Looking for your master? a chambering/pupilage position? But first thing first, are you well prepared to the interview? Other than prepare your resume and transcripts, your communication skills are important as well.
The normal interview(normally 1 hour) = Intro yourself + questions + answers
The formal interview (eg. Rajah Dar...Wong & P...ZIC...)(normally 2 hours) = Writing skills test (eg. laws essay) + communication skills test (face to face interview)
1. Introduce Yourself
A common question and the first question that an interviewer will ask. I always have my own sequence in introduce myself. You can have your own as well. Here are my steps.
A. Basic information.
- Name
- Age
- Education backgrounds (Eg: from your high school(spm) onwards)
*MUST mention about your edu backgrounds even if you have written on your resume, reason being the interviewer wants to hear from you & bear in mind that the interviewer might not even read words in words of your resume. So it's better for you to tell them verbally*
B. Your Family's background
- How many siblings you have?
- What are your parents & siblings doing?
- How you been brought up? eg. chinese edu/english edu
Reason: They want to know more about you. Family backgrounds affect one's personality, character & attitude. Do not need to worry and hide if yours are not good, at least now you're a law graduate and the interviewer can see your efforts you been putting on till today.
C. Your Hobbies
Reason: A person's character & attitude can be reflected from your hobby. What more they are interviewer or even partners from the firm, attitude and character are essential for them in deciding whether to take you or not. Standing at their position, if you're the master, you'll also be the same being very careful in choosing your student since you'll carry the full responsibility after on.
For example: I like travelling (please don't bluff the interviewer as they will ask you many questions about your hobby)
Bear in mind the questions. Take the example above, they may ask you how often do you travel? and even they may consider about your travel leave. They might ask you how do you keep your work in done and how do you manage your time since you're not allowed to take leave during chambering. So do other hobbies when you mention.
Try to link your hobby with your good attitude. For example, when you say you like travelling, at the same time tell them you like to explore to blah blah blah, their cultures blah blah blah.....thus to link with your attitude that you like to learn, get exposures...
D. What do you know about this firm?
- where do you find this firm? eg. legal500, barcouncil jobs...
- why do you choose this firm? eg. this is a corporate firm which I'm interested in.
E. Your advantages & weaknesses
- 3 advantages -try to avoid common advantages for example, I'm willing to learn(I can guarantee you that they will tell you this is too common and boring.) Use these advantages like I'm easy outgoing, friendly, can get well with new colleagues, easily adapt to new working environments.
- 1 weakness-numbers of your weakness never more than your advantages. No one is perfect, remember to tell them how would you improve your weakness.
- Tell them what benefits you'll get if you hire me. what you can contribute to the firm?
2. Always get prepared of whatever surprises which might happen during your interview.
So, what are the surprises I meant?
For example, the interviewer might ask you about legal theory questions or even test you on the spot to see your adaptability. Since these questions have fix answers, why not just prepare the answer before attending an interview. It only takes you few hours to revise your law theories. I have once been asked about how to remove a private caveat. haha...
3. Get ready for questions
If you are not asked to intro or you didn't intro much at the beginning, high probably that they will ask you questions like why do you choose our firm? why do you study law?
Do not bluff as they prefer an honest applicant rather than the one who bluff everything.
It's your choice if you do not want to tell much about yourself. My opinion is please speak more during interview to catch their attention on you.
*Another point, don't be so serious like you're talking in police station. Treat them as normal people like your friends, add a little jokes to make them laugh & avoid the 'too formal' conversation. But this is also depend on each firms.*
One thing is that some interviewers might not ask you much questions at the end, if you didn't tell them more about yourself, the interview may just end like this. So grab the chance!
