Need female interview advice... Forum

[Olive83]

I have an upcoming interview and a number of partners/associates are female. It is my first interview in which this has happened. I tend to get along very well with male attorneys, and often with female attorneys when they are opposing counsel. But I hear that women make tougher interviewers for other females.

I'd love some advice on how to approach a female interviewer as a female associate, if it's different than with male interviewers (whether right or wrong, I do suspect that it is). Thanks!

[jml8756]

Are you a woman? What do you mean when you say you get along with female attorneys when they're opposing counsel? Does that mean you don't get along with female attorneys you actually work with?

I have personally found that female interviewers tend to give more verbal and nonverbal feedback. For example, they will smile and nod during your answers more than the men will. It makes it tempting to want to make more eye contact with them, but you have to force yourself to address and engage everyone present.

Also, there's the old wisdom that women are very unforgiving toward other women they perceive as slutty or flirtatious. So just err on the conservative side.

Otherwise, you shouldn't really have to adjust your strategy all that much.

[knope2012]

1) Stop calling us "female." We're women.
2) We're not a different species. You can talk to us like normal people. Tips include: being nice, not making a fool of yourself, etc.

I don't really understand this post. Would you, as a woman, want to be treated differently than men in an interview?

Also where are you working that you rarely interact with other women attorneys? This is the single most depressing TLS thread I have ever read.

[2013applicant]

1) Stop calling us "female." We're women.
2) We're not a different species. You can talk to us like normal people. Tips include: being nice, not making a fool of yourself, etc.

I don't really understand this post. Would you, as a woman, want to be treated differently than men in an interview?

Also where are you working that you rarely interact with other women attorneys? This is the single most depressing TLS thread I have ever read.

Just the sort of post I'd expect from a female.

[NotMyRealName09]

Op is a female I think. And while I have nothing productive to offer, I will say this reminded me of how on the callback for the job I have now, one of my interviewers was just a smoking hot blonde, strikingly, like impossible to just be normal around. I got the job, but goddamn, that's all.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I don't think there are any differences attributable to gender that you can generalize about. Now, if you treat men and women differently, that may come across in an interview, and men and women may therefore respond differently. But that would be about you and not them.

The only thing I can come up with is that the only time I had an interviewer bring up work-life balance, it was a woman. But then, it was an interview with the Department of Labor, so that's probably not shocking.

[crumpetsandtea]

I don't think there are any differences attributable to gender that you can generalize about. Now, if you treat men and women differently, that may come across in an interview, and men and women may therefore respond differently. But that would be about you and not them.

The only thing I can come up with is that the only time I had an interviewer bring up work-life balance, it was a woman. But then, it was an interview with the Department of Labor, so that's probably not shocking.

The bolded is TCR. And TBH it kind of seems like you might fall under this category, given your strange gut reaction of needing to treat other women "differently" in an interview setting and the implication that you don't get along well with other women in a workplace setting unless you consider them an adversary.