A short guide to interview prep
Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 10:49 am
Here is how to handle ALL interviews you will ever have in your life:
1) Write down all of the traits that you think the organization sees in itself.
Example: PMF sees itself as an elite leadership fast track program.
2) Next, extrapolate out the traits/skills they are looking for in a candidate.
PMF: Takes the initiative, is creative, can work well on a team, understands how to lead a group, can explain how to set goals, build consensus based solutions and implement those solutions, etc...
3) Finally, brain storm stories that will allow you to demonstrate those traits. I recommend at least 4. They should cover the following (at minimum):
a. time you lead a team through a change
b. time you had a big success (yeah, you want 2 "I won" stories here as a and b)
c. Biggest weakness/time you failed
d. time you convinced someone who disagreed with you/hated your guts to do it your way.
Each story should be 5-6 min long max. Each story should demonstrate that you have the above traits.
Couple more tips: smile when you enter the interview room, be the first to speak (greet the interviewer), and ask the interviewer how their day is going. Follow up with an innocuous joke or questions based on their response. This puts everyone at ease, establishes that you are confident and outgoing, and puts the interviewer on the defensive. Which I like.
Now interviewers for law jobs tend to heavily screen based on grades and where you went to school, so the above is not quite as crushingly effective as it is in the business world. That said, it WILL set you apart from the other cadidates.
1) Write down all of the traits that you think the organization sees in itself.
Example: PMF sees itself as an elite leadership fast track program.
2) Next, extrapolate out the traits/skills they are looking for in a candidate.
PMF: Takes the initiative, is creative, can work well on a team, understands how to lead a group, can explain how to set goals, build consensus based solutions and implement those solutions, etc...
3) Finally, brain storm stories that will allow you to demonstrate those traits. I recommend at least 4. They should cover the following (at minimum):
a. time you lead a team through a change
b. time you had a big success (yeah, you want 2 "I won" stories here as a and b)
c. Biggest weakness/time you failed
d. time you convinced someone who disagreed with you/hated your guts to do it your way.
Each story should be 5-6 min long max. Each story should demonstrate that you have the above traits.
Couple more tips: smile when you enter the interview room, be the first to speak (greet the interviewer), and ask the interviewer how their day is going. Follow up with an innocuous joke or questions based on their response. This puts everyone at ease, establishes that you are confident and outgoing, and puts the interviewer on the defensive. Which I like.
Now interviewers for law jobs tend to heavily screen based on grades and where you went to school, so the above is not quite as crushingly effective as it is in the business world. That said, it WILL set you apart from the other cadidates.