Tips for Corporate Law Interviewing

Most law firm interviews are focused on personalities. This is different from job interviews for many other corporate arenas, such as consulting, which often focus on substantive knowledge, complete with skill assessment tests. By contrast, many legal interviews focus on personality and general communication skills, often without much discussion of the law. "We look for someone who has a personality that gels with the rest of us," notes Florida-based Brian Behar of Behar, Gutt & Glazer, P.A. It is not uncommon for a good interview to consist of 25 minutes of discussion about world travel, followed by a mere five minutes of questions about the candidate's legal interests and the law firm.

A few tips for a successful interview -- and to make sure you make the right impression afterwards -- follow:

• Dress for success. Your hair should be in place, your shirt crisp, your pantyhose without runs (always carry a spare), your suit recently pressed. Conservatism is the rule of thumb -- conservative colors (charcoal gray and navy blue for men, neutrals for women), conservative styles (knee-length skirts and low heels for women, pinstripes for men), conservative hair and make-up, conservative everything. For many firms, this is practically mandatory. If you are neat, you might be able to get away with a touch of personality -- a colorful tie, a bold-colored suit. Some firms might applaud your individualism; others might write you off immediately.

• Be yourself. The goal of interviews is to enable both parties to get to know each other. "Look for common ground, and talk about it," points out California practitioner Roger Friedman of Rutan & Tucker LLP, even if that common ground as something as non-legal as martial arts.

• Don't be a pig. The easiest (although most entertaining) way to make a bad impression is to take advantage of the firm's good nature and order the most expensive entrie at lunch or charge the firm for room service champagne. Feel free to use the budget the firm allows you for out-of-town interviews, but always, always, always stay well within it.
• Be on time. Always factor in extra travel time, presuming that the subway will trap you or the plane will be delayed. If you know you'll be late, call and update the recruiting office as soon as you realize this.
• Be prepared and do your homework. Before each interview, take some time to learn about the firm -- from their web site, from classmates who already worked there and, of course, from The Vault Guide To the Top 100 Law Firms and Vault's regional guides to law firms. Not only will interviewers be impressed and flattered that you know a little bit about their firm, but you will be in a stronger position to maximize your interviews by asking more specific and informed questions.
• Plant the seeds for the future. It's easy to get discouraged when OCR is not going your way because of mediocre grades. But a good interview can set the stage for better days ahead, when you have more impressive credentials. Interview like you're a champ even if you have mediocre first-year grades. You might not get the callback this year, but you will likely be remembered next year, when you've gotten your grades up.
• Stay sane. Job hunting is always stressful, and each type of recruiting is distinct. FCR is stressful because of its lack of structure, the discipline and hard work required, and its uncertainty. OCR is stressful because of the all-intensive atmosphere that it creates, with students eating, breathing and drinking interviews. OCR in particular often brings out the competitive streak of law students, with the class divided between the haves, with their dozens of callbacks and offers, and the have-nots, who end up with few, if any, offers. For many, this is the roughest time in law school.

  Keep your perspective, and you'll survive. Remember two things. First, job hunting is not the be-all and end-all of your life. You will ultimately get a job, you will ultimately have a thriving career, you will survive it all. So take a break, see a movie, go for a run. Remind yourself that the outside world continues to exist.

  Second, remember your focus. You're not in it to get the most callbacks or the most offers, but to get one offer from a firm that offers the qualities you are looking for. If you stick with that focus, you might very well end up with a far more satisfying first job than the classmate who ran around bragging about his full dance card but ended up miserable at a prestigious firm that was all wrong for him.