Perform at Your Best During Interview

Without the right preparation, the most able silk applicant will underperform in interview and fail to communicate excellence. In our experience, many silk applicants have an unexpected degree of stress and anxiety around their forthcoming silk interview.  This is normally down to a combination of a lack of familiarity with the process and the importance of what is at stake.

The applicant is outside of their comfort zone, with something personally vested in the outcome where the questions are about them, not their client. This is not like any case or conference and as such a different approach to preparation is essential.

Demonstrate Excellence and Leadership

Our through, intense and challenging silk interview preparation process prepares you for your interview ensuring you communicate confidence, excellence and leadership.

Our 1:1 silk interview coaching is delivered by Martin Soorjoo who has spent 15 years as a full-time coach and before that 15 years at the Bar practising at the highest level (House of Lords, European Courts and Major Public Inquiries). Martin is trained and certified in a range of human performance strategies.  As such he understands how able advocates think, communicate and perform and knows how to maximise their performance.

Challenging, Intensive and Thorough

Our overriding objective is that by the end of the coaching session you have performed strongly during our extremely challenging and realistic mock interview and are clear on any improvement needed, so that you perform even better on the day.

Our unparalleled service will

1. Ensure you perform at your best at your interview, remaining calm, focused and confident. The vast majority of our clients have not had an interview since pupillage or their tenancy application, let alone a competency based interview.

2. Thoroughly prepare you for the QCA questions with a realistic and challenging mock interview. We have an in depth understanding of the type of questions you can expect to face and will advise you on how best to deal with them including

• The 4 categories of questions you may be asked at interview;
• How to demonstrate excellence; and
• Specific considerations relating to the Diversity competency.

Many of our clients inform us that our mock interview is more challenging than the real thing.

3. Provide additional mock interviews (where requested) with alternative questions, for those clients seeking greater improvement.

4.   Show you how to instantly switch in to the right state and mindset. Many a silk interviewee has unexpectedly experienced 'Deer in headlight' syndrome on the crucial day despite decades as a successful advocate and robust interview preparation. We equip our clients with research backed mental performance techniques used by Special Forces (Martin has worked with UK and US special forces operators)  and elite athletes that enable optimal performance under pressure.

5. Provide you with a video recording of your interview for  your review (assuming you have consented for the interview to be recorded) and copies of the questions we have used.

6. Enable you to easily recall fresh strong examples in interview in response to questions you haven't anticipated with a simple technique. You will be able to prove this ability to yourself during our mock interview.  Natural spontaneous recall is far more effective than scripted and rehearsed answers.

7.  Discuss strategies for dealing with criticism and inoculating against said and unsaid objections.

8. Address non-verbal communication issues e.g poor eye contact and incongruent body language. As any good advocate knows, it is not simply a question of what you say, but how you say it that matters.

9. Ensure you communicate leadership presence and gravitas in your verbal and non-verbal communication.

10. Reduce your preparation time and ensure you focus on the right targets.

11. Provide you with support right up to the day before your interview (inc evenings and weekends) with additional mock interviews if requested.

75%+ of Our Clients Appointed Annually

For the past 12 years the annual percentage of Martin's clients appointed as silk has never dropped below 75% and has reached as high as 95%.  To ensure we can provide the advice and support needed by individual clients we never take on more than 25 clients per competition and are always fully booked before the silk interviews commence.

An intensive silk interview preparation meeting typically last 2-3 hrs. Because clients have different needs and degrees of interview experience, our time spent with you is charged on an hourly basis at £475 + VAT per hour.

Further mock interviews using different questions can be arranged on request.

Contact Jenny at coaching@jatc.co.uk to arrange a no-commitment confidential discussion with Martin to discuss how he can help you maximise your chances of appointment.