TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[hey1238390u]

Hi everyone 😊


I’ve got a Capsticks assessment centre coming up soon and it’s my first AC, so I’m feeling quite nervous and would be really grateful for any insight from anyone who’s done it before (especially last year/recently).


From the guidance, the AC includes:

• Group exercise
• Written task (1h30): short report based on a case study pack
• Interview (up to 45 mins): competency + strengths-based

If anyone is able to share, I’d really appreciate:

1. What the interview questions were like (themes / examples of questions)
2. What the group exercise involved (e.g. prioritising, choosing between options, negotiation, discussion style etc.)
3. What the written task/report was like (SWOT? recommendations? client-focused? what structure worked well?)
4. Any tips on how to stand out / common mistakes to avoid

Just general guidance would really help.
Thank you so much in advance!! 😊

 

[Jessica Pearson - Managing Director]

Yess

Never got a W&C invite for VI

 

[Donuttime]

I'm kind of curious for firms like Clyde & Co etc (It would hypothetically impact how I would prepare for interviews). On some website they list both sector seats and practice seats separately, and I'm struggling to get more precision on their site... but this is applicable question to all of the sector based firms

Hmm thats always something that trips me up. i always thought it worked like this:

Jane is a new trainee and is about to join her first department. Firm X have put her with the Intellectual property team. janes supervisor Walter has a niche in Life sciences so in her first week, Jane gets involved with a lot of life-sciences IP related work. An associate in the team Jesse works in the Consumer brands sector so in her second week Jane receives a lot of IP consumer brands contract work. In her third week, Associate Skyler gives Jane work from her clients in the Food and beverages industry. By the end of her six months, Jane has worked across life-sciences, consumer brands and the Food and beverage sectors and she feels like she has learnt a lot about her firms key sectors. Six months later, Jane joins the banking and Finance sector with an opportunity to work with all these sectors again!

Always thought thats how it worked? would love any further insights.

Also!! I know some firms have specific sector based seats tho like a trainee would sit in "Construction" always saw that as more of a sector than a specific practice area but maybe cause they get a bulk of their work they would cover a wide variety?? like construction disputes, construction advisory, construction compliance ( if thats a thing) anyway further insights appreciated!!!

 

[Novaa]

Never got a W&C invite for VI

Samesies but someone on here got theirs a month after SJT so fingers crossed

 

[Jessica Pearson - Managing Director]

Samesies but someone on here got theirs a month after SJT so fingers crossed

Fingers crossed indeed...

 

[ilikelaw]

hey on the r&g form, where it says "which of these organisations supported your application" and has corporate law academy, chambers, legal cheek, lawcareers.net etc in the dropdown. im assuming this includes where you get your research from? i always thought that question was for if someone from an organisation reviewed your application but i didnt think legal cheek and chambers did that... AAA im overthinking

 

[Jessica Pearson - Managing Director]

It depends on how much time you have to manage/maintain it. With Google, you can add in response verification - e.g. a codeword. When somebody wants to participate it, they can be added to a group chat on TCLA, and then every couple of weeks, change/update the codeword (posting the new one to the group). Of course, it relies on trust - but it means if somebody posts false info, they can be removed from the group.

Alternatively, I can try think of a specific polling system that exists (or try to code a basic one and host it on AWS or something if I have time). Very simple, when a user requests it we add a firm to the list. Then people can submit for that firm whenever they receive progression / PFO, and it is tracked on a graph with dates etc. Different colours for PFO/progression. Again, some sort of password verification process, like with Google Forms.
^ Maybe something already exists like this for a xenforo add on, though? I haven't used XenForo since I last hosted a Minecraft server.

(I seem like such a nerd reading this back lol).

This would be such a good thing esp. as many of the questions here about seeing if people have gotten any invites/updates

 

[kllee]

This is a piece I wrote about myself, for myself. But as everyone is currently navigating a difficult period, I thought I’d share it here in case it helps brighten someone’s mood.

What does success mean to me?

To me, success is about the journey it took for me to win in the first place.

It’s the sleepless nights.
It’s the constant interviews and mock assessments I had to go through before the real thing.
It’s my family and friends rooting for me along the way.
It’s knowing that all of my amazing mentors have my best interests at heart and genuinely want to see me win.
It’s knowing I wouldn’t be where I am without my lovely support network.

But it’s also the fearful feeling of what if?
What if this doesn’t work out?
What if all of my hard work and the time and energy everyone else has invested in this process go to nothing?
What if, by the time I'm about to reach the end of my journey, I give up last minute out of fear of failure?

This is what success means to me.

It’s knowing that despite there being a huge possibility of failing, of not realising my goal, of not getting the job I desperately want, I still gave it a go.

I tried.
I kept going despite it being hard.
I saw the journey through to the end.

So I won’t give up.
Not just because I have something to prove to myself, that I can do hard things, but because trying is already my version of success.

Showing up.
Seeing it through.
Allowing myself to chase something even when the outcome isn’t guaranteed.

That, in itself, is winning.

 

[ttso]

Fingers crossed indeed...

Yeah anyone know what is up with that? Last year they took 270+ days to reject me. This year, I did my assessment on 13 October (the Capptivate one) and haven't heard anything back either.

This is for Summer VS. Do they just despise my email or something? Just tell me to pfo and move on lmao.

Or have a number of people still not heard back?

 

[elle woods]

Yeah anyone know what is up with that? Last year they took 270+ days to reject me. This year, I did my assessment on 13 October (the Capptivate one) and haven't heard anything back either.

This is for Summer VS. Do they just despise my email or something? Just tell me to pfo and move on lmao.

Or have a number of people still not heard back?

i think they're still going through spring apps to be honest lol

I haven't heard much for summer yet! and no ACs for spring yet either i think

 

[ttso]

i think they're still going through spring apps to be honest lol

I haven't heard much for summer yet! and no ACs for spring yet either i think

Oh damn, they haven't even given out summer VIs yet? I take back my anger then.

 

[elle woods]

Oh damn, they haven't even given out summer VIs yet? I take back my anger then.

haha well I'm not 100% sure about that, but it does seem that way at the moment!

Most VIs have been for spring afaik

 

[Afraz Akhtar]

hey on the r&g form, where it says "which of these organisations supported your application" and has corporate law academy, chambers, legal cheek, lawcareers.net etc in the dropdown. im assuming this includes where you get your research from? i always thought that question was for if someone from an organisation reviewed your application but i didnt think legal cheek and chambers did that... AAA im overthinking

@ilikelaw this is typically an ROI assessment - so you need to mention which organisations have been helpful during your application process. Including TCLA in that doesn’t actually mean that they’ve reviewed your application, it simply means that we’re an organisation that you as a candidate has found helpful.

As for why firms need this information, it helps them decide which organisations they need to invest money and resource in going forwards, and which they need to cut back on.

 

[Novaa]

Yeah anyone know what is up with that? Last year they took 270+ days to reject me. This year, I did my assessment on 13 October (the Capptivate one) and haven't heard anything back either.

This is for Summer VS. Do they just despise my email or something? Just tell me to pfo and move on lmao.

Or have a number of people still not heard back?

Sorry 270+ days? as in almost 9 months…?

Edit: Crazy…

 

[Afraz Akhtar]

Hi! Need some insight on this - I have an AC coming up for a vac scheme i really really want. I received an email outlining whats gonna happen but I was wondering if its acceptable for me to email and ask who is going to me interviewing me? I feel a bit hesitant as maybe theres a reason they haven't told me or maybe they dont even know yet!! but...I want to show i'm proactive and thinking about this alot also?? any thoughts??

@georgianprincessmwuah usually the schedule is provided to you ahead of the AC, where names of assessors will be included. However, the names/exercise slots can change up until the very last minute so this is typically given to candidates as late as possible.

If your AC isn’t until a week later, I would wait for further information, but if it is for next week - I don’t see the harm in asking if they’re willing to provide the names.

 

[yuhhhh]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if P,W AC invites have been for Spring only?

Or do they combine both Spring and Summer ACs into one assessment.

Thank you!

 

[Donna Paulsen]

Sorry 270+ days? as in almost 9 months…?

Edit: Crazy…

Could've had a whole baby in that time...

 

[Afraz Akhtar]

What’s considered a strong question to ask Graduate Recruitment after an interview

@TCLAuser2002 I don't think there is actually a set list, and honestly if there is, your interviewer has probably heard it a million times before. I think its important to bear in mind that strong interview questions aren't always those that are the most articulate or simply sound well put together, but instead, they are the ones that show a genuine interest in the path you're considering, and a motivation for success - so, any strong question for an interview, let alone a TC interview, is essentially based on a few fundamentals:

1. The role
2. Life at the firm
3. Type of work
4. Future insight

Bearing these in mind, as a candidate you should leverage the opportunity to ask about any of the four fundamentals above in a way that is meaningful to you, e.g. (The Role) "What do I need to have achieved, in the first 6 months, to be considered successful in this role? (Type of Work) "Given my interest in [practice area], what would you say are the key challenges and opportunities Trainees face in this department? etc.

 

[Lawyergyal123!]

I’ve had one bad experience this cycle requesting reasonable adjustments and that was with Hogan Lovells (yeah I’m name dropping). I’ll set out a brief summary of it below lmao.

I asked if I could do the stage 2 VI as a TI with extra time (standard request that I haven’t had any issues with before). At most I’ve been asked to provide more information to firms that’s it.

Grad rec aired me for like a week then responded saying that I needed to submit my uni support plan so they could determine whether I’d need the adjustments for the stage 2 test.

That sounds harmless initially, but they wanted to find evidence I specifically needed the VI as a TI (I’d not done any VI assessments at uni so that wouldn’t be something on any documents).

So I explained this and long story short they just reluctantly decided to do a TI. They didn’t give me any instructions or guidance so I had no idea how the TI would be structured or timed.

Mind you I had asked for extra time. I emailed and they said don’t worry everything has been accounted for including extra time. So I was like okay this seems calm let’s go for it!

So at the start of the TI I asked for confirmation. I was basically ignored and the grad rec person just started by saying she’d ask strengths based questions first then motivational ones after.

It’s safe to say I didn’t know what to do. So I just asked after each question can I take a moment to gather my thoughts, to which I either got half a response or just crickets lmao idek atp.

As I didn’t have any guidance or instructions, it’s safe to say my performance wasn’t the best. They sent me a PFO within 24-48 hours, which I felt like was their intention from the jump.

At their open day I felt the grad rec team weren’t that nice and the culture of the firm didn’t seem to be what they present it as. So in a way I’m glad that it didn’t work out but was a bit sad.

It’s made me reluctant to disclose adjustments. I know I have made jokes about Freshfields, but I’ll give credit where it’s due their grad rec team were so incredibly supportive re adjustments!

Ofc they took ages to get back to me, but they do receive loads of applications and many people will need adjustments. Once they did get around to me, they were 10/10 in my opinion.

Apologies for the long post I’ve tried to separate this into smaller paragraphs so hopefully it’s not too difficult to read it all??!! I just wanted to share my anecdotal experience with HL.​

so sorry this happened, this is super weird. I always submit my reasonable adjustments to firms and have only ever had the issue that they dont tell me what adjustments they made for assessment centres in advance, otherwise it is fine. I'm just saying this because I have been applying for over three cycles now and have had atleast 5 ACs, so I don't want anyone (or yourself!!) to feel disheartened by their lack of accessibility when applying in the future. Please do request the adjustments, and if the firm is being annoying just move on to the next because that should NOT have happened at all .

 

[Novaa]

Could've had a whole baby in that time...

I’ve been thinking about this, and I would’ve been on Legal Cheek on Day 271 doing a tell-all with my newborn because… u wot?? THATS AWFUL 😭😭