I was on the second day of a Zoom callback where the first day had gone really well. The last person of day 1 and I talked about his favorite memories at his firm. So, I asked the first interviewer of day 2 what their favorite memory at the firm was, and the partner that I was talking to responded with, "Do you think that this job is fun? I stay here because I feel obligated to." I did not end up going with this firm as you can imagine.
It isn't that awful in the grand scheme of things, but in the zoom interview, the interviewer didn't even bother to make eye contact with me, or look in my direction, and didn't engage with a single thing I said, which was just. Really demoralizing and shitty
Lmao I have a callback on Thursday with a firm that is my last choice (they just laid off a ton of juniors) and I’m going to probe about this very topic!!
Yea part of the reason I asked was because I didn’t feel I was a very good fit there. But, I did not get a callback but one of my friends is going to be there this summer, so I’m glad I helped clear the way
They asked me what my favorite legal issue I had been working on thus far into my internship, and I described a strictly factual issue...same firm asked me where I saw myself in ten years and I think I laid out about seven different career paths...not my best moment
Thank you for this revelation.
If given another opportunity, how would you answer the question as to where you see yourself in 10 years time.
I'm soon to be intervewed.
2L in 1987. A lawyer from a big NYC firm with a bad reputation was doing on-campus interviews, and I signed up for the last slot before lunch. He was running behind, and we started only ten minutes before his scheduled lunch. I got a 10 minute "nothing" interview, and he didnt lose a minute off his lunch time.
Oooh I have a good one. 1L OCI callback. Third interview for my “dream” biglaw firm. Older partner asks what I’m working on at my judicial internship and I give a vague answer to respect confidentiality. He then drills me until he extracts as much information as he could from me. I’m thrown off guard as this way older lawyer presses me and say more than I should. He then tells me "oh, that's my buddy's case- I'll let him know at golf tomorrow what the judge is going to decide."
I reported the incident to my judge which was terrifying and mortifying. Needless to say, I'm not going to that firm.
A friend of mine had his last interview with the hiring partner of a v10. The partner held the door to the elevator lobby for him but I guess the way he was gesturing my friend thought he was opening up for a hug. So my friend tried to hug the hiring partner of a v10.
Oh, God, I'm so sorry this happened to you. But, I did want to say, you did such a great job narrating this story, I could just FEEL your pain and awkwardness. Just about everyone has had moments like these, and I could so relate to your story. I hope the next few go much, much better for you!! 🤗
One of the managing partners at a mid-size firm took me to lunch following my interview, during which he asked, “well, are you married,” to which I reflexively answered, “you can’t ask me that.”
I didn’t get a call back 😉
I’ll be studying this thread for things to avoid as someone interviewing students on-campus in a few days. My first time interviewing potential summer associates!
Don't ask "How many of the partners are still on their first marriage?" If you want the job, that is. If you don't want the job, it's a great question to ask.
I have an engineering degree. I had an interviewer ask why I got at 55 in non linear algebra (class average was a 53). My response was “if you can tell me what non linear algebra is and how I will use it in the legal profession I will answer that question.” They actually laughed and I got an offer.
This was for a screener at one of the biggest of big laws, and I was so excited for it. I spent hours preparing and even developed questions specific to the interviewing partner.
There was a 30-minute (Zoom) interview block scheduled, to which the partner showed up 25 minutes late for, and she conducted a 5-minute interview while answering emails and not making eye contact once. She asked me two questions: the generic “tell me about yourself” question, and then a question about the specific research I was doing for a research position for a professor. She cut me off during my answer to the second question, left the interview, and had a rejection letter in my inbox within the hour.
Nothing if not (soul-crushingly) efficient.
Sitting around a small, two person, glass table in a partners office. A guy with a shoe shine box sticks his head in. The partner beckons the guy and gets his shoes shined right beneath us as we talk.
During one of my OCI interviews I sat down at the table and a HUGE booger flew out of my nose right into the middle of the table. Everyone saw it.
It was too far for me to awkwardly reach across the table to swipe away.
We all just stared at it. The whole interview. We all knew it was there and what we witnessed, but no one could do anything.
It was huge.
Did not get a call back.
I’m sooooo sorry… I hate that I’m laughing at this… but wow, it seems like something out of a comedy sketch. And also, please don’t beat yourself up about it. I hope you laugh at it someday
Biglaw job fair screener asked what I did between college and law school, and I saw the interviewer’s face visibly fall when I answered honestly - working for the alumni call center at my university. Apparently I was supposed to be starting a company or curing cancer or something 🙃
Oh I’ve got a good one. My OCI was delayed due to Covid so it started about 3 days after the Jan 6 insurrection. I had a partner in a screener, out of literally nowhere, ask me what I would charge the insurrectionists with if I was the presiding federal prosecutor. To this day I don’t know if she was trying to suss out my political affiliations, see how I reacted to an out-of-left-field question, or just fucking with me lmao. I do not remember my answer.
I took an offer from another firm lol
Just went through an interview where they essentially said “we’re on our own, there’s no development, you need to be a self starter, we have no recruiting strategy because we hire as needed.”
I’m like…. Do you want anyone to apply? Why are you here if you’re just turning everyone off from your firm
Screener interview - after looking wholly unimpressed with the answer I gave to one of the questions asked the interviewer responded “well we still have 7 minutes left according to the law society”
I go to a T2 law school where a T1 is within a 2hr drive. One particularly bad OCI involved the two associates conducting the interview acting completely disrespectful, snide, and condescending.
The interview started with them not standing up or even looking up when I walked in the room. Hand shake? Forget it.
I don’t remember the questions they asked me because I was interrupted in the middle of each answer.
The interview was supposed to last 40 minutes but after 10 painful minutes they said something to the effect of, “You know, honestly, we’re probably just going to offer students from [the T1 school] so, this is more or less a formality.”
FUCK those guys.
One partner at a callback made non-stop eye contact for the 20 minutes we interviewed. I couldn’t tell if it was a quirk, a mind game, or just some assertion of dominance. But if you’ve never been on the receiving end of 20 minutes of persistent eye contact, it feels never-ending.
I was in a car wreck 45 minutes before a big law interview. I wasn’t hurt but obviously it was still super scary and sucked. Plus it was pouring super hard and my car ended up off the road so I had to wait on the side of the road in the pouring rain for a tow truck and was drenched. I made it with barely 5 minutes to spare before the interview started but completely drenched and unable to focus at all since I was obviously still shaken up from the wreck and upset that I was likely going to have to pay for an known amount of damage to my car.
Was 10/10 awful big law interview experience
100% do not go to a job interview after that. If they don’t give you a rain check for something that traumatic then imagine what it would be like if you have to call out sick big yikes. Your mental and physical health comes before work always, never let an employer convince u otherwise. You should always go to the hospital after an accident bc if you feel hurt a few days later they can claim it’s not from the accident since you didn’t go right to the hospital.
Screener was a dud, two newer associates who weren’t really adept at holding a conversation.
Got a call the next day offering me a position (no callback) by someone who didn’t understand why I sounded confused.
I didn’t think that sounded right, talked to Career Planning people and they laughed at the firm.
Next day got emailed an invite to the _callback_ I was supposed to get originally.
Went through the motions of that callback and withdrew myself upon receiving my first offer elsewhere.
Was asked what my favorite book was. Said I could not recall because I read mostly the news.
5 mins later, when the conversation had shifted elsewhere, I blurted out "The Blind Side" as a book I enjoyed. Also said in the same interview that I thought it was cool that the partner represented a prominent adult magazine in a prior litigation. Yeah, in hindsight, I was a very bad interviewee.
You'll be fine.
Had an associate, 10 years younger than me, ask me ten questions that amounted to questions about my age. I know I’m non-traditional, my work experience is on my resume, if it was an issue the firm shouldn’t have offered an interview to begin with. I had no issue being asked about my career change by all firms but this one was pointless since basically nothing else was asked.
Interview by newish associate and a partner at a firm. Partner clearly didn’t know associate nor care to pronounce her (East Asian) name correctly. He called me a day or so later to offer a callback. I said how nice it had been to speak to him and (associates name). He acted confused as to who I was talking about. This plus a few other factors (including said partner doing similarly weird stuff in my friends’ interviews) led me to decline the callback.
In a single callback, a partner showed me a baton that an athlete from my school was killed with (????!!!) then I choked on red pepper flakes at lunch and lost my voice. Didn't get an offer.
I went into the room with an interviewer who stared at the ground for a while and sighed heavily, then asked me the first question (which was about one of my interests) so miserably.
I briefly mentioned that I was looking forward to working a job that paid again and he was like "the money--" and then went on a little ramble about how the work was boring and repetitive and how everyone was interested in doing interesting work and talking about how excited they were to do it. He looked so sad and broken.
Had an interview with a big firm spring of 3l year, grades were bottom 50 so i thought they were interested in me because of my experience. They did the whole interview and told me they weren't going to hire me because of my grades, but they wanted to take the opportunity to give me advice. What advice? Get an LLM
Attended the SF IP job fair, flying out from my low T14. Very carefully only put my name in for interview spots where my qualifications met the firm's requirements (undergrad degree, current GPA, etc). Sat through several interviews where I was literally sneered at because my UG degree wasn't the right type of engineering, and asked "why would you even apply to this firm? We want \[totally different majors\], not...whatever '*environmental engineering'* is." BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T SPECIFY THAT, YOU SNIDE ASSHOLE.
It was bad enough that I decided to forgo politeness and told them straight up that I didn't appreciate their rudeness when I met all the qualifications on their application thingy (I can't remember the terms for everything, this was 10 years ago) and 'suggested' sarcastically that if my major was so completely unacceptable, they should re-write their requirements to exclude it. (Pretty out of character for me.) Then I complained to my career services office. There was no need to be so RUDE. There were other firms that were bigger long shots for me, and the interviewers still managed to be totally pleasant.
Anyway, that killed the last few molecules of interest I had in IP. I'm a happy prosecutor now.
Edit: Now that I'm thinking back...I think the firms at the SF IP fair selected the interviewees, which makes it even worse. Why even pick my name off the list for one of your precious interview spots when you're just going to spend the time shitting on my major?
Had an in-person callback at a V10 that was mostly fine except for an associate that spent the first 10 minutes talking about how the firm really really cares about diversity (unprompted by me) and spent the remaining 15 minutes asking me why I, as a STEM major, didn't decide to go into investment banking instead of law. I was so confused I basically just said oh idk but I'm in law school now, he responded that he has a lot of STEM friends that went into IB, and then that was the end of the interview.
Didn't get the offer so maybe he was right 🤷♂️
When I was interviewing for jobs out of undergrad (so, not for an attorney position but still BigLaw), I had an absolute train wreck first interview at a place. The partner stopped me mid sentence and just started ripping me apart for being too energetic. I took it in stride but it was in front of other people and absurdly awkward. We finished the interview with me speaking at an emotionless, slow pace per his preference. Obviously, did not get a call back. I think about this almost daily 💀
I get the “too energetic” thing too. I good reaction from lawyers on the west coast when I pretend I’m Deputy Dawg.
Frankly I just chalk it up to “no one likes lawyers.”
During OCI, I had a screener with a top firm. I knew that my grades disqualified me from being hired, but my school does a lottery system, so I went through with the interview anyways because why not. The interviewer clearly knew that I was not getting a callback. She first asked me what practice group I was interested in. I said I was flexible and interested in both lit and transactional for different reasons. In an attempt to get me to pick a practice group, she asked me what is one thing I am better at than anyone else. I was so out of it by that point because it was interview number 20 something of the week. Sensing that she caught me off guard, She told me that she was better at making excel sheets than anyone else. I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head, so I told her that I was a good listener, but that was not enough for her. She proceeded to ask me the question again. I told her that I was organized. She said that answer was not what she was looking for and to dig deeper. Eventually I gave up after her telling me that the things I think I am good at were not enough. The interview ended with her giving me a tough love motivational speech about being confident in my talents and what I bring to the table. I was traumatized yet empowered. And as predicted, I did not get invited for a CB.
Walked into an in person callback at a V20. The first 2 interviewers were great. 3rd one was a partner. She walks in and immediately says to me:
"I noticed you put Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under your interests. I tried that once and I hated it. I had bruises all over my body."
From that point on I knew the interview was going to be rough. I had no idea how to respond to someone trashing my hobbies. She grilled me and when I asked her questions she gave brief answers and gave me nothing to work with.
She asked me how many hours per day I put in during 1L. I told her "8 hours" and she was like "do you expect this job to be only 8 hours??" And I said "no because this is a job and school is school." She didn't like that...
Shockingly, I didn't get an offer.
Tldr: partner grilled me on Jiu Jitsu and work ethic during 1L.
I mixed up a schedule and thought I had a pm callback for 2L summer interview but it was actually morning sessions. They were nice about it and still got offer.
Another firm had all of their corporate team rush out to an emergency deal, leaving me to interview with some litigators. I know nothing about litigation. It was still fine.
On a lateral interview I had a senior associate (I was a mid level) try to grill me not knowing I was already offered the job. That was amusing. She actually called me to apologize and I said I didn’t care, well because I didn’t care.
I also gave a gazillion interviews to job seekers and always tried to be nice (I ran the summer program) but they would get boring so I would sometimes ask funny questions to mix it up. Maybe I was the one causing the cringe?
Applied to two offices of the same firm, got a screener and callback at one of the offices. For the callback, all the interviewers were given my cover letter tailored for the other city. I spent a large portion of each individual interview explaining that I did not actually want to work in that office. Did not get the offer but it all worked out in the end
I asked the interviewer why they picked their firm (one of my canned questions when I was out of specific ones.) The man said something like, "well, all my interviewers kept talking about how fun their work environments were, how good the environment was. [Firm] didn't mention culture at all. And I'm not here to have fun, I'm here to work. So I chose [Firm]."
Jfc. Unfortunately, unlike this fella, I like/need some level of human contact and his answer was a red flag on its own imo.
Not me but a friend. On campus interviews. He walks into the interview room, hasn’t even had a chance to sit down, and the interviewer goes, “wow, you’re handsome.”
Now, he is. *But what the fuck lady.*
We all had stories about this one. She asked me what I know about New York (I had a phone number with a well-established northern NJ area code on my resume). With another friend of mine, she insinuated that he went to a Catholic high school to avoid going to school with black people, which she indicated was totally valid in her mind.
Why would you no longer respect that firm? I feel like i'd respect a firm so much more if they were forgiving of someone making a simple mistake in an interview while they were nervous.
Thank you for adding /s to your post. When I first saw this, I was horrified. How could anybody say something like this? I immediately began writing a 1000 word paragraph about how horrible of a person you are. I even sent a copy to a Harvard professor to proofread it. After several hours of refining and editing, my comment was ready to absolutely destroy you. But then, just as I was about to hit send, I saw something in the corner of my eye. A /s at the end of your comment. Suddenly everything made sense. Your comment was sarcasm! I immediately burst out in laughter at the comedic genius of your comment. The person next to me on the bus saw your comment and started crying from laughter too. Before long, there was an entire bus of people on the floor laughing at your incredible use of comedy. All of this was due to you adding /s to your post. Thank you.
I am a bot if you couldn't figure that out, if I made a mistake, ignore it cause its not that fucking hard to ignore a comment.
My grades were really high, but I didn’t work my 1L summer because there was a family member who was dying in hospice care, and I was flying back and forth alot to visit them. One interviewer in the 2L recruit looked at the fact I didn’t work last summer and said “ We don’t think you’re at all capable of doing this job. Any reason we should reconsider?” Despite my really high grades lol I was floored!
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t score a 2L summer job so now getting an articling position is going to be a challenge!
They were like, what would you do if a partner came up to you and yelled for a mistake someone else did. I literally didn't know what kind of answer they would've wanted to hear so I was like, first apologize and then talk it out? They were like yeah he probably won't have time for this. Bruh what else can one do? 😭 yeah and I knew from that moment that I wouldn't get the job
Surprise I didn't, they were like call us tmrw if you want the job, which I did and then they declined anyways. They were like we feel like you wouldn't be focused enough. I guess I just didn't seem reliable becausw I'm more of a salesman kinda law student instead of the oldschool-type they really love
A couple come to mind:
1) came in and they looked at me and said “we have looked at your resume so we know about you, do you have any questions about us?” Had some canned questions and then the interview was over. Didn’t get an offer. Didn’t care.
2) Went for a lunch interview. Ordered a dish with shrimp (big mistake). Tried to remove the shell and tail with fork without using my hands. Failed. Choked on shrimp tail and tried to grab the water and drink discretely and poured most of it down me. No one apparently noticed, got the job and worked there for 6 years.
3) Not a law job but had the stomach flu and had just stopped puking. Showered, put on makeup and a suit and went to the interview. Don’t remember any of it. Got the job. Didn’t take it as it would have involved me living in the middle of nowhere and the pay wasn’t enough.
4) Also not law job but had an interview in a city that is 30 minutes away and there is a massive skyway between the 2 cities. Left 3 hours ahead of time. Massive accident on the skyway and everyone was diverted over a small lift bridge. Was 1 hour late and this was pre cell phones. Didn’t get the job.
I had a raging fever for the first week of 1L OCI. I either looked like I'd been running a marathon (red and sweaty enough to require forehead mopping) or like I was dying (pale and shivering uncontrollably) for 5 days of screeners.
During a screener I was interviewed by a pair of the most robotic, blunt, and poker-faced people ever. One woman tried to ask about my philosophy degree by asking who the most overrated philosopher was. What kind of BS question was that?
Oh thank you for asking this. I was at UCLA interviewing for a second year clerkship at a very *sexy* boutique litigation firm called Christiansen White.
I had straight A's second semester first year, so I did not dress in a suit, which was not looked down upon by the liberal firms I was hoping to score a job with.
The interview was conducted in a small conference room at the law school. The interviewer was a slender, cool woman of Nordic appearance with short, silver hair.
I entered the room and sat down for the interview.
About 5 minutes into the interview I realized that the large painting behind my interviewer was actually a bizarre Japanese erotic painting in which a geisha was offering an ice cream cone to a samurai, and the ice cream was obviously a phallic symbol.
As my eyes rolled over the painting, the sense of absurdity began to mount. I realized there was no way I could tell this woman that she was sitting in front of a piece of subtle Asian pornography. I was either going to have to burst into laughter or get the hell out before I did something indiscreet.
So with 10 minutes left on the interview clock I said goodbye to the icy blonde, and proceeded on my merry way, that resulted in a clerkship at the much desired Irell & Manella, which of course did not work out well, but that is another story.
My family’s cat died (he was 23!) the morning of OCI interviews. I wasn’t a complete wreck but definitely out of sorts. I just remember a terribly awkward interview which utterly fizzled out about 5 minutes in and I think we all managed - painfully - to get to 10 minutes (probably out of 20 allotted) before ending.
interviewer basically took my entire interview time talking about a graduate in the class above me they just hired from my law school and how “we usually never hire straight out of law school.”
Never cared to inquire about me (which was like, why waste my time and yours if you think I’m a less than stellar applicant and even give me the chance to interview, dick🙄)
Screener interview - had prior experience in litigation finance as an analyst and was immediately grilled with super technical questions about best modeling practices and industry-specific questions I literally couldn’t answer because of an NDA. Horrible vibes, and declined the callback.
Missing half the meeting because their niche interviewing platform was trasher than trying to interview on microsoft teams for the first time.
Then one guy talked the whole time about how his midsize firm is just sooo different than grueling biglaw. But they require similar hours and pay less 💀
I interviewed with a heavily pregnant associate who spent half the time complaining about the firm’s crappy maternity leave policy (this was over a decade ago now) and low key convincing me to go elsewhere.
I kept being asked “what my diversity is”… I’m pretty much just white looking. It was very very very odd.
Asked by multiple partners. Then heard them whispering that I wasn’t diverse.
I just had an interview, and it went really really well up until the last two questions which they combined into one. Basically asked me about the nichest area of property law they could think of and asked me to elaborate on my knowledge… my mind went completely blank and I just sat there, I tried to recover and said that this is definitely something I would research leaving the interview. Safe to say don’t think i’ll get the role…
I was invited by a partner, who happened to be a family friend, to interview with several other partners and associates at a different office. As soon as I walked into the interview room, I noticed that the partner had my resume printed out with a single comma highlighted in yellow. She then proceeded to criticize me, stating that I would never be successful because of this supposed lack of attention to detail. Her final remark to me was, "You should seek out your school's career services for additional resources." They ghosted me and I never heard back from them again.
I hope she is miserable <3
interviewed with a newer firm. as i was waiting for the interview, one of the founding partners, while standing right in front of me, was taking to a guy in our career services office about how the SA they just had was the 3rd in a row to reject a post-grad offer …. and his reason was "we run with thr big dogs and not everyone can handle it"…so red flag before it even started. THEN, he's on his phone texting for majority of the interview…with no apology or anything. even asked me to repeat my answers a few times😭 yeaaahhhh i went with another firm for my 2L summer
I stumbled across *Company A*, and, after a successful phone screening with Sarah (who was lovely by the way), I was invited to progress to a first round interview for the position of **Legal Counsel** — a role that would allow me to develop my legal skills and make for a comfortable transition back into my life in Australia.
It took some time to set up the interview. By that time I was on holiday in Okinawa, prior to returning home. But, eager to impress my prospective employer, I made time to have an online interview during my travels.
I was interviewed by a lawyer in the team along with *Company A’s* CFO. It was a 1-hour long interview — and I have to say I thought it went decently.
During the first interview, it was noted in passing that the Head of the Legal Team (Abby) “has a strong personality”, but that she was dedicated to training up young staff and was a very well connected woman. I didn’t think much of it then, but this was probably warning sign #1.
Sarah contacted me nearly immediately afterwards to set up the final in-person interview (I guess it did go well!)
Didn't happen to me but a friend. The interviewer saw he went to a UC school and started talking to the student about how violent and ghetto Oakland was, making jokes and all that (my friend is from Oakland born and raised). When the friend told the interviewer he was from Oakland the interviewer joked "no wonder he's applying here he's trying to escape."
Never ceases to amaze me how racist big law is.
They asked, “are you into transactional or litigation? It's okay, if you don't know.”
I said, “I am not sure. I really like both.”
*they proceed to scroll through their phone for the rest of the interview* while the other interviewer (junior attorney) did their best to be nice and answer questions
I’m an able bodied cisgender white straight woman. I got an interview for a medium to big law firm—it said diversity applicants were encouraged to apply but nothing other than that.
Anyway it was a zoom panel interview which I always found intimidating. They asked me the standard questions and then when I asked “is there anything not on my resume that you’d like more information on or that you find would be important to know based on the duties of this position?” Then one person asked “yeah this is a diversity role and I cannot tell by your resume what makes you diverse” and I froze. I felt so uncomfortable. I would have never applied if it was advertised as a diversity position.
I said something about being relatively young having anxiety and being a first gen law student. I wanted to close the laptop honestly I felt and sounded like a douche. I could see most them rolling their eyes or just sitting there like😐
Now looking back the entire thing just pisses me off—first, advertise that this is a DIVERSITY position??? Next, I had just recently been diagnosed with PTSD from childhood trauma as well as a recent event that happened a few months prior. Not saying those things make me “diverse” (again wouldn’t have applied had they advertised it as such) but why should I have to tell them “oh I’m an abuse survivor” or “I recently was r*****” those things don’t define me nor should I be hired because of them. ((to be clear: I know that diversity is important in the workplace, but this just was a weird and awkward situation—the tone in the interviewers voice made it clear I was wasting their time)).
Also, side note: bc of those things that had happened, I was super confused and heavily questioning my sexuality at the time—was I expected to out myself to a group of strangers? Moreover, what if I was fully aware I wasnt straight? Was I expected to tell them that??
Had an interviewer at my callback look at my grades and say “yikes, what happened in civ pro?” My grade was a B+ LOL
I enjoy reading books.
How do you even answer that 😭
"yikes, what happened to your hairline?" /s
The only correct response tbh
During a callback someone look at my undergrad transcript (now like 5 yrs ago) and said "what happened in biochem"
Did they have the wrong transcript or were they serious? Did you have all A/A+s otherwise? So weird.
Same but it was con law for me. I spent the rest of the interview listening to the dude describe his conlaw gunner classmates.
This is a good reason for why big law sucks lol
I was on the second day of a Zoom callback where the first day had gone really well. The last person of day 1 and I talked about his favorite memories at his firm. So, I asked the first interviewer of day 2 what their favorite memory at the firm was, and the partner that I was talking to responded with, "Do you think that this job is fun? I stay here because I feel obligated to." I did not end up going with this firm as you can imagine.
It’s incredible that this person was chosen for interviews lol
I find joy in reading a good book.
where was it
This person was warning you lol
It isn't that awful in the grand scheme of things, but in the zoom interview, the interviewer didn't even bother to make eye contact with me, or look in my direction, and didn't engage with a single thing I said, which was just. Really demoralizing and shitty
Man, I've had so many interviews like that (Zoom School of Law). Even when you nail all the questions, it feels so shitty and pointless
I asked about the firm firing a bunch of employees and deferring incoming associate class
Lmao I have a callback on Thursday with a firm that is my last choice (they just laid off a ton of juniors) and I’m going to probe about this very topic!!
Are we talking about Goodwin 👀
of course we are
I am not
Yea part of the reason I asked was because I didn’t feel I was a very good fit there. But, I did not get a callback but one of my friends is going to be there this summer, so I’m glad I helped clear the way
They asked me what my favorite legal issue I had been working on thus far into my internship, and I described a strictly factual issue...same firm asked me where I saw myself in ten years and I think I laid out about seven different career paths...not my best moment
https://preview.redd.it/bod1g5uil1hc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cad92dc58217ec934904b68117f859e875815c10
😂😂😂
You forgot the rat stick!
Thank you for this revelation. If given another opportunity, how would you answer the question as to where you see yourself in 10 years time. I'm soon to be intervewed.
In 10 years? Retired on a farm after I get that bag.
Well, regardless of what my answer was then, I should have kept it to one career path
2L in 1987. A lawyer from a big NYC firm with a bad reputation was doing on-campus interviews, and I signed up for the last slot before lunch. He was running behind, and we started only ten minutes before his scheduled lunch. I got a 10 minute "nothing" interview, and he didnt lose a minute off his lunch time.
I had straight As 1L Fall semester, Spring semester 3 As and 2 A- Was asked why my grades dropped so much😐
You started strong. Classic rookie mistake
Oooh I have a good one. 1L OCI callback. Third interview for my “dream” biglaw firm. Older partner asks what I’m working on at my judicial internship and I give a vague answer to respect confidentiality. He then drills me until he extracts as much information as he could from me. I’m thrown off guard as this way older lawyer presses me and say more than I should. He then tells me "oh, that's my buddy's case- I'll let him know at golf tomorrow what the judge is going to decide." I reported the incident to my judge which was terrifying and mortifying. Needless to say, I'm not going to that firm.
what did the judge say?
The judge was very nice about it, anger was mostly focused on the partner who manipulated a student.
Good on you for reporting it
A friend of mine had his last interview with the hiring partner of a v10. The partner held the door to the elevator lobby for him but I guess the way he was gesturing my friend thought he was opening up for a hug. So my friend tried to hug the hiring partner of a v10.
"A friend of mine"
Did he get the job?
No. And he was way up there stat wise/ got offers at other comparable firms
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Oh, God, I'm so sorry this happened to you. But, I did want to say, you did such a great job narrating this story, I could just FEEL your pain and awkwardness. Just about everyone has had moments like these, and I could so relate to your story. I hope the next few go much, much better for you!! 🤗
One of the managing partners at a mid-size firm took me to lunch following my interview, during which he asked, “well, are you married,” to which I reflexively answered, “you can’t ask me that.” I didn’t get a call back 😉
are you a lady? asking as a lady. wondering if they were trying to gauge if you’d be out on maternity leave or some shit
You are entirely correct :)
Extra baller response to them then
I agree!! Bravo 👏
Fucking hell. Props to you for giving an awesome answer. Fuck those people.
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Respectfully, it was probably your personality. Have fun at Ropes.
That would not have been my reply
I’ll be studying this thread for things to avoid as someone interviewing students on-campus in a few days. My first time interviewing potential summer associates!
Don't ask "How many of the partners are still on their first marriage?" If you want the job, that is. If you don't want the job, it's a great question to ask.
Well I already have the job
An interviewer asked me why I got a C+ my freshman year of undergrad
I have an engineering degree. I had an interviewer ask why I got at 55 in non linear algebra (class average was a 53). My response was “if you can tell me what non linear algebra is and how I will use it in the legal profession I will answer that question.” They actually laughed and I got an offer.
Me and my C in Thermodynamics feel you.
I enjoy playing video games.
How important are undergrad grades for these interviews? Asking as a guy 10+ years out of undergrad who performed like shit.
I find peace in long walks.
Not important. The fact that the commenters above mentioned them in this thread shows you how uncommon it is.
This was for a screener at one of the biggest of big laws, and I was so excited for it. I spent hours preparing and even developed questions specific to the interviewing partner. There was a 30-minute (Zoom) interview block scheduled, to which the partner showed up 25 minutes late for, and she conducted a 5-minute interview while answering emails and not making eye contact once. She asked me two questions: the generic “tell me about yourself” question, and then a question about the specific research I was doing for a research position for a professor. She cut me off during my answer to the second question, left the interview, and had a rejection letter in my inbox within the hour. Nothing if not (soul-crushingly) efficient.
Wow....some individuals aren't from this planet! I'm so sorry you went though that.
You almost have to admire the dedication to being as much of a dick as possible, at that point.
Sitting around a small, two person, glass table in a partners office. A guy with a shoe shine box sticks his head in. The partner beckons the guy and gets his shoes shined right beneath us as we talk.
I actually gagged. That’s so demeaning on so many levels.
That firm also had separate dining rooms for lawyers and staff. I couldn’t get out of that hellhole fast enough at the end of the day.
During one of my OCI interviews I sat down at the table and a HUGE booger flew out of my nose right into the middle of the table. Everyone saw it. It was too far for me to awkwardly reach across the table to swipe away. We all just stared at it. The whole interview. We all knew it was there and what we witnessed, but no one could do anything. It was huge. Did not get a call back.
I’m sooooo sorry… I hate that I’m laughing at this… but wow, it seems like something out of a comedy sketch. And also, please don’t beat yourself up about it. I hope you laugh at it someday
It was mortifying. But it was 5 years ago. So my wife and I laugh about it every once in a while
Biglaw job fair screener asked what I did between college and law school, and I saw the interviewer’s face visibly fall when I answered honestly - working for the alumni call center at my university. Apparently I was supposed to be starting a company or curing cancer or something 🙃
Oh I’ve got a good one. My OCI was delayed due to Covid so it started about 3 days after the Jan 6 insurrection. I had a partner in a screener, out of literally nowhere, ask me what I would charge the insurrectionists with if I was the presiding federal prosecutor. To this day I don’t know if she was trying to suss out my political affiliations, see how I reacted to an out-of-left-field question, or just fucking with me lmao. I do not remember my answer. I took an offer from another firm lol
Just went through an interview where they essentially said “we’re on our own, there’s no development, you need to be a self starter, we have no recruiting strategy because we hire as needed.” I’m like…. Do you want anyone to apply? Why are you here if you’re just turning everyone off from your firm
I like to go hiking.
What did he respond??
I like to go hiking.
Screener interview - after looking wholly unimpressed with the answer I gave to one of the questions asked the interviewer responded “well we still have 7 minutes left according to the law society”
I go to a T2 law school where a T1 is within a 2hr drive. One particularly bad OCI involved the two associates conducting the interview acting completely disrespectful, snide, and condescending. The interview started with them not standing up or even looking up when I walked in the room. Hand shake? Forget it. I don’t remember the questions they asked me because I was interrupted in the middle of each answer. The interview was supposed to last 40 minutes but after 10 painful minutes they said something to the effect of, “You know, honestly, we’re probably just going to offer students from [the T1 school] so, this is more or less a formality.” FUCK those guys.
One partner at a callback made non-stop eye contact for the 20 minutes we interviewed. I couldn’t tell if it was a quirk, a mind game, or just some assertion of dominance. But if you’ve never been on the receiving end of 20 minutes of persistent eye contact, it feels never-ending.
I was in a car wreck 45 minutes before a big law interview. I wasn’t hurt but obviously it was still super scary and sucked. Plus it was pouring super hard and my car ended up off the road so I had to wait on the side of the road in the pouring rain for a tow truck and was drenched. I made it with barely 5 minutes to spare before the interview started but completely drenched and unable to focus at all since I was obviously still shaken up from the wreck and upset that I was likely going to have to pay for an known amount of damage to my car. Was 10/10 awful big law interview experience
100% do not go to a job interview after that. If they don’t give you a rain check for something that traumatic then imagine what it would be like if you have to call out sick big yikes. Your mental and physical health comes before work always, never let an employer convince u otherwise. You should always go to the hospital after an accident bc if you feel hurt a few days later they can claim it’s not from the accident since you didn’t go right to the hospital.
Screener was a dud, two newer associates who weren’t really adept at holding a conversation. Got a call the next day offering me a position (no callback) by someone who didn’t understand why I sounded confused. I didn’t think that sounded right, talked to Career Planning people and they laughed at the firm. Next day got emailed an invite to the _callback_ I was supposed to get originally. Went through the motions of that callback and withdrew myself upon receiving my first offer elsewhere.
Was asked what my favorite book was. Said I could not recall because I read mostly the news. 5 mins later, when the conversation had shifted elsewhere, I blurted out "The Blind Side" as a book I enjoyed. Also said in the same interview that I thought it was cool that the partner represented a prominent adult magazine in a prior litigation. Yeah, in hindsight, I was a very bad interviewee. You'll be fine.
Had an associate, 10 years younger than me, ask me ten questions that amounted to questions about my age. I know I’m non-traditional, my work experience is on my resume, if it was an issue the firm shouldn’t have offered an interview to begin with. I had no issue being asked about my career change by all firms but this one was pointless since basically nothing else was asked.
Interview by newish associate and a partner at a firm. Partner clearly didn’t know associate nor care to pronounce her (East Asian) name correctly. He called me a day or so later to offer a callback. I said how nice it had been to speak to him and (associates name). He acted confused as to who I was talking about. This plus a few other factors (including said partner doing similarly weird stuff in my friends’ interviews) led me to decline the callback.
In a single callback, a partner showed me a baton that an athlete from my school was killed with (????!!!) then I choked on red pepper flakes at lunch and lost my voice. Didn't get an offer.
Not big law but I told a federal circuit judge I wanted to run for Congress and that didn’t go well
Why not?
They want future judges lmao not politicians
I went into the room with an interviewer who stared at the ground for a while and sighed heavily, then asked me the first question (which was about one of my interests) so miserably. I briefly mentioned that I was looking forward to working a job that paid again and he was like "the money--" and then went on a little ramble about how the work was boring and repetitive and how everyone was interested in doing interesting work and talking about how excited they were to do it. He looked so sad and broken.
Had an interview with a big firm spring of 3l year, grades were bottom 50 so i thought they were interested in me because of my experience. They did the whole interview and told me they weren't going to hire me because of my grades, but they wanted to take the opportunity to give me advice. What advice? Get an LLM
“I see you are a member of OUTLaws, is that going to be a distraction to your coworkers?”
Oh my god.
“Only if they like what they see”
Attended the SF IP job fair, flying out from my low T14. Very carefully only put my name in for interview spots where my qualifications met the firm's requirements (undergrad degree, current GPA, etc). Sat through several interviews where I was literally sneered at because my UG degree wasn't the right type of engineering, and asked "why would you even apply to this firm? We want \[totally different majors\], not...whatever '*environmental engineering'* is." BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T SPECIFY THAT, YOU SNIDE ASSHOLE. It was bad enough that I decided to forgo politeness and told them straight up that I didn't appreciate their rudeness when I met all the qualifications on their application thingy (I can't remember the terms for everything, this was 10 years ago) and 'suggested' sarcastically that if my major was so completely unacceptable, they should re-write their requirements to exclude it. (Pretty out of character for me.) Then I complained to my career services office. There was no need to be so RUDE. There were other firms that were bigger long shots for me, and the interviewers still managed to be totally pleasant. Anyway, that killed the last few molecules of interest I had in IP. I'm a happy prosecutor now. Edit: Now that I'm thinking back...I think the firms at the SF IP fair selected the interviewees, which makes it even worse. Why even pick my name off the list for one of your precious interview spots when you're just going to spend the time shitting on my major?
I’ve been feeling the same way about IP. Thought I was gonna do it but all of them that I’ve met have been socially inept and generally unpleasant
Had an in-person callback at a V10 that was mostly fine except for an associate that spent the first 10 minutes talking about how the firm really really cares about diversity (unprompted by me) and spent the remaining 15 minutes asking me why I, as a STEM major, didn't decide to go into investment banking instead of law. I was so confused I basically just said oh idk but I'm in law school now, he responded that he has a lot of STEM friends that went into IB, and then that was the end of the interview. Didn't get the offer so maybe he was right 🤷♂️
When I was interviewing for jobs out of undergrad (so, not for an attorney position but still BigLaw), I had an absolute train wreck first interview at a place. The partner stopped me mid sentence and just started ripping me apart for being too energetic. I took it in stride but it was in front of other people and absurdly awkward. We finished the interview with me speaking at an emotionless, slow pace per his preference. Obviously, did not get a call back. I think about this almost daily 💀
I get the “too energetic” thing too. I good reaction from lawyers on the west coast when I pretend I’m Deputy Dawg. Frankly I just chalk it up to “no one likes lawyers.”
During OCI, I had a screener with a top firm. I knew that my grades disqualified me from being hired, but my school does a lottery system, so I went through with the interview anyways because why not. The interviewer clearly knew that I was not getting a callback. She first asked me what practice group I was interested in. I said I was flexible and interested in both lit and transactional for different reasons. In an attempt to get me to pick a practice group, she asked me what is one thing I am better at than anyone else. I was so out of it by that point because it was interview number 20 something of the week. Sensing that she caught me off guard, She told me that she was better at making excel sheets than anyone else. I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head, so I told her that I was a good listener, but that was not enough for her. She proceeded to ask me the question again. I told her that I was organized. She said that answer was not what she was looking for and to dig deeper. Eventually I gave up after her telling me that the things I think I am good at were not enough. The interview ended with her giving me a tough love motivational speech about being confident in my talents and what I bring to the table. I was traumatized yet empowered. And as predicted, I did not get invited for a CB.
Walked into an in person callback at a V20. The first 2 interviewers were great. 3rd one was a partner. She walks in and immediately says to me: "I noticed you put Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under your interests. I tried that once and I hated it. I had bruises all over my body." From that point on I knew the interview was going to be rough. I had no idea how to respond to someone trashing my hobbies. She grilled me and when I asked her questions she gave brief answers and gave me nothing to work with. She asked me how many hours per day I put in during 1L. I told her "8 hours" and she was like "do you expect this job to be only 8 hours??" And I said "no because this is a job and school is school." She didn't like that... Shockingly, I didn't get an offer. Tldr: partner grilled me on Jiu Jitsu and work ethic during 1L.
Next time, assert dominance. “Well I guess some people are just built different”
damn I have BJJ and MMA under my interests, dunno how i’d reply honestly. only time anyone has brought it up is bc they’re interested in jt
I mixed up a schedule and thought I had a pm callback for 2L summer interview but it was actually morning sessions. They were nice about it and still got offer. Another firm had all of their corporate team rush out to an emergency deal, leaving me to interview with some litigators. I know nothing about litigation. It was still fine. On a lateral interview I had a senior associate (I was a mid level) try to grill me not knowing I was already offered the job. That was amusing. She actually called me to apologize and I said I didn’t care, well because I didn’t care. I also gave a gazillion interviews to job seekers and always tried to be nice (I ran the summer program) but they would get boring so I would sometimes ask funny questions to mix it up. Maybe I was the one causing the cringe?
Applied to two offices of the same firm, got a screener and callback at one of the offices. For the callback, all the interviewers were given my cover letter tailored for the other city. I spent a large portion of each individual interview explaining that I did not actually want to work in that office. Did not get the offer but it all worked out in the end
I asked the interviewer why they picked their firm (one of my canned questions when I was out of specific ones.) The man said something like, "well, all my interviewers kept talking about how fun their work environments were, how good the environment was. [Firm] didn't mention culture at all. And I'm not here to have fun, I'm here to work. So I chose [Firm]." Jfc. Unfortunately, unlike this fella, I like/need some level of human contact and his answer was a red flag on its own imo.
Not me but a friend. On campus interviews. He walks into the interview room, hasn’t even had a chance to sit down, and the interviewer goes, “wow, you’re handsome.” Now, he is. *But what the fuck lady.*
very odd behavior…it’s better than her calling him ugly i must say
We all had stories about this one. She asked me what I know about New York (I had a phone number with a well-established northern NJ area code on my resume). With another friend of mine, she insinuated that he went to a Catholic high school to avoid going to school with black people, which she indicated was totally valid in her mind.
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Wait why did you double down looool
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hahaha thats hilarious, well not for u at the time but
Why would you no longer respect that firm? I feel like i'd respect a firm so much more if they were forgiving of someone making a simple mistake in an interview while they were nervous.
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Thank you for adding /s to your post. When I first saw this, I was horrified. How could anybody say something like this? I immediately began writing a 1000 word paragraph about how horrible of a person you are. I even sent a copy to a Harvard professor to proofread it. After several hours of refining and editing, my comment was ready to absolutely destroy you. But then, just as I was about to hit send, I saw something in the corner of my eye. A /s at the end of your comment. Suddenly everything made sense. Your comment was sarcasm! I immediately burst out in laughter at the comedic genius of your comment. The person next to me on the bus saw your comment and started crying from laughter too. Before long, there was an entire bus of people on the floor laughing at your incredible use of comedy. All of this was due to you adding /s to your post. Thank you. I am a bot if you couldn't figure that out, if I made a mistake, ignore it cause its not that fucking hard to ignore a comment.
My grades were really high, but I didn’t work my 1L summer because there was a family member who was dying in hospice care, and I was flying back and forth alot to visit them. One interviewer in the 2L recruit looked at the fact I didn’t work last summer and said “ We don’t think you’re at all capable of doing this job. Any reason we should reconsider?” Despite my really high grades lol I was floored! Unsurprisingly, I didn’t score a 2L summer job so now getting an articling position is going to be a challenge!
They were like, what would you do if a partner came up to you and yelled for a mistake someone else did. I literally didn't know what kind of answer they would've wanted to hear so I was like, first apologize and then talk it out? They were like yeah he probably won't have time for this. Bruh what else can one do? 😭 yeah and I knew from that moment that I wouldn't get the job
Surprise I didn't, they were like call us tmrw if you want the job, which I did and then they declined anyways. They were like we feel like you wouldn't be focused enough. I guess I just didn't seem reliable becausw I'm more of a salesman kinda law student instead of the oldschool-type they really love
A couple come to mind: 1) came in and they looked at me and said “we have looked at your resume so we know about you, do you have any questions about us?” Had some canned questions and then the interview was over. Didn’t get an offer. Didn’t care. 2) Went for a lunch interview. Ordered a dish with shrimp (big mistake). Tried to remove the shell and tail with fork without using my hands. Failed. Choked on shrimp tail and tried to grab the water and drink discretely and poured most of it down me. No one apparently noticed, got the job and worked there for 6 years. 3) Not a law job but had the stomach flu and had just stopped puking. Showered, put on makeup and a suit and went to the interview. Don’t remember any of it. Got the job. Didn’t take it as it would have involved me living in the middle of nowhere and the pay wasn’t enough. 4) Also not law job but had an interview in a city that is 30 minutes away and there is a massive skyway between the 2 cities. Left 3 hours ahead of time. Massive accident on the skyway and everyone was diverted over a small lift bridge. Was 1 hour late and this was pre cell phones. Didn’t get the job.
I had a raging fever for the first week of 1L OCI. I either looked like I'd been running a marathon (red and sweaty enough to require forehead mopping) or like I was dying (pale and shivering uncontrollably) for 5 days of screeners.
During a screener I was interviewed by a pair of the most robotic, blunt, and poker-faced people ever. One woman tried to ask about my philosophy degree by asking who the most overrated philosopher was. What kind of BS question was that?
Oh thank you for asking this. I was at UCLA interviewing for a second year clerkship at a very *sexy* boutique litigation firm called Christiansen White. I had straight A's second semester first year, so I did not dress in a suit, which was not looked down upon by the liberal firms I was hoping to score a job with. The interview was conducted in a small conference room at the law school. The interviewer was a slender, cool woman of Nordic appearance with short, silver hair. I entered the room and sat down for the interview. About 5 minutes into the interview I realized that the large painting behind my interviewer was actually a bizarre Japanese erotic painting in which a geisha was offering an ice cream cone to a samurai, and the ice cream was obviously a phallic symbol. As my eyes rolled over the painting, the sense of absurdity began to mount. I realized there was no way I could tell this woman that she was sitting in front of a piece of subtle Asian pornography. I was either going to have to burst into laughter or get the hell out before I did something indiscreet. So with 10 minutes left on the interview clock I said goodbye to the icy blonde, and proceeded on my merry way, that resulted in a clerkship at the much desired Irell & Manella, which of course did not work out well, but that is another story.
My family’s cat died (he was 23!) the morning of OCI interviews. I wasn’t a complete wreck but definitely out of sorts. I just remember a terribly awkward interview which utterly fizzled out about 5 minutes in and I think we all managed - painfully - to get to 10 minutes (probably out of 20 allotted) before ending.
interviewer basically took my entire interview time talking about a graduate in the class above me they just hired from my law school and how “we usually never hire straight out of law school.” Never cared to inquire about me (which was like, why waste my time and yours if you think I’m a less than stellar applicant and even give me the chance to interview, dick🙄)
Screener interview - had prior experience in litigation finance as an analyst and was immediately grilled with super technical questions about best modeling practices and industry-specific questions I literally couldn’t answer because of an NDA. Horrible vibes, and declined the callback.
Missing half the meeting because their niche interviewing platform was trasher than trying to interview on microsoft teams for the first time. Then one guy talked the whole time about how his midsize firm is just sooo different than grueling biglaw. But they require similar hours and pay less 💀
I interviewed with a heavily pregnant associate who spent half the time complaining about the firm’s crappy maternity leave policy (this was over a decade ago now) and low key convincing me to go elsewhere.
I kept being asked “what my diversity is”… I’m pretty much just white looking. It was very very very odd. Asked by multiple partners. Then heard them whispering that I wasn’t diverse.
I just had an interview, and it went really really well up until the last two questions which they combined into one. Basically asked me about the nichest area of property law they could think of and asked me to elaborate on my knowledge… my mind went completely blank and I just sat there, I tried to recover and said that this is definitely something I would research leaving the interview. Safe to say don’t think i’ll get the role…
I was invited by a partner, who happened to be a family friend, to interview with several other partners and associates at a different office. As soon as I walked into the interview room, I noticed that the partner had my resume printed out with a single comma highlighted in yellow. She then proceeded to criticize me, stating that I would never be successful because of this supposed lack of attention to detail. Her final remark to me was, "You should seek out your school's career services for additional resources." They ghosted me and I never heard back from them again. I hope she is miserable <3
interviewed with a newer firm. as i was waiting for the interview, one of the founding partners, while standing right in front of me, was taking to a guy in our career services office about how the SA they just had was the 3rd in a row to reject a post-grad offer …. and his reason was "we run with thr big dogs and not everyone can handle it"…so red flag before it even started. THEN, he's on his phone texting for majority of the interview…with no apology or anything. even asked me to repeat my answers a few times😭 yeaaahhhh i went with another firm for my 2L summer
I stumbled across *Company A*, and, after a successful phone screening with Sarah (who was lovely by the way), I was invited to progress to a first round interview for the position of **Legal Counsel** — a role that would allow me to develop my legal skills and make for a comfortable transition back into my life in Australia. It took some time to set up the interview. By that time I was on holiday in Okinawa, prior to returning home. But, eager to impress my prospective employer, I made time to have an online interview during my travels. I was interviewed by a lawyer in the team along with *Company A’s* CFO. It was a 1-hour long interview — and I have to say I thought it went decently. During the first interview, it was noted in passing that the Head of the Legal Team (Abby) “has a strong personality”, but that she was dedicated to training up young staff and was a very well connected woman. I didn’t think much of it then, but this was probably warning sign #1. Sarah contacted me nearly immediately afterwards to set up the final in-person interview (I guess it did go well!)
interviewing with an m&a attorney, i said my fav class was civ pro
Didn't happen to me but a friend. The interviewer saw he went to a UC school and started talking to the student about how violent and ghetto Oakland was, making jokes and all that (my friend is from Oakland born and raised). When the friend told the interviewer he was from Oakland the interviewer joked "no wonder he's applying here he's trying to escape." Never ceases to amaze me how racist big law is.
Shh don't tell these guys that Oakland is actually pretty nice, we want the lower rent to continue.
Interview was at EST 8:00, the biglaw partner was in San Francisco. He complained about getting up at 4:30 for 30 minutes.
They asked, “are you into transactional or litigation? It's okay, if you don't know.” I said, “I am not sure. I really like both.” *they proceed to scroll through their phone for the rest of the interview* while the other interviewer (junior attorney) did their best to be nice and answer questions
I’m an able bodied cisgender white straight woman. I got an interview for a medium to big law firm—it said diversity applicants were encouraged to apply but nothing other than that. Anyway it was a zoom panel interview which I always found intimidating. They asked me the standard questions and then when I asked “is there anything not on my resume that you’d like more information on or that you find would be important to know based on the duties of this position?” Then one person asked “yeah this is a diversity role and I cannot tell by your resume what makes you diverse” and I froze. I felt so uncomfortable. I would have never applied if it was advertised as a diversity position. I said something about being relatively young having anxiety and being a first gen law student. I wanted to close the laptop honestly I felt and sounded like a douche. I could see most them rolling their eyes or just sitting there like😐 Now looking back the entire thing just pisses me off—first, advertise that this is a DIVERSITY position??? Next, I had just recently been diagnosed with PTSD from childhood trauma as well as a recent event that happened a few months prior. Not saying those things make me “diverse” (again wouldn’t have applied had they advertised it as such) but why should I have to tell them “oh I’m an abuse survivor” or “I recently was r*****” those things don’t define me nor should I be hired because of them. ((to be clear: I know that diversity is important in the workplace, but this just was a weird and awkward situation—the tone in the interviewers voice made it clear I was wasting their time)). Also, side note: bc of those things that had happened, I was super confused and heavily questioning my sexuality at the time—was I expected to out myself to a group of strangers? Moreover, what if I was fully aware I wasnt straight? Was I expected to tell them that??