Journey to a TC

[taza_22]

nul

 

[Jaysen]

Hi everyone!

This might be an unconventional take for this thread (and I don't know if I've submitted far too late!) but I am just creating this thread to try and hold myself a little bit more accountable.

Firstly, a bit about myself. I'll keep this anonymous (for now) but I'm a second year LLB student at UCL. I'm averaging a 2:1 so far and hoping for a first by the time summatives come around. I have only recently decided that I want to become a solicitor - I (perhaps foolishly) brushed off the idea of networking or thinking about my career in first year, instead focusing on my uni experience (I'm sure this will get a lot of eye rolls) and doing a lot of sports and music. But above all, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to be lawyer, so there wasn't really any intrinsic motivation for me to do anything. Since the start of second year I dabbled in university lawsoc events, and attended networking events at firms including Jones Day, Kirkland and Ellis, and Hogan Lovells. I won a prize at one event and was invited to a follow up open afternoon aswell.

Anyway, here is where the story gets a bit worse - I had planned to do a bunch of vac scheme applications over Christmas, but, as it turns out, writing applications is pretty difficult when you a) aren't really sure you want to be a lawyer, b) haven't done anything to really indicate to employers that you want to be a lawyer, and c) spend most of Christmas in bed or at the pub. So I rattled off a few applications, most of them submitted on the deadline day, and have now received rejections from: Hogan Lovells, Linklaters (open day), Bird&Bird, Weil, Jones Day, Simmons, and I'm waiting on the inevitable Covington one. Anyway - perhaps I had a level of arrogance and so I am glad that these rejections have taught me a lesson or two. If you met me, I wouldn't say I am arrogant at all (and definitely not compared to some coursemates...) but I think the combination of having got very good grades my whole life with not much work, going to a top 3 law school, and doing a lot of extra-curriculars, made me think that I would be in with a shot at a VS just by putting my grades and positions of responsibility down on the application. Not so. So I think the takeaways from this are: a) VS and TC apps are not like university applications - they won't just give you an offer for being an all rounder. And b) Now that I have decided I want to be a solicitor, I need to fully commit myself. I had convinced myself that I had too much going on to even think about careers - but at the end of the day, I need to have a career, and I think these rejections have been the kick up the arse that I needed.

Anyway, if anyone has got this far through my rambling, I'd appreciate any advice, places to start, and also maybe a generally answer to my question - are there any opportunities now that all the application deadlines for this year have passed....?

Thanks, and good luck to everyone else who is on a similar (and probably smoother) path

It's definitely not too late @legal_cyclist - it's really nice for us to read about your journey.

First of all, I wouldn't see it as a bad thing that you focused on your university experience when getting to university. You have many years to think about your legal career and I think it's important to have time to discover what you enjoy doing. I didn't realise I wanted to apply to commercial law firms until after the main vacation scheme cycle in my second year and, like you, I also wasn't sure that I wanted to be a lawyer. There will always be people that have applied earlier but this isn't an issue in the grand scheme of things.

Second, I'd see the self awareness as a good thing. it's a bit of a shock to the system to get used to law firm applications where the default is actually to be rejected rather than to receive offers. This is understandable when you get a sense of the volume of applications they receive compared to the places they have available. It's also understandable when you factor in the fact that application writing is a skill because it takes time to learn how to write clearly, communicate your motivations, sell your experiences and send off many applications in a short space of time.

I had a similar experience my first application cycle and in many ways I think it was a good thing because it made me come to a similar realisation that I couldn't half heart the process. I'd see this as good motivation that you now know what you need to do in the next cycle, so I would encourage you to draw up a plan and commit to your preparation now, especially when the main deadlines have closed. If you put in the work now and consistently, you will have a much easier time when the next round of applications open up.

Feel free to update your progress in this thread, it would be good to follow you in your journey.