Is this a trick question on my law application?

It asks “if you didn’t want to be a lawyer what would you be” now I’m not sure if they want to hear the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do is law. Or actually give a realistic other job field? Help??

Reply 1

username5130140

17

It does say "if you didn't want", so wouldn't make sense to say "I would still want to be a lawyer", so I suppose you could think about the skills a lawyer needs for their job and come up with other jobs that require those skills?

- Just a year 13 fool, don't listen to me. I thought I would offer my thoughts, professional advice should arrive soon. x

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 2

trinityblue

2

Well, there are actually a lot of things you can do with a law degree, for an example, you could go into journalism and report on what is going in the legal realm and properly tell the public what that means for them. Or you could become a law professor as well too, my professors all have law degrees but many of them never were interested in pursuing a career as a lawyer.

Here's a link that shows other career paths you can take. :https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/law

I would give a realistic other job field.

Original post by w678

It asks “if you didn’t want to be a lawyer what would you be” now I’m not sure if they want to hear the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do is law. Or actually give a realistic other job field? Help??

So many people who still think that law firms only want to employ people who came out of the womb quoting Lord Denning.

There is more to candidates than their academic qualifications and legal experience. No successful lawyer is only interested in the law. This is an attempt by law firms to find out something about who you are and what else interests you. It is not a trick question. Answer it properly. If you try to give a fudged answer based on what you think they are looking for it will be blindly obvious to anyone who has sifted through more than a handful of applications.

Reply 4

username4882106

OP

8

Hey! Thanks for this I appreciate it. I wanted to say something like a social worker as it’s a family law firm and I know certain attributes are similar?

Reply 5

Pythian

21

Original post by w678

Hey! Thanks for this I appreciate it. I wanted to say something like a social worker as it’s a family law firm and I know certain attributes are similar?

But do you really want to be a social worker?

It seems to me, in my humbly opinion, that you're parroting what you expect they want to hear - as opposed to meaningfully engaging the question. Perhaps you should really think more about it?

I would say that I would be a novelist. I love the craft and admire novelists in their ability to tap into and project an aspect of the human experience. The way in which a great novelist shows us what it means to be human in a way that can go beyond our own limited capacity/senses/lifetime.

P.S. I could be wrong about your social workers dreams, and, if so, I summarily withdrawn my remarks.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 6

username4882106

OP

8

Original post by Pythian

But do you really want to be a social worker?

It seems to me, in my humbly opinion, that you're parroting what you expect they want to hear - as opposed to meaningfully engaging the question. Perhaps you should really think more about it?

I would say that I would be a novelist. I love the craft and admire novelists in their ability to tap into and project an aspect of the human experience. The way in which a great novelist shows us what it means to be human in a way that can go beyond our own limited capacity/senses/lifetime.

P.S. I could be wrong about your social workers dreams, and, if so, I summarily withdrawn my remarks.

Oh I actually wanted to be a social worker I really care about others and a lot of my voluntary work involved that too

Why?

Universities Forum Helper

21

Perhaps it would be better to think of it as an academic exercise; you need to argue what career would be the best alternative to law for you and why (and in a slightly more subtle manner, use an example which also demonstrates why you would be a good lawyer, beyond your critical reasoning and argumentation skills demonstrated in your response). Doing research like that to construct an argument using relevant points is going to be a common skill in many academic degrees, including law. Your response doesn't need to be "your truth", it just needs to be logically coherent and relevant to the question.

Reply 9

jacketpotato

20

The purpose of this question could be to check whether you are boring; to check whether you understand the skills law requires; to check your standard of written communication.

Ideally you would come up with something interesting with a good explanation of what you would be good at that job - ideally that explanation would be good for law too. For example "I think I'd be a good investigate journalist because I like putting in the effort to get to the right answer" - probably you can think of something better than that but it gives you an idea!

Is this a trick question on my law application?

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