How to Handle Interviewer's Questions: Legal Jobs

When you are fielding questions at a legal job interview your answers must be direct and to the point, as short as is humanly possible, and must end either in your silence or in a question for the interviewer which may or may not be related to the question he asked you. Remember that your objective in a legal job interview is to keep the interviewer talking as much as possible; keep the ball in his court!

Use a fifteen second rule when answering an inter-viewer's question. Try to anticipate the interviewer's questions (and after a few interviews, this will become quite easy as the same questions tend to come up time and again; remember that lawyers as a rule are not very imaginative) and prepare in mind a response that will take no more than fifteen seconds. If you are taking more than fifteen seconds to answer a particular question, stop and ask the interviewer "am I reading your question correctly?" This gets the interviewer talking again, if only for a brief moment and gives you the chance to obtain a clearer focus on what he's driving at. When the ball returns to your court make a very short reply and follow up with a question.


What do you do if the interviewer asks you a question and you really haven't the foggiest idea of what the answer should be? Most interviewing books will tell you that you should buy a second or two by saying something like "that's an interesting question; I would have to think about that for a moment," and I heartily endorse that approach. But what if you still can't come up with an answer?

First, don't panic. The interviewer may not (and usually will not) be looking for an answer, but wants to know how you handle yourself in a difficult situation. If you try to fudge it, you will "screen yourself out" of the interviewing process; no lawyer likes to hear baloney from a client or a junior attorney. Rather than guess and guess wrong, the preferred approach is to try to find out where the interviewer is headed; you may say something like "that's an interesting question, and I'm frankly surprised it has never come up before. Tell me, what is it about my background or experience that you are especially concerned about (or that you are especially interested in knowing more about)?" Usually this will signal to the interviewer that you are slightly confused by his question, and he will take some pains to clarify his intentions; if you listen closely enough, you usually will be able to figure out what he is looking for and be able to give it to him.

What if this does not work? Keep trying to clarify the question. You may repeat it in a slightly different fashion, using words that bring it closer in form to a question you are prepared to answer, and ask the interviewer if that is what he means to ask (you must be careful of course not to appear to be evading the question). Under no circumstances, however, you should guess at an answer. If all else fails, and you can't figure out where the interviewer is headed, you may say something like "you know, Mr. So-and-So, I really haven't given much thought to that; I guess I didn't think anyone would be all that interested in that. I'd like to think about your question a bit and give you an answer later in the day.

Will that be all right with you? I'd rather take the time to give you the right answer than blurt out something which won't be useful to you." Usually this will turn the interviewer to another topic and end the awkwardness (You should, by the way, always follow up on your promise to get back to him later in the day).

At best, you have satisfied his concern that you are not the sort of lawyer to "shoot from the hip" and answer difficult questions without doing the necessary homework. At worst, he will think that you are not sufficiently "fast on your feet" and screen you out, but at least you will now know another interview question for which you must have a ready answer. Incidentally, do you write down different or unusual questions that you are asked during job interviews? You should; in fact keep a file of recurring questions and an outline of your preferred answer to each one. Why reinvent the wheel each time you go out into the job marketplace?

See the following articles for more information:

• 21 Major Interview Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
  
  
• The Best Way to Prepare for a Job Search and Interviews
  
  
• How to Talk About Other Interviews in Your Interviews
  
  
• How to Answer the Tell Me About Yourself Interview Question
  
  
• How to Answer the Do You Have Any Questions for Me Interview Question