Hi,
@Pola123! First of all, congrats on the progression and good luck in the VI!! I did the DLA VI last year and from what I remember it mostly had the basic usual mix of motivational/competency questions you find in video interviews. While I don't know what questions they will use this year, I would not expect a very different approach. As such, most of the tips I can give you will be the broad, generally-applicable VI tips.
However, I can list bellow (a) some examples of DLA-specific questions you may want to prepare; (b) some general VI tips; and (c) a step by step guide for interview preparation that proved very effective for both VIs and final round interviews for me:
A. DLA-specific questions:
- Why are you applying to this DLA Piper office specifically?
- What is unique about DLA Piper's international approach? Are there any disadvantages and advantages compared to other models?
- Who are our biggest rival firms, and how can you distinguish us from them?
- Why do clients keep coming back to DLA Piper?
- Tell me about a challenge and an opportunity you see for the firm?
- Tell me what attracts you to our client base and the work we specialize in?
- Which one of our practice areas are you most interested in and why?
B. General VI tips:
- Prepare really well for the big 3 (Why commercial law, Why DLA, Why me) and a few of the other very common questions (such as about a new story you have been following and its impact on the firm).
- Also, prepare for variations of the big 3 - instead of just 'Why DLA' and 'Why commercial law' independently, you could be asked both questions at the same time - 'Tell us about why do you want to be a commercial solicitor at DLA Piper'.
- Try to get to a point where you can, on the spot, answer both the independent questions and the broader combinations of questions in 1 minute, 1.5 minute, and 2 minute timeframes. Then record yourself and assess your performance. The more you do this, the more will you improve your flexibility to answer different variations of questions in varying timeframes.
- Prepare for some less common/curveball type of questions. There's no way of predicting what more unique questions DLA may go for this year, but at least one question could be more unusual. The best you can prepare for that is by improving your ability to think of the spot and flexibility in how you can refer to your experiences.
- Do not overcommit when you first start answering a question. This was by far the biggest issue for me last year. I would try to be structured and signpost, so I would start my answer by saying 'I will give you three/four reasons why ...'. However, midway through articulating my answer I would realise I did not have enough time to comprehensively state what I indented to. Thus, I would have to sacrifice either on the quality of my explanations or just not talk through everything I said I would, neither of which is a good look. As such, when in doubt, go for less rather than more. Your purpose should not be to blow away the recruiters, but to simply communicate good substantive points in a clear, concise, and composed manner.
C.
A step-by-step preparation guide:
Would appreciate some tips
