Lewis Silkin bans students from discussing their interviews online
10 September 2010
Candidates for training contracts at Lewis Silkin are being asked to sign confidentiality agreements expressly stating that they will not share details of their interviews.

Cliff Fluet, Lewis Silkin's training principal, said that the agreement was designed to "retain the integrity of the process" and "underline the importance of confidentiality". He added that no-one had been made to sign the agreement - although to his knowledge everybody had done so when asked. Well, they would, wouldn't they?

A computer at Lewis Silkin yesterday

Fluet said that there was a carve out which allows students to talk to their friends and family, so it's not clear whether chatting to mates down the pub would amount to a breach of contract. But when RollOnFriday pressed for further details he said that he wasn't "spending another chargeable minute on this" and "listen to my voice - this is terminal boredom". What a charming man.

While firms have a perfectly reasonable interest in protecting their recruitment process, resorting to confidentiality contracts does seem both heavy handed and rather naive. Although rumours abound that other firms are starting to ask candidates to sign similar agreements. Click here to name them (confidentially, of course).