How would you approach an interview for an entry level position?

In My Humble Opinion
1

How would you approach an interview for an entry level position where your experience isn’t impressive?

I’ve been to a few interviews recently for positions where I have enough experience to do the job adequately, but nothing very impressive. It’s in the legal field, where most attorneys are considered inadequate until they’ve had at least two years of experience in the field. For reference, I have 1.5 years of experience.

During the interviews, I found it difficult to explain why my adequate experience would be better than the adequate experience of everyone else. Anyone know of a good way to handle these interviews?

What’s worse, is that some interviews do not focus on experience. They want to know whether I’m enthusiastic about the job, and whether I’ll accept their salary. At one place the most important questions were why I want to work there and whether I can handle the commute. The honest answer is that I can’t be enthusiastic about working for a company I know nothing about. And unless I have some inside information about the people who work there, I won’t know anything about the people who work there. Therefore, enthusiasm is a no go. Does anyone know a good way to satisfy the enthusiasm requirement without being enthusiastic?

All help is appreciated.

2

I’m not in your field but in my experience, different employers have very different priorities. Some of them are more focused on you as a person (do you seem bright, are you able to learn) and other are focused on what you’ve done in the past (have you done A, B, and C for X number of years). So I doubt there’s a magic answer that covers everything. If you had some background info on the employer and knew what they’re looking for, you’d be in better shape.

3

Did you do any research into the companies beforehand? If they work in an area that you have a some basic of level interest, you could always say,

“I’m excited that I may get to be involved in the X project, which I read about in the paper last week.”

or something like,

“The company has a reputation for being at the top of its game in [insert specialty service]. I have always wanted to work in this area, so this seems like an exciting opportunity.”

In the cover letter for my current job, I remember writing that I’ve always wanted to do work in the Chesapeake Bay. Which was a flat-out lie. But hey, no one hooked me up to a polygraph machine. I just needed to show that I’m “with it” enough to make some happy shit up.

You can compensate for lack of experience by selling expertise. Is there some specialty of law that you’re really good at? How off-the-beaten path was the 1.5 years of experience? If you acquired any unique skillsets or a unconventional perspective, you could play these up.

4

The simple answer is that you need to research your companies. And this involves more than five minutes on the website.

Talk to people you know in the company. If you don’t know anyone, use LinkedIn to contact someone you have some connection with there (maybe an alumnus of your school). If you don’t have any connections, you need to build your professional networks stat.

Before interviewing, you want to know:

  • Their approach, basic philosophy
  • Major clients
  • Any relevant projects
  • An idea of their org structure and career progression
  • Knowledge of what your department does
  • An idea of what problems your department is facing
  • The career progression of your interviewers (use LinkedIn)

Its a lot of work and requires putting yourself out there, but that’s how it’s done. It’s good professional practice to know companies, anyway. How can you claim to know a field when you don’t know the players?

5

They didn’t ask you if you were enthusiastic about all your swell colleagues, they asked you if you were enthusiastic about doing the work they’re offering you. Even though in a way you’re being overly literal and overly concerned about being honest, you’re also worried about the answer to a question they aren’t asking.

There must be something about the job you’re interested in, no? Some reason why you responded to this job posting? Some reason, perhaps, you ever wanted to be a lawyer?

“I’ve always enjoyed [subject] and I’m very interested in your [related subject] practice. now tie it in with your previous experience In my previous job I particularly enjoyed [things you did] + [concrete accomplishment or how it ties in].”

example: I’ve always really enjoyed torts and I’m very interested in your Med mal practice. In my previous job I did some research about medical licensing and I was surprised how lenient the licensing board is. There are definitely some bad doctors out there.

“While I have experience in [this kind of forum] I’m very interested to practice in [this other kind of forum]” (fill in as applicable… administrative… state court… federal court… ADR… etc.)

example: “I have litigation experience in administrative forums but the opportunity to practice in Federal court with your firm is extremely exciting for me.”
or
“recently I’ve been able to develop my trial experience, but I noticed you do quite a bit of arbitration and I’m really excited about your firm’s ADR practice.”

**Pitch human or civic interest for human-centric practices like personal injury or criminal defense. Especially if this represents a change from your prior work experience. **

ex: “Doing patent law/contract law/legal research was interesting in a lot of ways, but it could be a little abstract. In medical malpractice/discrimination law you’re really helping people who’ve been harmed one on one.”

The opposite can also be true. If their practice is highly technical, pitch your inhuman love of technicality. if that’s their practice, they are looking for like minded folk.

ex: I know it sounds crazy, but I just love doing cite checks and proofreading in general. I once found an error in the Bluebook. Truly! It’s in the index!
Also, there’s a absolutely zero reason you should know nothing about a firm you are interviewing at. Honestly, that’s just lazy. Look at their website and read up on their recent cases (as posted on their website; google them; search their name on lexis/westlaw) so you have something to say.

6

The grant that funds my salary will run out soon. I can’t find a job in the same field because its a limited field and my networking skills are nonexistent. That’s why I have been applying to fields that I’m not interested in. I’ve been choosing jobs based on what’s available and what I feel I can tolerate for a few years.

This should serve as an answer to monstro’s suggestions as well.

I misspoke. I meant to say I knew nothing of the people that worked there. I do look up the company online. However, some small firms don’t have much information on the internet except for their practice areas (which I don’t like).

7

I’ve been applying recently too, and heard I did well at my last interview. Hopefully that means I’ll have a new job soon. I’m not in a legal field.

Have some questions ready. I wrote down about 10 questions, figuring that some would be answered over the course of the interview. My last question, which I totally got off the internet, was “how do I stack up compared to the ideal candidate?”, which allowed me to address the interviewer’s concern about some duties she thought I might not like.

You can count on “why do you want to work here” and that’s a good time to demonstrate that you researched the company. If you can’t find out much about them online, say that you asked around and everybody says they have a good reputation.

Practice talking about previous roles and, in your case particularly, other experience. Nobody asked me about coursework, but if you’re out of university recently, you’ll want a spiel about it.

Have a list of strengths in your head that you want to bring up. Every question they ask, hit a strength right away.

Practice answering standard questions. Behavioral interview techniques are popular in my experience, so practice things like “when have you had to deal with someone difficult”, “when have you needed to use teamwork”, and “how do you prevent errors”-- there are sites with lists of behavioral questions. Every time, bring up a strength.

Learning from mistakes is a strength, IMO, so I answered a stakeholder management question with a misjudgment that I made in dealing with a client. Not a horrible mistake, obviously, but a case of over-service and then I talked about how I changed my approach.

Have answers ready for chestnuts like “what’s your greatest strength/weakness” just in case it comes up. Remember that the interviewer is looking for reasons to not hire you as well as your good points, so don’t go saying something too honest. IMO, the only acceptable reasons for you to be looking for work are you got laid off or you’re ambitious.

If you can, practice with somebody. Practice in the mirror as well.

I read that you want to have your answers be one or two minutes, so that’s what I aimed for.

One interviewer checked out my LinkedIn page and blog. I think your online presence is worth polishing when you’re looking for work.

8

Facebook [del]stalk[/del] the interviewer. In your interview, mention in passing your interest for some of the same things he/she likes.

You: I like sailing in my off time

Interviewer: Really?! Me too!!

You: Hmm, you don’t say…

9

I used to hire entry level people for people in sales or admin work. Not completely inexperienced, but not those with years of experience in them.

The answer is in your OP and follow up comments, although you don’t see it yet.

The key is looking at what you think is important and how you are trying to get that information over, vs. what they think is important by what questions they are asking.

You think that a year and a half of experience is of significance. They don’t.

They are asking you questions to see if you’ll stick around or not. Many entry level people don’t because they discover they don’t really like it.

What’s more, you acknowledge their concerns by saying that you’re looking for a job in a field you aren’t interested in. They smell this.

Asking how to do well as an entry-level position is framing the question wrong. The question is how to get excited about an opportunity to get some more paid legal training for several years.

Once you figure that out, you’ll do much better on interviews.

10

So you hate networking. Do you think you are special? Everyone hates networking, everyone finds it awkward, everyone finds it fruitless 99% of the time, and everyone would rather be doing just about anything else.

But people hire people they have some kind of connection with, period. If you don’t want to build your professional network, you are going to be at the end of the line for every job search, only considered when nobody else fits. And no, it’s not some arbitrary requirement designed to punish introverts. It’s not uncommon to spend more time with your coworkers than your own spouse- so it’s natural to want to make sure you are compatible.

That’s a worst-case scenario for getting hired. Would you want someone on your team who is barely tolerating the work until they find something better?

Hiring is like an arranged marriage. Picture two marriage candidates. One is well known to your friends and family, who adore her and have recommended her. She immediately expresses compatible interests in you, and is deeply enthusiastic about the things you are enthusiastic about. She speaks knowledgeably about your shared interests, and enthusiastic about a long future together.

The other is clearly a desperate single, casting around for any bachelor who will take her in. She’s come out of nowhere, and seems to know nothing about you. She has no real shared interests in you, and it’s pretty clear she’s mostly just looking for a provider. Furthermore, it’s pretty clear she is keeping her options open and intends to split as soon as she finds someone richer or more compatible.

Employers can read this stuff, and they can smell desperation. You either need to shift your mindset and commit to your new career path, or take a make-do job waiting tables or something until you can get back in what is your real game. Because every job you apply to is someone’s dream job, and if it’s not yours, you are going to miss out every time.

11

Well, if I don’t know enough to be enthusiastic I would start asking questions. Ask for a tour of the office. Ask about the day-to-day. Talk to the people about their interests.

Of course, if you’re not enthusiastic about getting a job, period, (especially enthusiastic enough to make up some lies about your enthusiasm) then I’m going to look at you sideways. You’re here to get a job. Act like it! Make some shit up already! Put on the pretty face!

I find it helps to think about money. Compare that to being homeless. Want the job bad enough now?

12

Read over your posts and then say “with this attitude, why should anyone hire me?” The answer is that they shouldn’t and until your attitude changes, as Tokyo says - they smell it. Particularly since you seem even uninterested in faking sincerity. You aren’t interested in the firm, in the work, or even in pretending like you are interested - how are you going to ever beat out other candidates is a really good question.

13

If you aren’t enthusiastic about the field, you’re going to have to lie to have any chance at the job.

“Ugh, I hate what your firm does, but I have bills to pay. Just hire me and get it over with so we can both look back on this moment with regret” has gotten nobody a job ever.

14

I pretty much agree with everything here except the last line. The OP does not have to be passionate to get the job. It doesn’t have to be his “dream”. But he does have to pretend that he wants to be there. Forget “fake it till you make it”. Just fucking fake it. He may feel a like a giant phony afterwards, but that sure is better than starving in the street.

I specialize in phony. It works when you’re really good at it.

15

For me, it was a real eye opener to be the on other side of the table and trying to guess which five of these 80 resumes should I contact for an interview and which of those five should I hire.

For entry level jobs, I wasn’t expecting a major star. My company wasn’t paying that kind of salary, and someone who was Ivy League wouldn’t be interviewing with me, anyway.

I DID NOT want a prima donna. Not for a junior member of the team. People would try to stress why X and Y were such great things on their resumes, but I was looking for someone who would show up, work hard, be a team player and take direction when necessary, be reasonably independent and hopefully work for me for two years.

If they were really good, I could offer them an advancement, but that would be later.

It didn’t matter to me that you had eight months of XYZ experience. We were really good at teaching XYZ to people. That’s why we hired entry level people. If we didn’t want an entry level person, we’d pay more and get someone who had been trained somewhere else.

Hiring more experienced people can be easier because you can ask direct questions such as “Tell me how you handled a situation where . . .”

For less experienced, you look to see if there is something there which will give you an idea of their attitudes.

(As an aside, you know why everyone says you shouldn’t have a string of jobs only one to two years? Because the person hiring you will figure you’ll do the same thing to them. There was a candidate who looked great on paper, but had five jobs in seven years. I passed and a customer picked him up. He lasted 13 months.)

For the OP and other people who are trying to get into entry level jobs, try to find someone experienced in your field who can tell you what companies or firms are looking for. It shouldn’t be rocket science.

Can you talk to the people at your law school? Somewhere to start on the specifics for learning how to get hired.

Yeah, but you can’t be too fake either. It best works if you are genuinely phony.

That’s why I was taking about finding something good about the position. It helps you fake it.

16

I don’t disagree with the virtues of networking. But sometimes when you hate something, you don’t do it.

17

Well, yeah, but then you also suffer the consequences of not doing it. Searching for a job can be hard enough as it is, so I prefer to not add to that difficulty by taking one of the most useful tools in my toolbox and chucking it out because it’s no fun. Yeah, it sucks, but it works.

18

Yeah. I, for example, hate filing my taxes.