Every aspiring lawyer has to navigate a number of interviews, which present an opportunity to impress hiring partners and show them why you’d be a great fit for the firm. In this series, we look at some of the most common interview questions that applicants will face, and our expert team from Herbert Smith Freehills demonstrate what makes a good or bad answer – and why.
This week, it’s a question that’s likely to pop up in an interview for almost any job, but hiring partners at law firms want to hear the right things from prospective trainees. What skills do you have that make you well-suited to this career?
Two good answers from which to take inspiration this week:
A mixture of self-reflection and some thought as to how those skills would translate to a commercial environment work well in this example.
Although this answer goes on for a little too long, and in perhaps too much detail, it draws on the candidate’s academic abilities, but also introduces real-world commercial awareness skills, which firms find attractive.
Next time, the bane of every interviewee’s preparations: what is your weakness? Come back next week to hear more, and don’t forget to share your interview tips, pitfalls and experiences at @TRLegalUKI.
