hello this week we are back with more top tips for your training contract journey
in particular in this video today i'm going to be giving you some tips for interviews
i've done quite a few videos in the past about my interview experience namely my most difficult
interviews how to do video interviews so if you are interested in these kind of videos
click on the links in the description below and also the links above this video however will be a
little bit different because it will provide a bit more generalized advice for those of you who have
got interviews in vacation schemes or assessment centres or final training contract interviews
or even paralegal interviews as well this video will be helpful for you as well before i start
let me introduce myself i'm simranjeet kaur mann i am a trainee solicitor for a uk top 20 firm
i'm currently in my first seat and i make videos for aspiring solicitors just like this one today
but i also vlog my journey to becoming a solicitor and beyond i also make videos about personal
development and all these other kind of random stuff on the side let's jump into the video so
firstly i want to talk about how i prepare for interviews this is a big question that i'm asked
quite often some of these methods of how i used to prepare may work for you some of them may not
so definitely try them out and see whether they work and if you do have any further
suggestions any further comments or any further ways that someone could prepare for an interview
drop them below in the comments and help your fellow mandem out the first thing i'd like to
share when preparing for interviews is mindset is everything if you're preparing and looking at
units thinking oh you know what there's no point me doing this i'm never gonna get through anyway
why do they even select me for an interview all those kind of thoughts
they i think i used to have those thoughts and they used to really impact my preparation because
i just kind of demotivated myself and didn't put as much effort in because i thought i
wouldn't get through so what's the point in trying so that's the first thing i'd like
to say really get yourself into the mindset of this is a great opportunity that's come my way
i'm going to try my best next thing i would say is make sure you research the firm again
don't only rely on the notes that you've made past the application stage of course there may
be certain developments that the firm has done since then therefore you need to make sure that
you are on top of the recent developments that the firm has been involved in as part of your
research as well for interviews you should also perhaps try and find out who is interviewing you
if you can't find out that's completely okay sometimes the firm actually provides this to
you as well so if you are informed about that individual or you find out on your own accord
who they are you can do a little linkedin stalk of course make sure your account's on private
mode though and the reason why i say that is your interviewer may be in a certain practice area and
they may have an interest in certain things you may find out more about them and those are things
that you can also talk about in your interview or it's things to look out for in an interview
so for example say if you want to give a recent news story about an m a deal but the person who's
interviewing you is an m a partner you want to make sure that you know what you're talking about
the next thing i'd want you to research and try and find out is also the format of the interview
and by format i'm referring to whether the interview will be scenario-based or
competency-based or just a general interview or a technical interview there's loads of different
names that are chucked around for different types of interviews and sometimes again this
is specified to you in the invitation email or you have to find out for yourself or they just don't
tell you for competency-based interviews i really recommend watching idin's channel and he has a
specific video where i think it's called how do i answer or how to answer competency-based questions
and he goes over the different techniques that you can do but what i would say for competencies just
really briefly it's about showing the experience that shows that competency of best and that all
plays a part in your preparation for the interview four scenario-based interviews the first thing i'd
say straight off the bat is make sure you look at the solicitor's code of conduct make sure you know
what a solicitor can ethically do or morally do and what they can't do and what situations
would cause a solicitor to be struck off a lot of questions i've been asked in scenario-based
interviews have been based on the solicitor's code of conduct and also for scenario-based
interviews i like to think of the flip side argument so not every time in a law firm is
everything all rosy and fine you are going to meet colleagues that you know you don't get along with
you are going to meet clients that are frustrating to work with you are going to be in situations
where you make mistakes and that's where i think scenario-based interviews really come in to try
and test your reactions and what actions you take and how you'd feel so really trying when you are
answering scenario-based interviews one thing that i really did that helped me was link it to
a time where i've done something similar to really prove that in the past i've done something similar
to this scenario that you've mentioned and this is how i acted upon it and learned from the situation
and that's what i would do again similarly in the situation scenario that you've provided to me
so therefore it provides a bit of evidence for the interviewer and for general interviews honestly
this is going to be the worst advice i've ever given but revise everything
revise the firm revise your competencies revise your application do some commercial awareness
i mean to be fair for commercial awareness i would say prepare that for anything you've got
whether it be an assessment centre whether it be an interview don't ever slack on commercial
awareness that's something for example that firms want to see you display sometimes on your
own initiative so if you are commercially aware you can just sprinkle it in without them asking
and it gives you extra brownie points basically so revise essentially everything you can and in terms
of practicing how to answer questions looking and speaking in front of a mirror speaking in front of
a camera on your phone those are all really really useful things that you can do because you then
look out for your body language one thing that i have tried to be doing a lot more often recently
is being more conscious of when i'm going um or are and instead i'm kind of forcing myself
to just pause instead of saying um to fill the gaps so and that was something that i could only
pick up on once i'd rewatched my youtube videos so re-watching yourself sometimes can be a little bit
uncomfortable but it is something that really helped me in noticing the quirks in my language
if you've watched my videos for example you will also know that i say like a lot and i say kind
of a lot so it's kind of like this it was kind of like that so those are little quirks that
i've picked up on myself personally and i'm trying to instead fill them up with silence
in terms of further preparation that you can do this leads on really nicely to mindful learning
mindful learning have produced the ultimate commercial law assessment centre study guide this
121pm booklet contains the contributions of around 200 lawyers trainee solicitors grad recruitment
from all across the city it's designed to help applicants navigate the assessment centre tasks
and you know earlier how i was talking about competency-based questions this assessment
centre guide contains successful answers of 40 competency-based questions commercial awareness
questions scenario-based questions and a lot more and if you want to find out more about who
contributed to the booklet itself it's from the likes of people from allen & overy, slaughter and
may bird & bird clifford chance just to name a few just a subtle flex so it's definitely a must-have
for any aspiring solicitor who is looking to build on their performance at assessment centres
now bearing in mind this booklet has only been released last year mindful learning have already
helped hundreds of people gain vacation schemes training contracts and paralegal roles at their
top choice firm so the study guide has 10 chapters and let me give you a bit of detail about what
these 10 chapters are about how to prepare for your assessment centre how to effectively research
a firm an assessment centre checklist this next one's a little bit relevant to this video over 80
interview questions and an additional 35 exemplar responses to these questions which have been
written by trainee solicitors and these questions cover competency questions motivational questions
technical questions and scenario-based questions there's another chapter about how to approach case
study interviews and this also includes two sample case studies and two full analysis of financial
statements there are also chapters about how to approach presentations how to approach group tasks
and 19 end of interview questions now i think i've sold it to you guys you know what to do check out
the link in the video description below and as a little special offer to all of you there is an
exclusive discount available there's a 35 discount code available for you if you purchase this guide
just enter the code sims 35 at the checkout all right let's get back to the video now what
i really want to talk about is that journey to the interview now for me this involved commuting
taking the tube all the way to the office where i was going to now on this journey some people
may want to not do anything at all listen to music listen to a podcast that's completely okay
some people want to work till the very last minute that's also very okay i did a bit of
both when i was on my journey so i used to keep a spare pen and paper with me and what i would
do on the train is i'll get this pen and paper out and i'll quickly ask myself a question sim
why this firm and i'd quickly jot down three to five bullet points and i'll just keep on
surprising myself with little questions and just jot down the answer rather than me having to like
mouse it on the train imagine if someone was just watching me on the train i'll just they're like
okay three reasons why i'm applying to the firm i just look like a madman you know like
i can't be looking like that so that's why i used to bring the pen and paper to write
it down instead when you're in the interview itself smile it's great it conveys confidence
and also pause before giving your answer this was a key piece of feedback that used to come
back to me every single time they used to say sim you jump on answering questions way too quickly
now the problem with that is you sometimes only focus on one part of the question so you're so
quick to want to answer you only answer one part or you've not answered the question properly or
you could have actually provided a better answer if you just gave yourself that time to
just compose yourself and think now i'm not saying sit there for one minute for every single answer
and just wait there for me this involved you know maybe just five seconds just be like and then you
speak and i think you just come across in a lot more controlled manner rather than just rushing
now a common question i'm asked is what do i do if i don't know the answer to this question
now there are going to be loads of people who give loads of different advice to this
and of course the answer that i may give may be wrong you know i can't really apply the same
advice to every single firm so this is my advice if you are ever in that horrible situation where
you don't know what the answer is firstly try and see whether you can break that question down are
there separate parts that question and then try and see whether you are able to answer a certain
part of that question personally i've always tried to answer a question in some way if it's a topic
that i don't have that much knowledge on but i've read something or glanced at it very briefly i've
always been in situations where i've been able to make something out of it and talk about it
so that's what i'd always say try and think about the wider topic around the question not simply the
question itself and then if you are still stuck and you still can't think of anything safe it's a
topic that you've heard nothing about for example i don't know maple leaf trees like that was me
literally just looking outside at a tree i have no knowledge about that but i could talk about
other species of trees perhaps or photosynthesis now if you are really really stuck and you don't
know maybe just say apologies i do not know the answer to this question but i can talk about
a related topic in brackets instead that might show that albeit you know you're honest you don't
know the question instead you are actually able to provide initiative and just be like look hold
my hands up i don't know it but i can talk about this instead but honestly though not to get you
worried i've never been in a situation where i do not know what the hell the interviewer is on about
i've always managed to think of something to say so in my opinion don't worry about that what if oh
my god what if i get something that i don't know because for me that's actually never happened i've
always managed to think of something to say now the next thing i want to say really really briefly
is try and speak in chunks now this is something that i learned on advocacy because i realised i
actually speak really really fast and i speak a lot faster when i'm nervous so one thing that was
recommended to me is to speak in chunks this is an example my name is simranjeet kaur mann i'm a
trainee solicitor from a uk top 20 law firm do you see how that was a lot more calmer it allowed you
to think about what you wanted to say next and it comes a lot more thoughtful and controlled as well
so you might want to consider doing that if you're someone who speaks really fast in interviews
that's everything that i've got to say for this video i really really hope you've enjoyed it
please like comment subscribe and yeah see you all in the next one