If you are pursuing your BA LLB or LLB programme at any top law colleges in India, ‘Campus Placements’will happen to be the big event of your graduate life. In fact, it becomes the hottest topic of conversation amongst friends and family as you get closer to the date. And, life seems burdensome if you are not clear about your choice of function/industry.
Alternatively, if you know and is clear with regard to what you want , you will be stressed out wondering whether you will get a job in any of your dream companies. Our advice is that, instead of worrying, channelize your anxiety into preparing for a successful placement.
Upgrade to Version 2.0
If you are not in your final year, promote yourself to become your own best version. You can determine to study hard and maintain top grades. That is the strongest signal to the world about your commitment to success. Choose multiple paid/unpaid internships across graduation. When you get valuable exposure, understand what you like doing, build a network and turn professional faster. Immerse into campus activities to seek positions of responsibility. You should learn invaluable social and leadership skills. Select an outstanding final year project and gain mastery over one domain. All that you do will impact your selection into your perfect first campus job.
Final year homework
While in your final year of 5-year BA-LLB or 3-year LLB degree programs, do your homework at the earliest. Research over which companies will come to campus? Find out what is their selection process? Know how many people will they hire and how many are expected to apply? Check whether you are eligible as per their shortlisting criteria? Next, understand the placement rules for your campus. Verify, if you get a job offer early, can you appear for another interview later? If it is not so, analyze whether you want to apply to an unwanted company earlier and miss out on your dream firm? Confer with your classmates so that you are sure you have understood each potential situation.
CV and online profile
Your first job has a disproportionate impact on the direction of your professional life. Work harder than ever before to get short-listed for relevant interviews and clearing them successfully. The first step is building up your CV and online profile. Compose a professional looking LinkedIn profile with a sober display picture and clean up your social media accounts to remove immature stuff. Set aside at least two weeks to rework your CV and placement brochure profile until you reach the mark of excellence. Review online resources and invite inputs from friends and seniors to improve your resume. Modify your resume each time you apply based on the job description and your research on the company.
Interview preparation
You should spend a couple of months preparing for the selection process which may include group discussions, aptitude tests, technical interviews, subject matter interviews, coding tests and HR interviews. If it is a general interview, be on top of your core studies whether it is procedural or substantive law. If there are aptitude or coding tests, research online for past question papers and expected test formats and practice taking tests relentlessly instead of studying your standard law textbooks.
Mock practice
The biggest challenge you will face is your lack of exposure to a verbal selection process. For a group discussion, get a group of friends together and practice multiple mock group discussions. For all other interviews, build a question bank from various online resources and practice answering aloud in front of a mirror. Perform mock interviews with as many people as possible including family members, friends,campus seniors, etc.
You will discover a huge improvement in your confidence and interview technique. Learn that communication involves not only the content but also your confidence, appearance, body language, tone and volume of your voice. Work out for a neutral accent and clean English without use of colloquial or swear words. Find and eliminate repetitive fillers in your speech like – “umm”, “ahh”, “I say”. Lastly, practice responding professionally to criticism in an aggressive or stress interview.
Line and HR interviews
Interviews by line managers (your future bosses) mainly include technical interviews or problem solving. Months of preparation will see you through here. More than the right answer, they are interested in knowing your approach to solving a coding problem or a case study, how you think in the hot seat, how you communicate and if your attitude is logical, analytical, positive and enthusiastic. The general or HR interviews are designed to understand you as a person and will involve both personal and behavioural questions.
Check whether you display emotional maturity and have a value system that motivates you and keeps you stable as an adult? Remember, behavioural questions are open-ended like describing an experience where you failed and what did you do. Remember also to work on each line of your CV and be ready to answer questions with examples. Finally, you should have a 2-minute summary ready, selling your biggest achievements and your background if you are asked to speak about yourself.