I applied online. I interviewed at Kirkland & Ellis (Salt Lake City, UT) in Apr 2022
Interview
By far the best interview process. Talent acquisition team was transparent, genuine, responsive. Overall an amazing candidate experience. Onsite interview proved the company culture was one to be excited about.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Kirkland & Ellis (Hong Kong) in Jun 2023
Interview
I was not keen to interview for this firm in the first place because of its reputation—my personality does not fit into this kind of "cut throat" environment Kirkland is known for but my recruiter convinced me to do it anyways. The office itself was beautiful, if a bit intimidating, and up-to-date in terms of technology and amenities. I was welcomed by the receptionist and led to a large meeting room with a beautiful view of the city obviously meant to impress, and it did—I'm a sucker for a beautiful view and it was obvious they were trying to show off their $$$. I sat there alone for a few minutes until the interviewer came in and sat at the opposite end of the large meeting room table so it was like a mediation lol. Very formal I guess. We exchanged introductions and then commenced the interview. During the conversation it was pretty obivous to me that this was not a workplace I wanted to join and would not fit in here, and the interviewer probably got the same feeling. From her questions and follow ups, she seemed to want me to answer more intensely or controversially than I was, but that is not my personality so I did not take the bait. I find the best decisions and answers are made in a quiet, thoughtful way and the people I work with best tend to be the same. I think she may have been annoyed by that because she did ask me one question I felt was quite rude at the end. I answered mildly anyways and didn't react. After, I was sure that I did not want to join this workplace and said as much to my recruiter afterwards. The recruiter never got back to me with what the interviewer said but I assume she was on the same page as me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
We had a conversation where I was asked several questions in which the interviewer seemed to be trying to get me to give more intense or controversial answers. However, it is not my personality, especially during an interview, to be especially controversial or intense, so I answered in my typical mild and friendly way. She asked me a few questions about the inner workings and discussions of my current firm, or former partners of my current firm, which I did not feel were appropriate to answer while I was still working there, so I would say, "I was not present for that discussion in particular" or "I gave this advice but the final decision will be up to senior management." At the end she seemed annoyed that I hadn't given her what she was looking for so she said, "You don't seem to know what you want, do you?" I thought it was rude but it was clear to me at this point the firm was not a good fit so I wasn't bothered.