What is a call-back interview and what should I expect? Forum

[Anonymous User]

This is probably a dumb question but I've never had a call-back before. My previous jobs were with small firms where my only interview was with the partner and I was hired after that. I now have a callback with a mid-size firm. The screener was a basic half hour interview with a junior partner in a different practice (I would not be working with him). My next interview is with senior partners of two different practice groups, and I would split working with both of them. The screener covered the basics (why are you looking for a job, what experience do you have, etc). What should I expect from the callback? Is it more of the same just the partners wanting to get it first-hand? Or is it completely different? What are they looking for?

[ball is life]

This is probably a dumb question but I've never had a call-back before. My previous jobs were with small firms where my only interview was with the partner and I was hired after that. I now have a callback with a mid-size firm. The screener was a basic half hour interview with a junior partner in a different practice (I would not be working with him). My next interview is with senior partners of two different practice groups, and I would split working with both of them. The screener covered the basics (why are you looking for a job, what experience do you have, etc). What should I expect from the callback? Is it more of the same just the partners wanting to get it first-hand? Or is it completely different? What are they looking for?

It will be pretty much the same thing as the screener for each interview. This is just IME with large firms and a gov agency but I can't imagine mid-size firms would be any different.

[Anonymous User]

This is probably a dumb question but I've never had a call-back before. My previous jobs were with small firms where my only interview was with the partner and I was hired after that. I now have a callback with a mid-size firm. The screener was a basic half hour interview with a junior partner in a different practice (I would not be working with him). My next interview is with senior partners of two different practice groups, and I would split working with both of them. The screener covered the basics (why are you looking for a job, what experience do you have, etc). What should I expect from the callback? Is it more of the same just the partners wanting to get it first-hand? Or is it completely different? What are they looking for?

My opinion is that the nature of the callback interview is going to depend a lot on the personalities of the interviewers and the prestige of the firm. In a perfect world, a callback interview should be more relaxed but I’ve experienced some rough ones.

For the most part, the callback interviews I’ve had were more casual. Some questions pertaining to my academic background were asked and also a lot of superficial questions (e.g. “what sports do you enjoy”). Typically, the idea was just to see if I was going to fit-in with firm’s culture and personalities.

In contrast, some of the harder callback interviews I’ve had were for positions at smaller boutique firms (10-20 attorneys) and biglaw. I’ve had a few interviews for boutique firms where I was quizzed on ethical dilemmas, questions of substantive law, and also some common sense type issues. My perception was that the interviewers there were more highstrung as they felt they couldn’t make a hiring mistake and they wanted to maintain a standard of work product (and thus the prestige of the firm). You can also have interviewers that are just weird, I’ve definitely had some odd questions asked.

Competency in the subject area your applying for usually can make up for any deficiency though. Best of luck!

[2013]

Given that you are not an entry level candidate, I would not be surprised if you were grilled in the substantive law in your practice area.

That’s happened to me at both biglaw and more selective boutique interviews. As mentioned above, when you’re not hiring for an entry level, you’re more likely to focus on the “hireability” of the candidate since you don’t want to spend money 5 months down the line looking for another candidate to fill that same role.