What to expect for gov interviews

[sarcasticlemon]

 

If someone can share what was different 

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by sarcasticlemon

[HiGuys2020]

A stone cold face, very little chit chat, questions relating to behavioural “competencies” in the job posting, and substantive questions of law - sometimes on the spot

[TheDevilIKnow]

Agree 100% with HiGuys. Study the job posting carefully, along with anything you can find online about the required competencies. Definitely have some public law cases ready to talk about.

The cold, robotic format can be very hard to deal with if you are expecting to really "connect" with the interviewer(s). They are trying hard not to be engaging or give any "signals", so don't take it personally if it feels like they didn't like you. I felt like all my government interviews in my life went terribly, but 5 out of 6 of them resulted in offers. In the one that didn't, I panicked over a behavioural competency question that just didn't line up well with my experiences. Try not to let that happen; take a moment if you need, come up with something true (even if it seems small), and spin the hell out of it in your favour. 🙂

[TheMidnightOil]

Echoing what the others have said, but adding that second interviews may be more conversational than behavioural.

 

For the first interview, prepare several anecdotes from your work/volunteer experience that touch upon various sets of competencies. I highly recommend using the STAR method -- it may seem like a formulaic way to answer the question, but formulaic is generally what they want in your answers.

[A2J_2023]

Fearless advice, loyal implementation is the motto for the government - and the same is true for government lawyers. Be careful not to come off as too much of an activist in government interviews. The OPS is looking for staff (and lawyers) who will provide sound advice but who will also dutifully execute the policy priorities of the government of the day (which often won't be aligned with the policy and political ideas of young law students). TLDR: Don't present as overly ideological.

[Ribbons]

Government can be very unpredictable honestly. It is just important to remember that a lot of government interviews are like a legal exam in that the 'top score' wins. Each interviewer will score your answers and they will deliberate after to find a fitting score and the top applicants get the jobs. This is very different from corporate where it is so much more about personality fit. My advise is to think of government interviews like a law school exam and try to get points (doing this got me my top choice articling job). 

Here is a bit of my experience; in both cases I got the job:

My experience with MAG was like HiGuys. I cracked a smile out of one of the interviewers at the end after answering an insanely tough question correctly (basically mentioned I listened to the recording of the oral arguments, she asked me something like "I believe it was Justice Moldaver who asked [insert question], how was that answered and how would you answer that question?" The wildest part was this was a question to an intervenor not Crown or defence but I had nerded out of the case so I knew the answer given and had an answer as well). Otherwise they were overall quite stone cold and was basically a 45 min substantive legal exam. It was for a 2L summer position and 2x harder than my articling interview. All I can say is if they tell you to prep a case, learn the crap out of it.

My experience with DOJ was completely the opposite. I had such a wonderful articling interview and they were so personable. The questions I got were a mix of substantive legal stuff, questions about the DOJ, and ethical questions. There was very little clear opportunity to talk about my personal experiences so I used the ethical questions as a way to talk about what I would do, tie it to ethical standards and such, and then also reinforce my answer with lived experience. I certainly wasn't perfect in my interview but I approached it with the 'law exam' mindset where it was less about the 'perfect' answer and more about hitting 'points' in a clear and concise manner.

For DOJ I would recommend to: 

Find the jurisdiction you're applying for (and/or closest offices) and practice answer all the questions https://studylib.net/doc/9521997/sample-government-interview-questions

Read some articles from here: https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/news-nouv/index.html and be prepared to talk about one of them.

Read these and understand ethical obligations of DOJ lawyer:

https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cp-pm/vec-cve/vec-cve.pdf

https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=25049

Read a couple cases from here (or elsewhere that has some recent interesting case law from SCC): https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/cb/index-eng.aspx and prep a case brief for a case (preferably something connected to mandate of DOJ and that personally interests you). 

Read this: https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/abt-apd/index.html (get your head around the role of the DOJ).

Best of luck!

Edited July 27, 2023 by Ribbons

[SNAILS]

I interviewed with Legal Aid for Articling. One interviewer was warm and friendly while the other was more serious and "cold." There were a fairly large number of substantive questions, but they seemed to be targeted to weeding out candidates with a less-then-average understanding of family/crim. For example, "If you have a new family law client seeking separation and child access, what forms should they file first?" or "If you have an Indigenous person up for bail, what resources are available in our community to support that person?"

*** The above questions over simplify. The actual questions were multi-layered, and one of the challenges for me was remembering the 2-5 sub-questions within each complex question. Each sub-question as about as simple as my examples.