Suits and tricky questions

Wow, what beautiful and scorching weather we have had these past few day. Almost makes you think it might be summer... 

As you know, I was made redundant from one of my part time jobs shortly before exams *sob*. Obviously job hunting was not at the top of my priority list at the time. Since then, one particular position has caught my eye. Another admin post but this time at a much larger firm that annually recruits trainees. I applied and yesterday I had my preliminary interview. 

First off, it was over 30 degrees here and I was super reluctant to don a heavy and stifling suit. Contrary to what everyone advised me, I knew best, and wore a shirt and cardigan combo. Greatest idea I've ever had until I walk into the offices and come face to face with the previous interviewee, dressed in a suit. Nothing like a confidence wobble just before a big interview eh. 

Moving on to the reason for this post. One of the questions I was asked was:

                                      "What criteria should your next employer or position meet?"

What an interesting question. I was initially a bit stumped. After a moment to think, I was still stumped. And then I realised my only option was to be honest and so I entered in a conversation in which we discussed my particular desire for a job in the legal sector, in which team working is key and where there are opportunities for the development of employees (obviously here I was thinking of post LPC opportunities). 

The interviewer then cottoned on to what I was thinking and asked how long I expected I would be in this role, and I was really dreading this question. With the cost of training and the time it can take recruiters are quite rightly keen to employ people with the intention to stick around. With that said, I know of people who are in charge of recruiting and have told me that people who remain in the same position for more than 3-4 years are generally seen to lack ambition (I tend to disagree with this, but what do I know). What a minefield! Again, I had to be honest and answered that I couldn't imagine being in a part-time position for longer than 2 years as on completion of the LPC and then the LLM I would obviously be wanting full time work. I then mentioned that I might also be wanting to move away from admin and into a role that used some of my legal skills. This seemed to pay off as I then found out that this particular firm are keen to begin a practice of recruiting their trainees from within so it seems that honesty was the best policy.

The recruiter called me this morning to say I was through to the final interview stage next week. Having met some of the employees of this firm and seen the offices I could really see myself working for this firm. *preps heavy and stifling suit*