Irwin Mitchell sends every applicant a strengths feedback report, whatever the outcome

Irwin Mitchell's first stage is a strengths-based online assessment with video questions, not a classic reasoning paper. Our reasoning test is useful only as a general warm-up for reading scenarios and information accurately under some time pressure, which helps in any online assessment.

The firm describes no numerical, verbal or critical thinking test in what we read, and strengths assessments have no right answers in the way our test does. Spend most of your time on the strengths and video preparation below rather than on reasoning drills.

A strengths-based assessment asks what you are good at and what energises you, rather than whether you can solve a set problem. Typical items present a workplace situation and ask how you would respond, or ask you to choose between two statements about yourself. There is no single correct answer, but there is a profile the firm is looking for, built around what makes a high-performing trainee.

Preparation is therefore about self-knowledge, not drilling. Before you start, write down three things you do well and enjoy, with an example of each. Answer the assessment as that person, consistently. Our situational judgement guide explains how scenario items are usually scored, which helps with the judgement-style questions.

Irwin Mitchell recommends allowing up to two hours, and a prep site cites 90 to 120 minutes from candidates. That is long for an online stage, and the video questions are part of it, so you need to look and sound alert towards the end. Book a time when you will not be interrupted, with good light and a quiet room, and have water to hand.

If the platform allows a pause between sections, take it before the video questions rather than in the middle of them.

Candidates note there is no interviewer on the call, so you can concentrate on the question, and report five or six questions with about two minutes to answer each. Two minutes is enough for a complete answer if you plan its shape: one sentence of answer, a short example, and what you learned or would do again.

Prepare a clear answer to why Irwin Mitchell and why that office, using what the firm says about its work on its own pages. Our video interview guide covers camera set-up and timing.

The firm says it emails a feedback report outlining your key strengths and development areas after the online assessment, whatever the outcome. Few law firms do this. If you progress, the report tells you which strengths to bring to the assessment centre, which is designed around the same strengths. If you do not, it tells you what to work on before the next cycle or another firm's process.

Read the development areas calmly. They describe tendencies in one sitting, not your ability. Pick one and find a concrete example of improving it before your next application.

The assessment centre ran across February and March in the cycle we read about, and LawCareers.Net lists a written exercise, a group exercise and a partner interview. The insight day and final assessment follow in May, in the office you applied to, so you meet the team you would join.

Treat the insight day as two-way. Prepare questions about the work in that office, and remember it is also a final assessment.

These come from anonymous reviews, university careers pages and prep guides. They often disagree, and Irwin Mitchell has not confirmed them. Read them as leads, not rules.

• A prep site says candidates take between 90 and 120 minutes to complete the online assessment.
• Candidates report five or six video questions with about two minutes to answer each.
• Guides note there is no live interviewer during the video questions.
• LawCareers.Net describes a virtual assessment centre with a written exercise, a group exercise and a partner interview.