Preparing for assessment centres
Treat interviews a little like exams. The more you prepare, the less likely it is that you will face a question that you do not know how to answer. When preparing for interviews, I created separate documents covering each distinct element on which I would likely be assessed: competencies, strengths and experiences; firm motivation; career motivation; current affairs; and commercial knowledge. In fact, the “commercial knowledge” document laid the foundations for what eventually became my Commercial Law Handbook. As sad as it sounds, I would then sit in a café on the morning of each of my interviews and highlighted the key takeaways in each of the documents, much like revising for an exam.
The competencies, strengths and experiences document would set out my key experiences, the skills I had developed as a result of these experiences, and which experiences I would draw upon first for each type of competency question. For example, I had pre-decided that if “teamworking” came up, I would first talk about a specific university group project, whereas if “leadership” came up, I would first talk about running a university society. I made sure I also had a second option to hand for each of the more common competency questions, just in case firms asked multiple questions around a single competency (this actually happened on multiple occasions).
Professionalism
This should go without saying, but on the day of your interview, be sure to arrive at least half an hour before your interview is due to start. If the firm’s office is spread across different buildings, or has multiple entrances (which many do), make sure you know which one you're going to (and leave enough time to visit multiple entrances in case you get it wrong). If you’re travelling to London from elsewhere in the country, make sure there are at least a couple of back up trains that can still get you to the interview on time if your first train is cancelled (or you miss it). The earlier you arrive, the more time you can spend in a nearby café reading over your notes and calming your nerves.
All too often interviewees are so consumed by nerves that they forget to act normally and be nice! Remember that your interview starts from the moment you walk into the building. The way you talk to reception staff and other interviewees in the waiting area may all form part of the test, so don’t let your nerves mask your approachability and social skills.
Top tip: when attending interviews, I always carried pens, paper, coloured tabs and highlighters on me. The pens and paper meant that I could take notes after each of my interviews, whilst the tabs and highlighters in particular were a life saver during the preparation phase prior to case study interviews. I also had a hard copy of my online application to hand, just so I could refer back to it before interviews. You could also consider bringing along anything else that might help you to support your answers to interview questions (although seek permission before rifling through your bag to find something). I was once asked to explain in detail how I prioritise my time, and ended up showing the interviewer a copy of my calendar and task list to demonstrate my organisational skills.
Getting into the detail
As part of your interview preparation, ensure that you know exactly what you wrote in your application and be prepared to talk at length about any of the experiences to which you have referred. To that end, consider noting down as much detail as possible about each experience well in advance of interviews.
To help with this, I used to keep a version of my CV in which every experience had a corresponding footnote. In each footnote, I would write down the details that didn’t make it onto the main version of my CV, for example: the names of the people/teams I worked with; which presentations I attended and the topics that were covered; what my role involved on a day-to-day basis, and details of any tasks I completed; and anything else that might be relevant at a later stage. It can also be helpful to provide statistics to support your statements, for example: the number of tickets you sold for a ball, the percentage increase in sponsorship revenue that you helped to generate, or the number of members you managed to sign up to your society.
To give a few examples of how an experience might – if thought about in sufficient detail – have encompassed a broad range of responsibilities and challenges:
- If you are captain of your university’s netball team, your role might involve securing sponsorship, negotiating the price of the team’s kit, arranging training sessions, collaborating with other netball teams to arrange matches, organising transport for competitions, motivating teammates and more.
- If you worked on a particularly challenging group project, this might have involved in-depth research, drafting a comprehensive report or pitch, working closely with other group members to pursue a common goal, working under pressure towards a strict deadline, thinking creatively about the structure and presentation of your work and more.
- If you have tutored younger students, this will likely have required you to keep them motivated and engaged, communicate complex concepts in an easily digestible manner, plan your lessons, adhere to strict deadlines etc.
- If you have been involved in debating or mooting, this will likely have involved public speaking in front of audiences, negotiating with others or trying to persuade them to accept your point of view, in-depth research and planning, long-term commitment and more.
- If you have been tasked with arranging a large event (such as a university ball), this will have involved conceptualising the event, branding and marketing the event, running the event, coordinating a team of assistants, managing the budget and more. All very similar skills to those required to run a business.
If you haven’t taken the time to really think through your experiences in advance of an interview, you might forget many of these details whilst nervous or under pressure.