-
📅 Vacation Scheme Applications 2025–26
Planning to apply for winter, spring or summer vacation schemes? Join our dedicated threads for support, deadlines, and discussion:
-
2025–26 Vacation Scheme Deadlines
Includes winter, spring and summer deadlines + a handy rolling/non-rolling checklist. -
TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread
Ask questions, share tips, and support each other through the application cycle.
Let’s make this your strongest application season yet 💼
-
2025–26 Vacation Scheme Deadlines
TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2023-24
- Thread starter TCLA Community Assistant
- Start date
- Status
Burges Salmon rejection post-AC so here is a lowdown of the AC for those applying for their Spring and Summer VS:
Burges Salmon winter vacation scheme 2023 AC insight:
09:30 – first hour was like an open day – listening to a partner, trainee and grad rec saying how great BS is. Then we chatted in groups to a trainee and had a tour of the office.
11:00 – interview or Watson Glaser (depends on what group you are in)
12:00 – interview or Watson Glaser (depends on what group you are in)
13:00 – dinner
13:45 – group exercise
15:45 – written exercise
16:30 – drinks
The interview was with one partner and lasted around 20-30 mins. The questions asked were:
The group exercise consisted of 20 mins to read the document, 45 mins to prepare, and 30 mins to present and answer questions. All of us in the group read the same document – which consisted of background information about the company that was looking to invest/partner with another company. However, one page was different in each document – each different page consisted of a lowdown of a company that was a possible investment/partnership. The company looking to invest/partner was a food store – and all the companies that were available to invest in were technology companies.
The written exercise was a 750-word e-mail summarising:
Burges Salmon winter vacation scheme 2023 AC insight:
09:30 – first hour was like an open day – listening to a partner, trainee and grad rec saying how great BS is. Then we chatted in groups to a trainee and had a tour of the office.
11:00 – interview or Watson Glaser (depends on what group you are in)
12:00 – interview or Watson Glaser (depends on what group you are in)
13:00 – dinner
13:45 – group exercise
15:45 – written exercise
16:30 – drinks
The interview was with one partner and lasted around 20-30 mins. The questions asked were:
- Why BS?
- Why Law?
- What do you think your biggest strength and weakness will be as a lawyer
- What motivates you?
- Example of working in a team
- Biggest achievement?
- Where else have you applied?
- Talk about a recent case/deal BS have worked on.
- Asked me to say what I had written as my answer for q3 of the application form
The group exercise consisted of 20 mins to read the document, 45 mins to prepare, and 30 mins to present and answer questions. All of us in the group read the same document – which consisted of background information about the company that was looking to invest/partner with another company. However, one page was different in each document – each different page consisted of a lowdown of a company that was a possible investment/partnership. The company looking to invest/partner was a food store – and all the companies that were available to invest in were technology companies.
The written exercise was a 750-word e-mail summarising:
- The advantages and disadvantages of investing/partnering with the company we had chosen in the group exercise.
- Any other ways the company can grow in the wellness sector.
has anyone heard back from Freshfields for the grad workshop?
I just heard back from them - got an offer! Good luck ☺️
how long did it take for them to respond?
Hey, has anyone heard from Sullivan & Cromwell? Saw that they are rolling - not sure if it is kinda late to apply and dk if offers have been made already. They take so few people each year lol.
Anyone still waiting to hear back from Freshfields for Grad workshop?
The feedback report mentions "SOVA Assessment." Although I'm not entirely familiar with how it functions, I suspect it operates in a manner akin to TopScore.
This is so disappointing. I understand that firms may not always provide detailed feedback after initial application stages such as online tests or video interviews, but the assessment centre involves a significant time commitment. So, I would at least expect to receive actionable feedback at this stage - otherwise, I'm left with nothing and I genuinely don't know how to improve.
Akin telephone interview invite. Honestly can’t believe it!
TCLA Community Assistant
Legendary Member
TCLA Moderator
Gold Member
Graduate Recruitment
Premium Member
Forum Team
- Aug 1, 2019
- 15,526
- 21,760
Very similar to TopScore by the looks of it.
It means it is highly likely to be an autogenerated report. What is likely to be the case is that you are scored against competencies and then the feedback is automatically generated on the basis of that scoring. The telling sign would be that there is no personal information relating to you or your answers represented in the feedback.
If that is the case, then it does mean reports will look very similar and in some places identical to other people's reports. If they score the same for you for something like analytical skills, they are going to get the same feedback. Because of this, it is not unfeasible for someone to have the same report as someone else - you could have just scored very similarly throughout the assessments and therefore got the same autogenerated feedback.
Typically these platforms do have the ability to pass on bespoke feedback - e.g. the equivalent someone saying "your teamworking example regarding your paralegal role at Joe Bloggs LLP could have provided more context of your input into the team". And in the best situation, I would expect firms to provide some of this detail in reports (even if it is just a summary paragraph at the end of the report) to complement to autogenerated parts. But that does require work/input and it might be that firms do not have the capacity to do this or aren't getting the necessary input from assessors to do it.
I completely understand the value of actionable feedback and ideally, firms should be giving it though. I know it is something I could have been better at in periods of my career - often capacity has been a major obstacle for me being able to do so.
Does anyone know what the Taylor Wessing test is like? Do you perhaps know what provider they use? I know it's not the WG, is it perhaps SHL?
Well done. They’re an excellent firm.
- Status
Similar threads
- Sticky
- Sticky
- Locked
- Sticky
- Sticky
