I have an interview with the Navy JAG on Thursday. This isn't my first job interview ever, but it is my first for a military position. If anyone has any experience with the JAG, has interviewed with them, or has any suggestions for questions to ask I'd appreciate your input.
I have interviewed with USCG and USAF JAG multiple times and have attended part of USMC OCS (dismissed due to injury).
If you have no military background, one of the first things they will screen for is whether you are suited for military culture. Yes, the USN is not all gung ho military like the Army or USMC, but they do want to make sure you are fully aware that deployments are possible, frequent changes of residence are likely, and that you understand that military culture has certain expectations of discipline that are a bit different than the civilian world.
Beyond making sure you can adapt to military culture (which is basically a pass/fail type of screening), the rest of the interview should not be too much different than a regular legal interview. Much will depend on who is doing the interviewing, as a direct commission JAG on the panel will have much different experiences than a JAG with prior service in the fleet or in another service.
It would be good to highlight leadership experiences that you have had in the past, because as someone who will pick up the rank of O-3 relatively quickly, you will be expected to be a leader other sailors, even if they are not under your command in the JAG corps. As for for law stuff, you should be open to being a generalist or a specialist. Traditionally, JAGs have been jacks of all trades, but in the Navy especially there are opportunities to specialize.
In sum, I would also look inside and try to find a very good reason for why you want to join and be able to communicate that you the panel. Now more than ever there are a lot of people who are looking at JAG corps as a semi-last resort due to the economy, so you would help your chances if you can communicate to the panel that JAG is a passion more than a job.
Congrats on the interview. I received a few hints from friends: 1)Stress why you want to be in the military, 2) Stress your leadership skills, and 3)stress your flexibility.
Thank you, much. Like I said, I've done interviews before, but I realize it's tough to get an interview with the JAG, so I want to make sure I don't walk into this without knowing something important.
It wouldn't hurt to mention that you are a HUGE fan of Catherine Bell.
KUFI wrote:
1)Stress why you want to be in the military,
I would stress why you want to be a Navy JAG, not just serve in the military or even just be a JAG. As I mentioned before, there has been a flood of applicants to all JAG corps due to the economy, and interview panels may become a bit tougher in trying to screen who feels a calling to serve as a Navy JAG versus who is interviewing simply due to the circumstances of the economy.
If you just want to be "in the military," you could easily walk down to the local Army recruiting office and they could ship you off to boot camp within a couple of weeks. Don't fall into the trap that some fall into of talking about some lifelong burning desire to serve "in the military," because as a likely mid-20s aged law student, you passed up an opportunity to enlist right out of high school or if you wanted your college degree you could have gone to Officer Candidate School out of college. Instead, you have waited at least seven years from your first opportunity to join the military to make an effort to sign up, and there is only about a 10pct probability that you will be offered the chance to serve. If you wish to communicate to the board that you have a burning desire to serve as a JAG, then why Navy JAG? You could interview with the Army with a much higher selection rate. What makes Navy JAG so special to you? Nothing wrong with talking about your desire to serve, but they will see right through you if you (or any law applicant) talks about some lifelong commitment to military service since you have had at least seven years to join already but haven't done so.
I wouldn't expect the Navy to be nearly as antagonistic as I have been right here, but I would be prepared for anything. With a large portion of the applicant pool being driven by economy these days (at least that's what the numbers are saying), you never know if they are going to be bit tougher in trying to sort through who wants to be there for the right reasons.
NKVD wrote:
It wouldn't hurt to mention that you are a HUGE fan of Catherine Bell.
I was!