Government Legal Services Trainee Scheme (2018 applications)

Was it nerves or was it particularly difficult?

Hey I am a current GLS legal trainee / pupil. Happy to answer any questions about the application or the scheme generally.

Hello, I was just wonder if you could shine some light on how the interviews are like?

Sure

What they call an assessment day is actually a 1/2 day with two parts. The first part is a written exercise based on materials they provide you on the day. You get a laptop and all the information you need. The one I did was a theoretical act of parliament and you had to write a memo advise a minister if a proposal would cause issues with the act. It doesn't require any legal knowledge but is testing your communication skills and making decisions.

The advise you write is then printed off, you are given a copy and they give copies to the interview panel and give time to allow you to read through what you wrote.

Then the interview. There was a panel of 3 - two senior government lawyers and one independent HR person. The first part of the interview is they ask questions about your written advice and give you the chance to correct anything or expand on things. They also asked me general follow up questions about the theoretical provision.

Then the formal interview. It is very much a competency based civil service style interview. They didn't refer to my application form at all - I think they get a copy with various parts redacted. The interview lends itself well to extensive preparation - maybe more so that any interview I have done.

You need to answer in the well known STAR format:

Situation – set the context for your story.

Task – what was required of you.

Activity – what you actually did. - Bet to focus on "I" rather than what the team did or what happened.

Result – how well the situation played out.

I would suggest preparing some STAR based anecdotes of jobs you have done or situations you have been in to deal with every one of the competencies in the job description. Also be prepared they might ask you to give more than one example of each competency - I think I was asked about team work twice which slightly threw me off as I had already used my best teamwork example and had to think of another one on the fly.

Also keep the answers pithy and on point. You don't need to tell the whole back story to set the scene - just a sentence to explain what the background is. In the result part you can also reflect on what you could have done better etc.

They also ask you more focussed questions like why you want to be a government lawyer or why you want to work in public service– not just the generic “why do you want to be a lawyer”

I was also asked the usual questions about what cases have you read about recently.

Hope that is useful.

Anyone heard anything yet?

Well done guys!

Thanks, hopefully you'll hear soon! Good luck!