For what it's worth I'll still be doing direct TCs. Best to be a bit strategic on this front as with some firms the odds for direct TC are vanishingly slim and imo the best thing about flunking out of the VS cycle is being able to enjoy evenings and weekends unbothered by the Damocles' Sword of rejection. Top priority for me will be firms whose vacs aren't open to grads - Freshies, SullCrom - and who don't actually have vac schemes - Fried Frank, Paul Hastings - + some with hefty enough intakes that direct recruitment is nontrivial (W&C, Bakers (I think), Ashurst (again, I think)).
At a certain point my strategy is to basically take rolling firms with cover letters that binned me this year and just prep them for next cycle so I can fire off like six apps day 1, but that's kind of a side project until July when directs are all wrapped up.
Strongly recommend aggressively tapping the market for paralegal work if you can, there's loads on right now - mostly in-house but much of that with highly credible financial services firms (if that's your bag), which experience might be a gamechanger next cycle
