Dear 1L: Interview Tips
Dear 1L,
I have been conducting mock Zoom interviews of law students during the past two weeks. (I play a lawyer at a global law firm in NYC.) Now having seen two dozen students, I offer these takeaways that may help you in your own interviews.
1. BE YOURSELF. The best job interviews proceed like a normal conversation.
🔹Do not recite rehearsed answers. Have a natural conversation. Relax and talk to your interviewer just like you would a colleague of your parents or some distant relation who is a lawyer.
🔹Smile. Not sure why that matters, but on Zoom, in particular, where your head and shoulders are so front and center, periodically injecting an energetic smile into the conversation works wonders.
2. BE PREPARED. The best students were thoroughly prepared for their interview. By this I mean, not only were they ready with a lot of topics to discuss, but they had also prepared a lot of intelligent questions about “my firm,” and about me, the interviewer.
🔹Read as much as you can about your prospective law firms. Do not ask, for example, whether we support pro bono work, when we have an entire page with detailed examples about the topic on our site.
🔹Learn as much as you can about the individuals who will be interviewing you. They are just human beings. Maybe their LinkedIn “About” section mentions they spent a year in another city or country where you have lived or visited. Maybe the profile mentions they love dogs, tennis, or jazz. All of those topics can produce excellent conversations.
🔹Ask questions that show you have read about the lawyer, including cases handled, articles written, presentations delivered, etc. People tend to like to talk about themselves. Play to your interviewer’s ego. If you can get your interviewer talking about interesting topics, the interviewer will likely come away from the interview thinking that YOU are interesting.
3. SHOW MORE THAN TELL. The best students could support the adjectives they used to describe themselves.
🔹Better than saying you “have strong leadership qualities,” is describing how you founded and headed a new student organization on campus, or how you rallied classmates behind a cause.
🔹Better than asserting that you are a “good team player,” is describing your role working on a recent group project.
🔹Make sure you come in with several examples to illustrate your qualities, not just bare assertions that you have those qualities.
I have more, but this post is getting long. I am sending out good cheer to all my students. I hope that your days are tracking the sun and getting a little lighter. I hate January.
Lawyers, 2Ls, and 3Ls: what tips do you have for new law students in upcoming job interviews?
Fondly,
Amanda
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