This particular post will take a more personal standpoint as it essentially reviews my interview last night and what went wrong.
I arrived at College Chambers 10 minutes before my interview. I was directed to a small reception area outside a set of doors where I had to wait. The previous candidate was being interviewed, and the doors were far from sound proof. I have to say this was un-nerving whilst your waiting. The interviewers spoke quietly so I could not catch their comments but I could hear everything the guy said and the one thing that shone across was he knew his stuff.
I think should I find myself in that situation again I will find a reason not to stay directly outside the door. Some people believe you might pick up tips to better prepare you. For me it just made me feel generally and entirely bad.
When I was finally issued into the room it was several minutes past 5 and in fact the next candidate was sitting right outside able to listen to my entire interview.
The interviewers consisted of a panel, two barristers clerk and a barrister. They were across a wide table and there was no opportunity to initially shake hands.
The centre barrister clerk began by asking questions off a printed piece of paper. He did not have my C.V, covering letter he was just asking each candidate the same set of questions regardless. There was no attempt to put me at ease and he went straight in to the first inevitable question, "What do you understand by the role of Barristers Clerk?".
Typical the one time I dont basically memorise the job description is the one time it comes up. I had done some research but missed key points and it was downhill from there.
A later question asked what I knew of college chambers, as you may know from an earlier post this was very little due to their current lack of public promotion and the fact their website is under construction. I could therefore only use the information I gathered from other sources.
Also over the course of the interview it was revealed how the job was 90% barristers clerk and 10% marketing, a fact not clearly explained in the original advert. Marketing was effectively tiny small print to the size 50 "Barristers Clerk".
I think another issue was my understanding of the role, the term clerk, and the wages offered made it seem like a fairly minor thing, a junior role, necessary to the chambers but basically a role in which you were a dogsbody performing all the needed but unwanted duties of the barrister. Nothing had given me the impression it was a career in itself until I met the middle aged interviewer who had been a clerk his whole life. I dont entirely know why my mind could not properly comprehend this previously but it was another thing that made the interview that much harder.
I sweated my way through the other questions, even suffering a mind blank at the marketing one before the final question which asked where I saw myself in 3 years time at which I stuttered to a fairly generic answer.
As I left the room I made sure to shake one hand at least. The girl waiting gave me an apologetic smile, she had inadvertently witnessed the train wreck, whether it had helped or hindered her it is difficult to say.
I know I will not get the position. I am amazed I was even interviewed for it in the first place. After all my C.V and covering letter were marketing focused and put the barristers clerk bit almost as a footnote. A few extra duties that added to the actual job.
Next up in two weeks an interview for a sales and marketing position, where again the marketing seems to be a footnote. Im aware of it this time and each time I err in an interview simply makes one more mistake learned, to be avoided there after.
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