Daily Diary

Grad-watch 2007: A&O goes bird-watching

Posted 7/02/2007 by The Daily Diary

Last year The Diary highlighted how Linklaters innovators were targeting the cream of the university crop with the use of the new-fangled information super-highway, with blogs by its trainees extolling the virtues of life in the hallowed halls of Castle Greyskull.

Never far behind (except in PEP), magic circle ‘rival’ Allen & Overy has got wind of this worldwide web malarkey and has unleashed the treasure trove of delights that is aograduate.com.

The website includes a tongue-in-cheek yet chillingly accurate online personality test designed to determine “what kind of Legal Eagle [you are]” – a “wise old owl” or “chatty parrot”, for instance (although The Diary’s inner twitcher had always thought owls, parrots and eagles were different creatures entirely).

For instance, question one asks: “When it comes to making decisions, you: a) know what you want and go for it; b) like to weigh up all the pros and cons and make a considered evaluation of the situation before committing to a particular course of action; or c) tend to ask other people about their experiences of being in a similar situation. You learn from others and don’t want to make the same mistakes!”

Other sample questions on the cunningly oblique assessment cover potential applicants’ attitude to risk, their team-working abilities and, most intriguingly, “what does the term work/life balance mean to you?”

Options for the last one include “not much”, “it’s meaningless” and, finally, “everything”. Presumably not too many successful applicants clicked ‘C’.

For the record, The Diary came out as an “unflappable” penguin.