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Questions every lawyer should avoid during an interview

Interviews are all about answering questions ‘appropriately’ and asking ‘appropriate’ questions.

So, what are the inappropriate questions to avoid?

What does your company do?

Conducting a simple Google search will generate more information than you know what to do with, and certainly, have time to read. Not only is this question embarrassing, but it also reveals pure laziness and a sheer lack of preparation. 

What you should do instead, is find an area of interest and relevance and ask about that. This shows you've done your homework and you're interested in the company, which hopefully leads to an interesting discussion.

Is there the opportunity to move to a different division/qualify into another area of expertise?

This question screams: “I'm not interested in this role but it might help me move upwards or in another direction."

This might be the case if you do the time but asking this question is jumping the gun and you're likely to be shown the door.  

A far better alternative is to ask about general development opportunities within the company, as well as training. Another little tip is to ask how the role's arisen - it might reveal what the previous job holder has moved on to do.

What are the office hours, holiday and sick pay entitlement?

Although these questions are undoubtedly important, there's a time and a place to ask them. If you ask them during an interview, you send the following message: the general elements (of a job) are more important than other more specific aspects. Ultimately, if this is your standpoint, that's OK, but my advice is to stay away from these questions for now...

All negative questions

For example, what's the worst part of working for the company? Why do people leave? Do you do background checks? I heard a rumour… These examples might seem self-explanatory but you’d be surprised how many times they come up.

I always advise writing down a list of positive, informed questions to ask if they're not answered throughout the interview, or if you're asked: 'do you have any questions?'

For more information, please contact Tom Fleet at BCL Legal.