Allen & Overy Situational Judgment Test, Watson Glaser Test, Assessment Tests, Recruitment Process & Interviews Online Preparation – 2024
What Is Allen & Overy?
Allen & Overy is the 7th largest integrated international law firm with offices in over 40 countries. They help the world’s top enterprises to flourish, modernise, and succeed. For almost 100 years, Allen & Overy have built a strong reputation for being innovators in their field, finding modern and unique solutions to their clients’ multifaceted legal and industrial challenges.
Allen & Overy is much more than a law firm. Because they utilise technology, they drive incredible transformations for clients across the globe, meaning that there are plenty of career opportunities – from graduate opportunities in law to project management opportunities; there are various innovative roles in a variety of sectors available at Allen & Overy.
What Is the Hiring Process at Allen & Overy’s?
Allen & Overy’s hiring process has been constructed to find the top talent for their firm. The hiring process has been devised to challenge and assess applicants throughout while also ensuring that applicants can shine.
There are three stages of the Allen & Overy recruitment process:
Online Application
The first step to finding your dream job with Allen & Overy is to search for a role using their careers site. Once you have found the opportunity you wish to apply for, you can do so by filling in the online application form.
The online application is your first opportunity to show why you are the right candidate for the job, so you must take the time to think about your answers and fill them in properly. First, the online application will ask some basic questions about yourself, your interests and hobbies, as well as your work history. It will then ask you some competency-based questions about challenges you have faced, how you have overcome them, why you want a career with Allen & Overy, and why you are applying for that specific role. In addition, you will be asked about your strengths and weaknesses before finally being asked to write about a current issue and how it can positively or negatively affect Allen & Overy.
If you pass this pre-employment stage, you will be sent an email to complete some aptitude tests.
Allen & Overy Assessment Tests
The exams you will be asked to sit depend on the role which you have applied for. Some standard psychometric tests that Allen & Overy like to use in their recruitment process are:
- Watson Glaser Test – The Watson Glaser Test is a pre-employment test that examines an applicant’s critical thinking and reasoning skills. Applicants will have 30 minutes to answer 40 multiple-choice questions covering a myriad of topics such as argument evaluation, assumptions, reasoning, deduction and analysis.
- Revelian Cognitive Ability Test – The RCAT test is a combination of numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning and abstract reasoning questions. It has been designed to allow employers to fully understand a candidate’s cognitive abilities in relation to their peers and the job role. The RCAT test is difficult, and questions gradually get harder as you move along the test. Applicants will be given 20 minutes to answer 51 questions.
- SHL’s Inductive Reasoning Test – The inductive reasoning portion of the exam on SHL’s general ability test has been designed to understand a candidate’s problem-solving skills. In this part of the test, candidates are presented with a series of patterns and shapes and will be required to work out which is next from a set of multiple answers. The logical reasoning test helps to show Allen & Overy how you solve problems and come to conclusions.
- Allen & Overy’s Situational Judgment Test (SJT) – After you submit your application, you will receive a link to the video-based situational judgment test. The Allen and Overy Situational Judgment Test is primarily for student and graduate applicants to show you some of the things you may encounter if you are hired. The test shows how you think through and respond to difficulties and challenges in the workplace. Each question starts with a short video that presents you with the situation you are evaluating. Once the video is over, you will be given a set of responses. You need to select the response that you think is the best and the one you think is the worst. Once you have received the link to the SJT, you have 48 hours to take it. The test takes about 20 minutes to complete. Practice free SJT test Questions.
Allen & Overy Assessment Centre
If your online application has been successful, you will then be invited to an assessment centre at Allen & Overy’s head office in London. Candidates will participate in the following activities:
- Case study presentation followed by a Q&A session.
- Two interviews – one with a partner for the firm to which you are applying and the second with an HR representative and hiring manager.
- Tour of the office.
Case Study Presentation
The first part of your interview will be a case study presentation. You will be given the case study on the day of the assessment centre, and you will have 30-45 minutes to prepare your findings before presenting them to a small panel, followed by a question-and-answer session.
This task aims to show the interview panel how you obtain and identify key information relating to legal or commercial problems. As you only have a limited time, you likely won’t be able to cover everything in the case study. However, for anything you do say, you want to ensure that you have points to back up your findings, as senior associates in the interview panel will challenge you.
Interviews
As part of your assessment centre with Allen & Overy, you will have two interviews.
The first interview will be with a partner from the firm and is scenario-based. You will be given a set of scenarios and questioned on what you would do in those instances. The scenarios the partner will ask you are to test and understand your skill set. An example question is: “You have been working hard on a task set by your supervisor, but a partner comes along and tells you that you should take a different approach. How do you adapt?” The partner wants to see how you adjust to changing situations. They may also ask you a follow-up question to see if this has ever happened to you throughout your working career and how you dealt with it.
The second interview is a competency-based interview with an HR representative and hiring manager. You will discuss your work history, skills, knowledge and reasons for applying to Allen & Overy. Because you will be asked questions about what you wrote in your application form, think about the answers you gave. Ensure that you stay up to date with the latest laws and legislations and any important current affairs.
How to Prepare for Allen & Overy’s Assessments?
Allen & Overy is the world’s 7th largest law firm and is considered one of the UK’s best. They want to hire a diverse range of candidates that think outside the box and can change the face of commercial law forever. Therefore, it’s important that you prepare and present yourself as knowledgeable in your field and a creative thinker throughout the recruitment process. One way you can do this is by practising for the online aptitude tests.
When you prepare for online aptitude tests, you can set yourself up for success by staying calm despite the strict time limits on the test and avoiding losing out.
To help you with Allen & Overy’s psychometric tests, you can take practice sample test questions and look at common answers to help you prepare. While familiarising yourself with the Watson Glaser and Revelian tests is essential, you can also benefit from improving your language, numeracy and thinking skills.
In addition to preparing for the aptitude tests, you must prepare for Allen & Overy’s interviews. By practising common interview questions and simulating the interview process, you can get the hang of how to answer these questions ahead of time so that you are more confident on the day.