Interviewing with a small firm. Have met with all 4 partners over zoom. Today I speaking with the associate over the phone. Recruiter says just informational and we both expect I’ll receive an offer. What kinds of questions should I ask the associate at this point?

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Definitely take this seriously. I'm a senior associate at a small firm, and we hired a new associate last year. The partners picked their top three candidates for the three associates to speak to. One of the candidates was apparently the front runner (we were not told this). But he literally asked us nothing, showed zero interest in firm culture. We were really trying hard to make it last thirty minutes, so we just asked a bunch of questions. We gave the partners our final feedback on the three candidates, and the fact that this guy was last on every single list completely took him out of the running. Everyone agreed that if ALL of the current associates didn't see him as a good fit, it wasn't going to be good. This kid was basically told it was a formality to speak to the associates. It wans't.

Basically, show interest in the firm culture, in their day to day. What does their typical day look like? What hours are generally expected? Has the firm finalized a post-COVID remote or in person work policy? Are associates allowed or expected to be involved in business development? Is their formal or informal mentorship? How are associate concerns addressed?

But take it seriously.

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No. Ask about the associates about the hours. You can’t truly evaluate an offer if you don’t know the hours people are actually working. I was recently in your position. In the interview I asked the (recently promoted) partner about hours. He told me what his experience was and what he saw from the other associates he supervised. Based on his answers they were in the office from 8-6 during the week (at a minimum) and people work 1-2 weekends a month. Then he mentioned that people there rarely hit the minimum hour requirement to receive their bonus, which was odd because the annual hour requirement was only like 1850-1900. So there’s either a lot of downtime when people are in the office or a lot of associate time is written off. That was a big red flag for me.

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I’ll second the “take this seriously” part. I’m a 4th year and my colleague and I have been asked to interview several associates now (including some that are more senior). The partners have told us they want to make sure that the culture stays the same and that anyone they bring on to the team will be a good fit with the other associates since we’ll be working together most.

We recently had an interview with an associate that was terrible. This guy literally didn’t know what he was talking about in terms of the type of law we did (I’d throw in the example but it might be a giveaway in case he’s on here). Kept acting like he already had the offer. And in general came off really arrogant. Guess what kind of review we left him? Not a great one. Partners followed up with us, too. Haven’t heard that he’s been hired yet so.. that’s that.

Ask questions like how is the work divided, how big are the teams, are people social or generally keep to themselves, etc. Hours questions, IMO, are also totally fine for interviews with associates. I’ve been open about anything from hours, bonus structure, growth, and review process.

Just don’t act arrogant, give sense that you’ll be a team player, and DO NOT act like you have the job already, and you’ll be fine.

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Thank you all! Had a brief moment of existential dread.

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I agree with Associate 2. When we hire or are considering hiring we have potential employees meet with our associates. We take their feedback seriously.

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What hours are expected? How is work assigned? What opportunities have they gotten? Most associates are pretty honest during interview.

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AA2 I also asked about hours during my partner focused interview. Didn’t feel weird at all — and I really needed to know the answer. My feeling was/is — I’m not going to waste mine and firms time if the hours (comp is related) aren’t in line with what I want.

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Health insurance; 401k contributions;

bonus structure (what is it hours-wise, and how attainable - my firms bonus structure is very great but difficult to hit because we aren’t given enough work to bonus).

What are the other associates like?

How’s the quality of work from the legal assistants and/or paralegals (I’m single handedly thinking about leaving my firm because we have horrible legal assistants and the partners don’t care because they have their own legal assistant who is a rock star)

What’s it like working for the partners? Are they tyrants?

Have to run and haven’t read all the above responses. But getting along with people is a big part of this process. Can you bullshit with the other associates? Would you enjoy going out for drinks with them? Would they want to with you? It’s pretty critical to like and trust other associates. Otherwise you get excluded and that can be difficult/dangerous long-term. So ask the questions others are mentioning. But also just have a normal conversation. That got me my last job. And it was with two partners, not even associates. “This guy’s pretty chill. We like him.” That was the gist of the feedback I got.

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