Hey Guest, do you have a question for graduate recruitment? Gemma Baker from Willkie is live to answer your questions!
Best way of describing it is like a Watson Glaser on steroids! You can’t go back and review your answers (it seems).
I'd take it as identifying what makes you uniquely suitable for the role, where you have showcased their values and things like that, and how you could apply your skills once hired. The two parts of the question really feed into one another imo
Hi @MayaM0921 , @Andrei Radu would be able to tell you more, but just to make a note on the last part of your question - it’s totally fine to repeat qualities and examples across multiple interviews for the same firm. Additionally, it is unlikely that your interviewer for an AC would have watched your video interview beforehand.
Hi @desperateTCseeker1998 , @Andrei Radu made a really helpful post on this earlier, which I have linked above. It appears the question is a hybrid between ‘why the firm’ and ‘why you’. In answering the ‘why you’ arm, there are multiple things you could cover, as you could touch on any skills or experiences that are in line with that of a trainee, and which would ultimately help you contribute to the firm’s success long term. For example, have you worked with a business? What skills did you develop? Any challenges along the way? How did you overcome them? Have you worked to build your commercial awareness? How would you use this to contribute to the firm’s long term growth strategy? Have you had a look at this strategy on their publications? Could you link the two together? Thus, you could use an example of an experience you successfully went through and showcase how you could use comparable methods to contribute to Covington’s growth. Although often overlooked, another way you could contribute to the firm’s success is by showing in the application that you understand what it takes to be a commercial lawyer. This is where correlating between different skills and experiences come into play again. However, if ’why commercial law’ is a question on its own, then don‘t dwell on it here.Hi @MayaM0921 and thanks for the kind words! To firstly deal with the structure of the 'Why you?' answer, I think what you want is something like this:
As for the second part of your question (regarding what skills/examples to pick) I think you have to be strategic in balancing both trying to have the most convincing possible 'why me' answer and in not boxing yourself in a position where you will be forced to repeat yourself. My strategy was to first come up with the best possible answer I could for the 'Why the firm' question, then the best possible answer for the 'Why the firm' question, then the best possible answer to the 'Why commercial law', and only then draft my 'Why you?' answer. This was because I found that only a few of my experiences and achievements, could be connected to firm USPs, slightly more could be connected to my why commercial reasoning, but a lot of them could be used for showcasing a relevant skill or attribute.
- Give a high level summary of what your answer will be, something like 'There are three reasons why you should offer me a place: my critical thinking skills, my organizational skills, and my teamwork abilities, all of which are essential for a trainee solicitor'.
- Take the first skill/ability/attribute that you mentioned, and explain to the firm how an experience or achievement of yours demonstrates it. Use the STAR structure when walking the interviewer through the experience.
- Explain how the skill/ability/attribute is relevant for the job of a trainee solicitor.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the other skills/abilities/attributes.
- Conclude by once again giving a short summary of what your answer has been, something like 'So, to conclude, my experiences demonstrate I possess excellent critical thinking, organizational and teamwork skills, and this makes me an ideal fit for the job'.
Beyond that, in drafting my 'Why you' answer I would just use the most impressive leftover experiences, and maybe reference one or two of the experiences in the 'Why commercial law' or 'Why firm' answers if particularly impressive. While you could still be asked a competency question in the interview that forces you to be repetitive, there's no way to eliminate that risk, as there's no way of predicting what competency you will be asked about. However, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Firstly, the interviewers know candidates will not have an unlimited list of experiences to leverage, and will definitely not mind repeating one if you also consider it and discuss it from a different angle. Secondly, while this was something I worried about a lot before my interviews (as at least compared to some of my peers, my CV was not as full) in practice it was not a situation I often found myself in. If anything, the opposite happened more, in that I would not get to speak about more than 2-3 experiences and sometimes I would finish the interview without having mentioned some of my most impressive achievements.
Hey @marisachr , good question. This is a tough one, particularly because competencies differ between firms and it is rather difficult to know which is the ‘right‘ answer. The truth is, often times there is no right answer. I’ve gone to several presentations by the providers of these SJTs which all say to trust your gut and intuition. Avoid spending too long on a question as this could make you run the risk of switching from the right answer, to the wrong one.
Hey @helloj , if spring is your first preference, I suggest reaching out to graduate recruitment with an update on the situation.
I found out I passed 2 days after completing the test. My report was ‘further exploration’ for all areas. Best of luck with applications!!
Hey @gazdgazd11 , good question. I’m sure you’re familiar with this - often times applications will have the section which asks ‘have you applied to X before’. You could include it there and perhaps leave it out of the other parts of the application, so as to maximise your word count on the other elements with more added value.
Hey @KBanana , @Andrei Radu will have additional thoughts on this, but from my experience;
Hey @seaweed.bond , good questions. For the first question, I have actually made a post on this earlier, which I have linked below;Hope everyone is having a good weekend
1. When it comes to 'Why this firm?', should you still link your points to yourself? E.g. if you mention a specific practice area, their secondment opportunities etc., should you mention a personal experience/attribute that supports why you're even mentioning these points?
2. For scenario-based questions (e.g. 'What would you do if [...]?') is there a template that can be used (like the STAR structure for competency questions)? I'm asking because, at the start of your responses, couldn't you just say that you could refer to the firm's policy manual/contact your supervisor if there is an issue?
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