Jul 11, 2022

Written By Robert Greene

What questions will I be asked in a training contract interview?

Jul 11, 2022

Written By Robert Greene

A quick Google search and you will come across hundreds of potential training contract interview questions. Whilst it may be tempting to prepare an answer for every eventuality, this will be time-consuming and potentially a waste of time. In this article, we set out our top tips for preparing for training contract interview questions.

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Training contract interviews

If you have made it to the training contract interview stage – congratulations! Getting here is an accomplishment in itself, whatever the outcome of the interview. With the stakes so high, it is easy to feel overwhelmed at this stage, trying to prepare for everything and anything that may crop up in your interview.

But, over-preparing, and getting yourself into a tizzy, could be your downfall. Instead, it can be useful to break the interview down into three groups: you, the firm, and commercial awareness.

The “you” questions

The interview is (obviously) going to involve questions about you: your skills, your motivations, your interests etc. It can be tempting to overlook this section of the interview, assuming you don’t need to research yourself. But this section of the interview is potentially one of the most important: a training contract is an investment in you and, whilst it may sound transactional, the firm wants to be sure it is making the right investment. You should spend time thinking about your strengths, your motivations, and your experiences, and make sure you have concrete examples to back up your statements.

When thinking of skills, for example, it can be helpful to make a table using the STAR technique – situation, task, action, result (see illustrative example below). This will help you to structure your answer in the interview, and avoid rambling!

Skill: Leadership/teamwork

Situation: Final year project

Task: I was assigned as the team captain and responsible for coordinating the group.

Action: The actions I took were: 1) Hold weekly team meetings, 2) Set up a WhatsApp group, 3) Support team members who were struggling, 4) Communicate progress on behalf of the team to our professors and 5) Present our team's findings to the class.

Result: We achieved first-class honours and my team was awarded best in class

It is not necessary to prepare for every possible question that could be asked about you, but it can be useful to look at questions and spot similar themes and think about how you would answer the questions and what examples you would use.

Some typical “you” questions include:

- What is your proudest achievement?

- Tell us about a time you failed and how you dealt with that.

- What motivates you?

- How would your friends describe you?

- How would your colleagues describe you?

- When you are not working, what are you doing?

- Why law?

- Why commercial law?

- What are your long-term career goals?

- What was your favourite subject on the PGDL/LLB?

- How would you deal with a team member who is creating friction in the group?

The firm questions

This should go without saying, you need to know the firm inside out. If you have made it as far as the interview stage, it can be assumed that you know a thing or two about the firm. But it is at the interview stage that this knowledge is most likely to be put to the test. To nail this part of the interview, you should try to immerse yourself in the firm (as much as you can). This means researching the firm from as many sources as possible.

These could include:

- Podcasts – both the firm’s podcasts and other podcasts that feature the firm (e.g. The Lex 100).

- Social media – you could set up an Instagram and/or Twitter account that exclusively follows the firms you are interested in so that you have a stream of uninterrupted legal content at your fingertips.

- Events – many firms host virtual and/or in-person events that you can attend. These are great opportunities to network with people at the firm and get a feel for the culture.

- Website – understand the firm’s practice areas and sectors and keep abreast of the firm’s news.

- Google Alert – set up an alert for the firm to track mentions of the firm in the press.

- Legal directories.

When it comes to questions about the firm, it is impossible to predict what you will be asked. However, the more you know about the firm, the less likely it is that you will be asked a question that stumps you.

Some potential questions that you may be asked include:

- Why this firm? What makes this firm unique?

- Why this firm and not [insert firm name]?

- Who do you think our competitors are?

- What practice areas are you most interested in?

- What country do you think the firm should enter next?

- Tell us about a deal we recently worked on that interested you.

- What changes do you think the firm should make to stay competitive?

- How has your time been at the firm so far?

Commercial awareness

If there is one word that puts students on edge, it is commercial awareness. And whilst there are horror stories circulating on online forums of law firms asking fiendishly difficult commercial awareness questions, this should not be assumed to be the case for the majority of firms. Indeed, most law firms are not trying to trip you up; they are genuinely trying to see if you have an awareness of the business world and the matters that may affect the firm and its clients.

If you keep on top of business and financial news, as well as the firm’s news, you should not be phased by commercial awareness questions. In fact, you will probably not need to prepare scripted answers to potential questions. Also, it is not uncommon for firms to ask you about a topic that has piqued your interest, so there is often scope for you to steer the conversation. Of course, if this does happen, be aware that the interviewer may ask follow-up questions, so it is important to pick a topic you are genuinely interested in and have sufficient knowledge to talk about.

Some potential commercial questions that you may be asked include:

- Tell us about a story in the news that you have been following.

- What challenges do you think the legal sector faces?

- What do you think the legal sector will look like in 10 years?

- What do trainees do?

- What makes a successful lawyer?

- Where do you get your news from?

Final piece of advice

It is a good idea to prepare some questions to ask the interviewer. An interesting question that makes the interviewer think is likely to spark a positive reaction e.g. “What were the firm’s commercial reasons for entering or exiting [insert country]?”. Avoid asking simple questions you could have found out yourself (such as how many trainees the firm accepts each year) as you may come across as underprepared or lazy.

Best of luck!

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