Interviewer Question "Do you have anything to ask me?"

[Anonymous User]

I had an interview yesterday and the partner went through the whole gist of what the firm does. He basically broke it down for me and talked for 10 mins while I nodded and said yes, interesting, etc. After that he asked me if I had any questions for him and that he was a straight shooter and would answer any questions. So I asked him what's it like working at the firm, what's a normal day like, why he chose to work at the firm and why he chose to teach classes at a law school. But it was so damn awkward (at least in my opinion).

What are you supposed to ask an attorney who basically talks to you for 10 mins straight about the firm and then is like...okay any questions? That didn't go so well I'm assuming. It was barely a conversation minus my sometimes comments about things, I just felt like he kept saying "oh well if you work at this firm or any other firms this is what you have to do, etc. etc."

Also, I was expecting someone else to interview me but at the last minute the first interviewer told me it was this partner and I just went with it. He also told me he had just been handed my resume to him minutes before hand so I'm assuming he was pretty unprepared as well. And then he walked me out to the elevator but it was just awkward.

[Anonymous User]

Sounds like you asked the kinds of questions you were supposed to ask. There's not really much more you can do.

This is something that happens regardless of what they think of you. I had this happen in interviews where I got an offer, and I had this happen in interviews where I didn't get an offer. It's possible that particular partner made up his/her mind one way or the other, and wants to speak with the other attorneys and then make a decision. On one callback, I had a partner try to sell me the firm/get me to ask questions for well over the 20 minutes we were allotted. No offer. These things are naturally awkward, and in other situations where I did feel things were awkward or made a mistake, I ended up getting an offer. These things are random and there's often no way to explain your results.

Also, the change of interviewers thing is something that happened on a large number of the callbacks I went on. Doesn't indicate anything either way -- people are busy and things come up. They'll understand that you couldn't prepare to ask more tailored questions since the change just happened.

[rinkrat19]

This is very common from what I understand (1L here), so you'd better figure some questions out.

How are projects assigned?
How are summers and new associates mentored?
Does a summer/associate get the chance to work with different partners/senior associates?
Does a summer/associate get the chance to work in different departments?
How did you choose the firm?
How did you choose your area of practice?

That's just off the top of my head, and like I said, I haven't been through it yet. But I know that being expected to have questions is not unusual.

[Anonymous User]

Well, since he's a partner he prefaced my asking him questions that he doesn't really do what associates do so he'd only be able to give me a broad generalization of what they did because he just oversees them.

And I was expecting to ask him questions, but he basically summarized everything and then said any questions? That's pretty...conclusory and shuts the door on a conversation.

[Anonymous User]

A form of this happened at a callback I got an offer from; the partner just opened the interview with "so what can I tell you?" and I basically had a long (went over the allotted time) conversation about different aspects of his practice and where he saw growth potential for it and all that stuff -- I think part of the idea of this is to see how you respond under pressure and how capable you are of steering a conversation to both where the interviewer wants it to go and where you want it to go (eg since this practice had international components I related that to my intl background and asked about areas of new development) and just come across as smart and engaged

(Apologies for the terrible punctuation -- my period and comma keys are broken!)

[Anonymous User]

A form of this happened at a callback I got an offer from; the partner just opened the interview with "so what can I tell you?" and I basically had a long (went over the allotted time) conversation about different aspects of his practice and where he saw growth potential for it and all that stuff -- I think part of the idea of this is to see how you respond under pressure and how capable you are of steering a conversation to both where the interviewer wants it to go and where you want it to go (eg since this practice had international components I related that to my intl background and asked about areas of new development) and just come across as smart and engaged

(Apologies for the terrible punctuation -- my period and comma keys are broken!)

It's all good. Yeah I went with it but it was just awkward since he basically explained everything they do and then said what else do you want answered? Then when I asked him what a typical day was like, he said I'm not sure what it's like for associates, but this is what they normally do, and then he went on a whole thing about what the associates do even though I asked him what he did haha. Oh well. Fingers are crossed the first interviewer liked me. I wonder who long they will take to get back to me sine it's Thanksgiving break and I'm assuming they want to find someone fast. Btw, this wasn't a callback it was a screener but with the Hiring Attorney and a Partner.

[Anonymous User]

you can always ask them if they've been working on anything interesting lately, and follow up with questions about whether or not they were able to utilize SA's over the summer on this project, etc. etc.

this makes it less awkward bc they get to talk about themselves and all of the stuff they inevitably have on their mind