What happens to your application.
Whichever route you apply for, you are entitled to know what is being measured, who decides, and what happens to your information. This page sets all three out.
Four routes, three ways to apply.
Three of the routes are applied for through this site. The Senior Associate role is applied for by email.
A CV and seven questions
Seven questions in one 25-minute sitting, and your CV. None of the questions expects you to have covered a particular subject yet. A person at the firm reads every internship application and decides the outcome.
Eleven questions in 40 minutes
The same paper for both routes: eleven written questions under a 40-minute clock, one of them a short client call, plus your details and your resume. A transcript and cover letter are welcome but not required. Both routes are scored the same way, against the criteria below.
Your CV, by email
No online assessment. Send your CV and a short note on the work you have been doing to careers@thomasphilip.com.my, and the partners read it.
What the written answers are marked against
Every written assessment is marked against the same criteria, in the same order, whether it arrives on the first day of the month or the last. We do not publish the exact pass mark. What we will tell you is which criteria carry the most weight, because that should change how you spend your time, and it is not a secret worth keeping.
- Critical thinking, highest weight. Can you find the real issue, weigh what you are told honestly, and reach a defensible position rather than the one the client wants?
- Attention to detail, high weight. One question is a document with planted errors. Finding them is the job.
- Resilience, high weight. What you did in the first hour after something went wrong, not the lesson you drew later.
- Written communication. Structure, precision and economy, including the email you are asked to rewrite.
- Judgement and self-awareness. Two scenarios have no right answer. We read for instinct and honesty, not rules knowledge.
- Integrity. Not scored. An answer that is not your own work ends the application.
What is automated, and what is not.
We use an automated first read on the written assessments. We do not use one on internship or Senior Associate applications.
Reads and scores every written paper
Each trainee and paralegal paper is scored against the published criteria and given a short written reasoning note explaining the score. Every paper gets this, none are skimmed or skipped.
Decide whether you are taken on
The score is a sorting aid, not a verdict. It ranks and summarises. It does not issue outcomes, and it is not the last word on any application.
A person at the firm
Every assessment is reviewed by a person here, who can override it in either direction, before any outcome is sent. Borderline and unusual applications are always read in full by a person.
If you would rather not be assessed this way
Tell us. Write to careers@thomasphilip.com.my and ask for a manual review, and your application will be read by someone at the firm from the start, without the automated first pass. Asking will not count against you.
From submit to answer, in seven days.
No application disappears into a void. Here is the sequence from the moment you press submit, for every route.
You submit
Your application reaches the firm's hiring team straight away and is confirmed on screen. Senior Associate applications arrive by email and are acknowledged the same way.
Assessed and reviewed
Written papers are scored against the published criteria, then reviewed by a person at the firm who confirms or overrides the result. Internship and Senior Associate applications are read by a person from the start.
You hear back, either way
Candidates we take forward hear from us, and may be asked, as a first step, to message our Managing Partner directly on WhatsApp. Candidates we are not taking forward receive a written decline. Nobody is left waiting on silence.
A place
Interns, trainees and paralegals taken forward are offered a start date. Trainees have a coach on their files from the first week. There is no separate interview stage for these routes: the assessment and your documents are what the decision is made on.
What we hold, and for how long
Your application is held by Thomas Philip Advocates & Solicitors and used only to assess you for the role you applied for, in line with the Personal Data Protection Act 2010.
You can request our privacy policy from careers@thomasphilip.com.my.
- What we hold: your contact details, IC details if provided, education, written answers, resume, and any transcript or cover letter you chose to attach
- Why: solely to assess your application and, if you are successful, to prepare your offer and onboard you
- Who sees it: the firm's hiring team and the lawyers involved in your assessment
- How long: six months from the outcome, or 12 months if you asked us to keep you on file
- Your rights: you can ask to see, correct, or delete what we hold at any time
Now you know how it works.
Spend your time on the written answers. They are what decide most applications.