BBC Graduate Solicitor Apprenticeship – December 2024

What was the full recruitment process?          

1. Application 

2. Online assessment

3. Video interview and written assessment

4. Assessment centre 

Which aspect does this report cover? 

Online assessment, video interview and written assessment 

Online assessment

This consisted of multiple different sections each covering a different area. 

• The first few questions were situational questions, which had a given scenario and 5 different options which you had to drag and drop into your order of which you were most / least likely to do. 
• There was then a section with very short scenarios and a slider bar of how you would feel / what you would most likely do. T
• here was then a spelling and grammar section, where you were given a spread of 2 documents a few times and had to answer various questions on them. This included identifying how many spelling mistakes were in the documents and typing out misspelt words in some cases. 
• Finally, there was a test of drawing conclusions and identifying assumptions. You were given a situation, and then around 5 questions below which followed the original situation and you had to determine what was correct for each relevant section.

Where did the interview take place?             

Online via HireVue 

What did the interview involve?       

I was required to answer three questions: two pre-recorded video interview questions and one written answer. For the video interview questions, I was given 10 minutes to prepare and 1 minute 30 seconds to record each response. I could re-record answers as many times as I liked. For the written answer, there were no time constraints, but there was a 2,500-character limit.

Which questions were you asked? 

Video interview questions

• What key skills do you believe are essential for this role, and how have you developed them throughout your academic and professional experience?
• What is the greatest challenge currently faced by the BBC and how can the BBC meet this challenge?

Written exercise 

• Tell us about a piece of BBC content that you have recently enjoyed consuming. What legal issues do you feel might arise in relation to making and broadcasting that content.

What was the outcome?                                                   

I received an email five weeks later to inform me that I had been unsuccessful.  

Do you have any specific advice on how to prepare? 

Ensure you have a broad range of experiences to draw from so you can demonstrate a well-rounded skill set. Also make sure you are up to date on the BBC from a commercial and consumer point of view. Finally, the BBC normally hosts an online open evening a few weeks before the application deadline, which is something I found very useful when preparing.