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This should be an easy question, but I find that the answer that I keep giving is too short/not going over too well at callbacks (went over OK at screeners).

Can people give examples of their answer to this question.

Anonymous User wrote:This should be an easy question, but I find that the answer that I keep giving is too short/not going over too well at callbacks (went over OK at screeners).

Can people give examples of their answer to this question.

I've struggled a little bit with this as well, but I find myself rambling on because I feel that I need to overcompensate for my non-traditional resume.

Anonymous User wrote:This should be an easy question, but I find that the answer that I keep giving is too short/not going over too well at callbacks (went over OK at screeners).

Can people give examples of their answer to this question.

Also "what should I know about you thats not on your resume?"--- hate this one

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:This should be an easy question, but I find that the answer that I keep giving is too short/not going over too well at callbacks (went over OK at screeners).

Can people give examples of their answer to this question.

Also "what should I know about you thats not on your resume?"--- hate this one

While we're at it can we add in "why litigation" or "why corporate"?

Because I want to help people

If you can't even explain your decision to spend $200,000 and three years of your life learning to do the precise thing that you are being interviewed to do, why would anyone want to hire you to do that thing?

People ask this because they want to know why you want to be a lawyer. They want to know that because a lot of lawyers don't actually want to be lawyers, and those are not the kind of lawyers you want to hire.

They seemed to like "intellectual challenge", finding out answers to complex questions, helping people and clients. Don't just answer in the abstract, immediately follow-up with a concrete example from your summer job where you did the things you just said. Tie it to your overall narrative and be conversational. There's really no magic answer.

dixiecupdrinking wrote:If you can't even explain your decision to spend $200,000 and three years of your life learning to do the precise thing that you are being interviewed to do, why would anyone want to hire you to do that thing?

People ask this because they want to know why you want to be a lawyer. They want to know that because a lot of lawyers don't actually want to be lawyers, and those are not the kind of lawyers you want to hire.

Thank you for stating the obvious. No need to be a dick about a totally reasonable question. Seems a little naive to think that an honest answer is an appropriate interview answer. I think OP is looking for a concise strong answer to express a professional reason for choosing to go to law school. Tbh how I explained to law schools why I wanted to go to law school is very different than something I'd like to say to an employer- they want to know you're more than a student.

Anonymous User wrote:They seemed to like "intellectual challenge", finding out answers to complex questions, helping people and clients. Don't just answer in the abstract, immediately follow-up with a concrete example from your summer job where you did the things you just said. Tie it to your overall narrative and be conversational. There's really no magic answer.

Tying to specifics is crucial!

Funny story:

When I got this question, I answered with a well thought out answer.

To which the interviewer said: wow, that's very good. Back in my day people went to law school to make money. That's what I did. Shame people can't just say that anymore.*

Me:

*it's been a while so I'm sure this isn't verbatim.

Anonymous User wrote:

dixiecupdrinking wrote:If you can't even explain your decision to spend $200,000 and three years of your life learning to do the precise thing that you are being interviewed to do, why would anyone want to hire you to do that thing?

People ask this because they want to know why you want to be a lawyer. They want to know that because a lot of lawyers don't actually want to be lawyers, and those are not the kind of lawyers you want to hire.

Thank you for stating the obvious. No need to be a dick about a totally reasonable question. Seems a little naive to think that an honest answer is an appropriate interview answer. I think OP is looking for a concise strong answer to express a professional reason for choosing to go to law school. Tbh how I explained to law schools why I wanted to go to law school is very different than something I'd like to say to an employer- they want to know you're more than a student.

I'm not sure it is obvious to everyone why this question gets asked and what people want to hear, and I think an honest answer is better than the alternative more often than not. I don't know how to tell someone how to answer this question without knowing ... why they went to law school.

It's not that I want to give an untrue answer but I have a hard time concisely saying how I ended up at law school. I thought it would be nice to see examples of how people have answered this question.

Anonymous User wrote:It's not that I want to give an untrue answer but I have a hard time concisely saying how I ended up at law school. I thought it would be nice to see examples of how people have answered this question.

A friend of mine who is now at a V5 but was K-JD and was a philosophy major undergrad said he always broke the ice with, "because the philosophy factories weren't hiring." He still had to come up with a "real" short reason but figured no one ever paid attention to it anyway.

I always talk about how I was a political science major and the major overlapped with our pre law major, so I took classes like con law, legal writing, jurisprudence as electives & liked those better than my poli sci gov't & policy classes, so here I am. Pretty simple but it's always well enough received

I talk about how I learned over the course of my work experience that my strength is writing and that I gradually realized law school would be the best fit for me.

This question always amused me, since its painfully obvious that 90% of the students from elite schools who interview for biglaw went to law school for the dolla dolla bills. I'm sure there are some interviewers who would give you a bump for admitting this, but there's a lot more who would be pissed that you reminded them of the contrived foundation of lies and self-serving justifications which underpins their conscience.