Description
How to Do Well on Job Interviews and Why You Should Avoid Boilerplate Answers
[00:00:00] I think you made a good point about how no amount of research can tell you where a firm will be a good fit. I remember that I had a boilerplate answer about why I wanted to work at a mid-sized firm that I used and several callbacks. It had to do with close collaboration or something like that. One firm looked at me like I was nuts. Another firm said, that perfectly describes our firm. I don't know how you can know that. Both were shot in the dark one positive response, one negative. My question is, at the callback stage, what are the things that I can prepare to talk about? How can I show a specific interest in the firm beyond just fluff in a way that will resonate, and what things should I know about the culture, or is that important?.
Okay. The first thing, when you do a callback, most of the firms, you shouldn't have these kinds of boilerplate answers about close collaboration and that sort of thing, because in most cases, especially if you don't know what it's like to work in a midsize firm, then you can't be answering that.
I remember one time I was at an interview and gave a similar answer about close collaboration or something like that. The guy took off his glasses and, so do you have any idea what a law firm is really and how it works? And I thought that was funny.
I responded well to that, but the point is like, [00:01:00] if you're talking about mid-sized firms, you don't want to give a boilerplate answer. Everything you say you want to personalize.
You shouldn't just say why I want to work in a mid-sized firm. You want to personalize and say things that you like about the particular firm and the people you've spoken to.
Most law firms do not expect you to understand everything about them when you come in. That would be insane for them totoo, especially if you're like a law student or a young attorney. But if you can show that you've done your homework and investigated things and you're interested in the work.
I think that typically goes to the farthest. In the interviews that I have seen people do well and understand the kind of work that they're doing? Like you've done the type of work and you can talk about the work with a certain level of enthusiasm. That can be very helpful.
It's about working on top of work and avoiding boilerplate answers. And just seem very interested in the work. That's pretty much the way it works and people are going to look at you [00:02:00] and get a sense right away. If they think you're a good fit or not. So it's not necessarily something that you can fix and you don't need to worry too much about it.
Try to avoid shot in the dark answers. Everything you're saying should be true and you should believe, and you should understand. And then you shouldn't try to make things up necessarily.
If you can do better at that, then you'll probably do much better in interviews and you should always over-preparetake. Spending an hour, preparing and reading about a law firm before an interview is probably going to make you five or six more times more likely to get an offer from them. If you've done your homework and to write up about them, because people like to understand that people know about them and it shows you take them seriously. And visualizing yourself doing well in interviews. And things that you've done, that are common the, to the firm can be helpful too. So the better you do about those things is helpful.
Now, in terms of the culture, they're the ones that are going to say, if you're a cultural fit. Not necessarily you. You can throw out some clues, but that's going to be a judgment [00:03:00] call and so you need to understand the best way of doing that.
Understanding the culture, just getting a sense of it. And when you go in there. It's the best way of doing it. You can't fake any of that stuff, is the problem. 'Cause if you fake it, people pick it up.
