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      Sidley Austin

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      Attorney Interview

      Mar 20, 2024
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Chicago, IL
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Easy interview

      Application

      I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Sidley Austin (Chicago, IL)

      Interview

      I applied online after seeing this position posted on a job board. It wasn't a new posting, and it still look at least a month for me to be contacted by the firm's recruiting department. My interview was exceedingly brief, and the interviewers seemed to have forgotten that the interview was a two-way street and that they were supposed to be selling me on the firm, the group, and the job. They seemed pretty disorganized, and the counsel miscategorized the role from what was advertised in the job description--I don't know where the disconnect was, but I wouldn't have even applied if the role were categorized as what one interviewer (mistakenly?) said it was. In addition to not selling me on the firm, the group, or the role (however nebulously defined by the hiring counsel in the interview), the counsel and the [unidentified title attorney] did not ask me any pointed questions that would have allowed me to explain why I would be a good fit/what sets me apart from the middling, mediocre (at best) and incompetent (more likely) candidates that they will ultimately hire/what my unique value proposition is. I find myself simultaneously in the interviewer's seat in my current job, and even being somewhat new to that side of things, I'm at the very least able to ask good questions to sort out the wheat from the chaff and see whether what people have listed on their resume is hyperbole/that they know what they are talking about, etc. Merely asking a candidate to tell you about themselves is extraordinarily lazy. As well, imparting little substantive, actionable information and then quickly skipping ahead to "if you don't have any more questions" without even giving a candidate a chance to ask many questions is both rude and unhelpful for both sides. Frankly, this experience was a waste of having to don a Brooks Brothers shirt and suit jacket and to have taken any time away from my current job, which by the way, is with a better firm in a higher job title (assuming the counsel's miscategorization of the title was accurate) for more overall pay. I suppose the only consolation is that, post-Covid, screener interviews are over Zoom, and I didn't have to waste time traveling to the firm. I was just seeing what was out there, and I'm glad to cross this firm and group off my list and move onto better things. Bullet dodged. The legal world is small, and I'm likely going to be encountering this practice group in the future, so this was an interesting glimpse into how poorly things are run over there. The notion that this firm is a "peer" firm of mine is a joke. Law students--do not overly rely on Vault rankings as meaningful. Note to management/recruiting: before you waste highly qualified candidates' time, make sure the hiring person knows the title/category of the actual role they are hiring for. In this case, I could tell that the hiring counsel had created the role, so there is really no excuse for their spreading misinformation. You should also really work on your poorly worded form rejection emails and your recruiting department's communication skills.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      The extraordinarily lazy and lame canned questions of the variety: Tell us about yourself. Do you have any questions?
      Answer question