how to answer 'Why this firm' if it came up. Often I would end up with way too much information and have to be very rigorous about going through and deciding what was a priority to mention and what I would only bring up if the interviewers asked subsequent questions. I would not worry abut having done too little research (unless you really have not done much research at all) because usually the problem is having too much information to draw from.
- I reminded myself of my other 'general' answers to questions including 'Tell us about yourself and your journey', 'Why did you study your university degree?', 'Why are you interested in law/commercial law?', 'What are your strengths/weaknesses?' and 'What makes you stand out as a candidate?' I always got asked 3/5 of those questions.
- I went back over which examples I would use for seven key competency questions on teamwork, resilience, ability to take constructive criticism, leadership, integrity, communication and dealing with failure/making a mistake. If I had one example for each of those, I tended to be fine and very rarely found myself searching for an answer on the spot. If the question did not quite map onto one of those competencies, I could often still use the same example and alter my conclusion slightly in order to address the exact question being asked.
- I prepared two commercial answers - one about a general commercial news story of interest to me and another specifically about a deal that the firm had recently worked on.
- If we were given the names of our interviewers, then I made sure to know a bit about them and their work, just in case it could fuel any conversation or inform my questions later on.
- If the interview involved a case study, I always went back over @Jacob Miller's comprehensive case study advice the night before.
If I had completed these first six things then I felt ready. I would feel comfortable going to sleep the night before an interview if this was all that I had done. In whatever extra time I may have happened to have, however, I would do everything else I could think of. This included preparing answers to more questions from
this list, thinking about the types of questions I may want to ask the interviewers and generally searching online for any advice about interviewing at the firm that I could find. If I did not have time to do these final things, however, then I would not stress out!
Bearing all of this in mind, know that firms
will try to ask you questions that you have not prepared for, and they will almost certainly succeed at least once. So be prepared for that moment where a question comes that makes you think, 'Ok, you win - I simply don't have this one prepared'. Allow yourself to confidently admit to yourself that you did not prepare an answer and then ask for a few seconds to think. Don't beat yourself up over not preparing enough and don't worry if this answer does not end up being your very best answer. Everyone will face this moment at least once in an interview and as long as you don't let it startle you, then I am sure you will think up a decent answer on the spot!
After every interview, I would make a note of all the questions I was asked and what my answer was, whether it was good enough, or whether I should think of a new one for next time. This process of learning and improving after each interview really helped me improve from one to the next!
All of this is to say - don't stress! I am sure that you are extremely well prepared already, but feel free to have a look over these suggestions if you want to be able to put your mind at rest
