Reading time: 19 minutes
Are you applying for the Freshfields graduate scheme or preparing for your upcoming Freshfields recruitment process? Find everything you need for your Freshfields assessment practice applicable across the globe including the US and the UK in this guide.
Our website provides scientifically validated practice assessment tests, interviews, and assessment centre exercises that can be used to practice and prepare for the recruitment and assessment process.
Not sure if you should practice to prepare for the Freshfields recruiting process? According to research, 60-80% of candidates are rejected based on their aptitude test results. It is proven that practice increases your chances of getting hired.
A recent study (Bradley et al, 2019) found that candidates who do not practice assessments, tend to fail at the first hurdle of psychometric assessments (54%-84%). This study looked at the Top 100 global employers.
As your application gets selected, you are invited to the next stage of your Freshfields hiring process, where you will be invited to complete the Freshfields Watson Glaser Test.
You may get rejected already after your assessment tests. These tests sift out 50-80% of candidates. The only proven way to get to the next round is to practice.
The last stage of your Freshfields recruitment process will be the Freshfields half-day assessment where you will be required to sit through various assessment center exercises aiming to assess your analytical skills. These exercises are:
For your final interview, practice with our video interview platform and record yourself answering the interview questions using the STAR+R method.
Continue reading to get answers to these critical questions:
Looking into assessments with Freshfields, click on the table below to practice assessments relevant to your assessment process!
Go Premium to get lifetime access to the practice assessments listed above and ace your Freshfields assessments, first time.
Before we dive into the assessments, let’s discover more about Freshfields first.
Freshfields is a British multinational law firm, headquartered in London, England. It advises nations, multinational corporations, financial institutions, and governments. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, popularly known as Freshfields, holds 28 offices in 17 jurisdictions across Asia, Europe, Middle-East, and North America and has approximately 4,900 employees.
Freshfields receive thousands of applications each year. But where in Freshfields do the applicants apply to?
Let’s find out the key fields and job functions you can apply to below.
What job functions does Freshfields provide?
Freshfields lawyers can practice in various areas of law, some of these are listed below:
To apply to these roles and prove to be a great fit, make sure you keep in mind Freshfields’ values, as this will help you understand the work culture at Freshfields and align your interests with the company’s expectations.
What are these values? Let’s check these out below.
What are Freshfields’ core values?
The core values of Freshfields are as follows:
It is important to understand Freshfields and these values to maximise your upcoming personal statement and impress the Freshfields recruitment team for your upcoming interviews.
Below, we have mentioned some more pointers that will give you a head start on your research.
Now that you know all about Freshfields, let’s jump right into the Freshfields recruitment process.
What is the Freshfields recruitment process?
The Freshfields recruitment process consists of various assessment stages which will evaluate you on the basis of your critical thinking, cognitive skills as well as your personality traits. The three stages of Freshfields recruiting process are:
Let’s get into the details of these stages of the Freshfields application process, starting with the online application.
What is the Freshfields online application?
The Freshfields online application is a typical workday system application. This first stage of your Freshfields recruitment process will require to provide the following information here:
During your Freshfields application, you will also be required to write an 850-word personal statement. So let’s see how to give your best impression in your Freshfields personal statement.
To impress with your Freshfields personal statement, don’t miss our following tips.
Top 7 Tips to Write a Good Freshfields Personal Statement
If you want more tips to prepare for your Freshfields application process, don’t miss our following short video:
Once your resume gets selected by the Freshfields, you will be required to complete the Freshfields Watson Glaser test. Keep reading as we uncover the details of this assessment.
Back to Contents
What is the Freshfields Watson Glaser test?
The Freshfields Watson Glaser test is designed to assess your ability to digest and understand situations and information. It is often used by Freshfields for roles where the ability to critically consider arguments or propositions is particularly important.
Law firms such as Freshfields often use the Watson-Glaser test to assess your cognitive abilities as well as inference-making abilities.
How much time does the Freshfields Watson Glaser test take?
The Freshfields Watson Glaser test is divided into 5 sections each of which will contain several questions. There will be up to 40 questions to be completed in or under 50 minutes.
What does the Freshfields Watson Glaser test consist of?
The Freshfields Watson Glaser critical thinking test is divided into the following 5 question types within their sections:
To boost your performance in your upcoming Freshfields Watson Glaser Test, don’t miss our following expert tips and tricks!
Top 5 Tips to Pass the Freshfields Watson Glaser Test
Boost your Freshfields assessment prep with our practice Watson Glaser Test as part of our Go Essential bundle and get access to real questions, live test reports, and progress charts!
If you get selected at this stage of your Freshfields assessment, you will be required to attend the next stage of assessment, i.e., the Freshfields half-day assessment or Freshfields assessment centre.
What is the Freshfields half-day assessment?
The Freshfields half-day assessment also known as Freshfields assessment centre is designed to assess your skills, competencies, and suitability for the role. To assess these, you will be required to go through various assessment centre exercises.
The Freshfields assessment centre exercises typically include:
Keep reading to discover more about these three Freshfields assessment centre stages.
What is the Freshfields written exercise?
Freshfields’ written exercise will evaluate your attention to detail skills because a lot of work for Freshfields’ clients is done in writing. However, this Freshfields written exercise does not test your technical or legal knowledge.
This written exercise is an important and most predictable stage of your assessment, all you need to pass this exercise is to be fully prepared. How can you do that? Let’s see.
Passing the written exercise at Freshfields requires a combination of analytical thinking and effective communication. By considering the following tips, you can achieve some of these objectives.
Top 5 Tips to Pass the Freshfields Written Exercise
Once you have completed your Freshfields written exercise, you will be required to sit for two interviews one of them being the Freshfields general interview. Read on to find out more.
What is the Freshfields general interview?
The Freshfields general interview will be a conversation with two of your interviewers, usually a partner and an associate. This interview will be an hour long and will require you to reflect on your resume and be prepared with some examples from your prior experience.
The Freshfields general interview will assess your behaviours in several situations as well as see if you are a good fit for the organization. This interview will also focus on your past experiences through competency-based questions.
This is a crucial stage where your interviewers get to know you and therefore you must put your best self out there. How to do that? Let’s see.
Top 7 Tips to Pass the Freshfields General Interview
Consider the following tips and tricks to understand how you can enhance your performance in the Freshfields general interview:
Now, using the above tips, let’s try and answer the following Freshfields interview questions.
Question: Have you been involved in a corporate tax audit before? What did you learn from that experience?
Good Answer:
Question: If hired here at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, how would you best build trusting relationships with our clients?
Question: Talk about a time your ethics were challenged on the job. How do you react to those situations in the legal profession?
Looking for more interview practice? Prepare for your Freshfields interview questions with over 60 unique video interview sets used across top industries on our Practice Video Interviewing Platform.
The next interview at Freshfields will be the Freshfields analytical interview. Let’s find out more about this Freshfields interview.
What is the Freshfields analytical interview?
During the Freshfields analytical interview you will be given 30 minutes to read an article. After this, you will have an hour-long interview with two different interviewers. This interview does not test your legal or technical knowledge, only your commercial awareness and ability to think on your feet.
The two interviewers in the Freshfields analytical interview may be a partner and an associate, and they have no information whatsoever about you prior to the interview except your name.
Freshfields Analytical Interview Pro tip: Freshfields recommends reading recent articles from business press such as the Financial Times and Economist to be prepared for the Freshfields analytical interview to get in the habit of understanding the impact of the information provided.
As well as the above tip, you can do a few more things to ensure you are ready for the Freshfields analytical interview. Let’s find out more below.
To be completely prepared for what’s coming, make sure you don’t miss the following expert tips.
Top 5 Tips to Pass Freshfields Analytical Interview:
We also recommend asking your own intriguing and thought-provoking questions at the end of your interview. Here are some questions you may ask your employer:
Want to know more questions that could come up in your Freshfields Interview? Practice the Essentials with GF and discover more potential Freshfields interview questions with our Question Identifier Tool (QIT).
Once you are done with this last Freshfield recruitment stage and pass this, you will receive an offer letter after a week or two, once the employment checks and other formalities are done.
If everything gets approved, you will be joining your dream job at Freshfields. Congratulations!
But wait, before you go!
Are you a student looking for opportunities to kickstart your career with Freshfields? We have got you covered! Below are some of the entry-level career opportunities available at Freshfields. Read on to find out more.
What early career opportunities does Freshfields offer?
Freshfields offers various opportunities for students as well as fresh graduates to kickstart their careers in the consulting industry. These career opportunities offered by Freshfields are as follows:
Let’s discuss each of these opportunities in detail below.
What is the Freshfields graduate programme?
As a part of the Freshfields graduate programme you will move and work every three months in a new department of the business during your two-year placement at Freshfields. Through this programme, you will gain wide exposure to legal disciplines.
The Freshfields graduate programme job functions and subsidiary programmes are as follows:
Now to apply to these Freshfields training programmes, you should apply as soon as possible because the applications have started and the exact application dates of Freshfields graduate programmes are given below.
Freshfields Graduate Programmes Application Deadlines
Freshfields Graduate Programmes Application tip: To increase your chances of being accepted for these Freshfield graduate programmes, apply on the website as early as possible!
Next, let’s talk about another Freshfields early career opportunity, i.e., the Freshfields solicitor apprenticeship.
What is the Freshfields solicitor apprenticeship?
The Freshfields Solicitor Apprenticeship is a six-year programme that will combine cutting-edge work and study, and the apprentices will gain a law degree and SQE qualifications before qualifying as a solicitor.
For more details of this Freshfields solicitor apprenticeship, you can visit the Freshfields careers website.
Next, let’s discuss the Freshfields vacation scheme.
What is the Freshfields vacation scheme?
The Freshfields vacation scheme is a three week summer vacation scheme that is a paid placement which allows you to engage in real tasks, group exercises, and events with partners and associates of the company.
How to apply for Freshfields Vacation Scheme? To be eligible to apply to Freshfields vacation scheme you must fulfil some basic eligibility criteria that is mentioned below.
The assessment process for the Freshfields vacation scheme is the same as the assessment process of the Freshfields experienced hire.
When can you apply to the Freshfields vacation scheme?
The Freshfields vacation scheme applications close in January. To ensure you improve your chances of getting accepted, ensure to register interest to be notified when you can apply, and apply as soon as possible!
With this, we have provided you all the information to help you get into your dream company. Refer to the following FAQs section to gain more insights into the Freshfields recruitment process.
Freshfields recruits at roughly 25 different law schools. If they do not visit your law school, you may submit your resume and transcript to their email that is provided on their website. If your resume gets selected, you will be called for an interview.
No, you cannot apply to two graduate opportunities at once. If you are unsuccessful in one of your attempts, you can apply when the company advertises any new Freshfields jobs either for experienced hires or graduates.
Freshfields looks for someone with excellent analytical ability and critical thinking skills. And someone who understands the importance of teamwork and collaboration in maintaining the discipline of the organisation.
The Freshfields virtual internship is a law and fintech virtual learning experience programme available to recents graduates and undergraduates which allow them to gain experience of how lawyers at Freshfields work and learn from your experiences to get ready for the real world.
The Freshfields’ trainee salary ranges between 50,000-55,000 Euros, depending upon the time spent with the organisation. Furthermore, you will be provided a salary of 125,000 Euros if you stay on as a newly qualified associate.
Take numerical, logical, verbal reasoning and situational judgment practice tests today with GF, the only aptitude practice test experts providing practice test solutions to over 150 UK universities and their students, and also across Asia and continental Europe.
Practise with peace of mind without commitment to a full 100% money-back guarantee if you do not pass your job tests.
VIEW OUR TEST OPTIONS