Body Language and Demeanor

Some career counselors may instruct you to focus solely on your skills and credentials during your interviews. The reasoning behind this advice is that you only have a short time to demonstrate you are qualified, and you will not receive an offer if you waste precious time on small talk. Having been on both sides of the interviewing table, we can confidently tell you this is the worst advice you can get.

Some of the best interviews that result in prompt offers have nothing to do with the law or credentials. They involve discussions about cooking, halibut fishing, or traveling across Europe. The reason? These conversations are much more interesting and engaging than discussions about the law, and they help the interviewer relate to the candidate.

Mary is a mid-level associate at a prominent New Orleans firm. Every year, Mary's firm hires 10 summer associates, but at the end of the summer only a few receive offers. According to Mary, the firm uses informal interviews to decide who gets an offer. These interviews are so informal, in fact, that the summer associates do not even realize they are being interviewed. The firm's technique is simple: At the end of the summer, each associate is taken out for a nice, long lunch by his or her mentor. The mentor then prepares a formal evaluation about their conversation, the student's demeanor, and, most importantly, whether the student was fun to be around. In the last two years, the only summer associates who received offers (after producing quality work, of course) were those who managed to make these lunches personal and fun for the interviewer. Most of these candidates did not talk about the law at all.