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The interview was great in the sense that the interviewers were lovely, they really took their time to make me feel comfortable. In particular, they actually guided you through the interview, telling you what sort of answer they were looking for. For example "we are going to ask you some questions, and we want you to link your answer back to X particular firm value that we have". It was genuinely a no tricks sort of interview, where I felt like the expectations were very clear. I also loved that in the application process it specified exactly what it wanted you to include in the cover letter -- noting that they wanted the process to be a little bit more standardised given the variation of topics/substance they saw in previous applications. I found this to be a very fair process, and helped eliminate some of the advantages that other students may have had (ie family members who are lawyers, friends who were in big firms who could write their applications for them, etc). However, the interview and process was still difficult. Writing cover letters, preparing CVs, and interview preparation was gruelling. This was particularly so because Russell McVeagh was my top pick - and it is notoriously difficult to land a graduate job in the big firms in Wellington. Despite the difficulty, I think Russell McVeagh did an incredible job at trying to make me feel at ease, and to make their expectations known. I felt like the process was a very fair one (particularly so when compared with my other interviews that I had at other big firms)
There's psychometric testing alongside an interview
Really easy. I had a one way interview, a pre-interview function which helped familiarise me with my interviewers and other firm employees and overall vibe, the in-person interview which the Auckland partners flew down for, and the post-offer function.
It was generally good. There was an initial application form, a phone call, psychometric testing, personality testing, pre-interview function, actual in-person interview, and then a post-offer function.