What I wish I knew when I started applying for training contracts

[Monica Badescu]

Hi everyone!


I thought I would start this thread to share a few things I learnt throughout my training contract journey. For some context, I completed three vacation schemes, two with US law firms and one with an international law firm, and eventually received one training contract offer from a vacation scheme and two through the direct training contract route.

I definitely did not get everything right from the start, and a lot of what helped me came from reflecting on unsuccessful applications and interviews and adjusting my approach.
1. Apply selectively and research properly
I found that my strongest applications were usually the ones where I genuinely understood the firm and could explain why specific aspects of it interested me. Rather than simply mentioning a highly ranked practice or recent deal, I tried to explain why it mattered to me.
For example, when discussing renewable energy work, I could link this to my consulting experience on solar projects and explain why I was interested in seeing how lawyers structure and finance these projects.

2. Make the most of the experiences you already have
I always tried to identify transferable skills, even from experiences that were not legal.
For example, organising a large student event during severe weather gave me a strong example of adaptability, teamwork and working under pressure.
I think specific examples are much stronger than simply saying that an experience developed certain skills.

3. Focus on what you actually did
I tried to avoid simply listing responsibilities. During my vacation schemes, for example, rather than saying I gained exposure to Finance, I could talk about what I actually did, and then explain what these tasks taught me.

4. Prepare for interviews, but do not memorise answers
I found it much more useful to prepare key examples and themes rather than full scripts. For competency questions, I often used the STARR structure: Situation, Task, Action, Result and Reflection.
I also found recording mock answers really useful. It felt uncomfortable at first, but it helped me identify where I was speaking too quickly, giving too much context or not answering the question directly enough.

5. Do not try to know everything about commercial awareness
I found it much easier to follow a smaller number of stories that genuinely interested me and ask: what happened, why does it matter commercially, who is affected and what could this mean for clients and law firms? Besides newsletters, I found podcasts extremely helpful for processing and retaining commercial news. I would usually follow outlets such as the Financial Times, Reuters and The Economist for daily developments, and then use resources such as LittleLaw, the Financial Times News Briefing and The Intelligence by The Economist to hear the same issues discussed in more context. I found this especially useful because it helped me understand why a story mattered commercially, rather than simply remembering the headline.

However, the best advice I ever received was to use rejection as information.
Eventually, I started looking at where I was consistently progressing to. If I was getting through written applications but struggling at video interview, that told me something very different from repeatedly being rejected at application stage.


Looking back, I think the biggest improvement came from being more reflective, more specific and less focused on finding a perfect formula.


Hopefully some of these are useful to anyone currently going through applications! Very happy to answer any questions on applications, vacation schemes, video interviews or assessment centres

 

[Antoni Trochimowicz]

Thank you for sharing your advice! I'm sure many will find it useful and of course, congrats on your TC!!!

 

[CommunityAssistant_MH]

Hi everyone!


I thought I would start this thread to share a few things I learnt throughout my training contract journey. For some context, I completed three vacation schemes, two with US law firms and one with an international law firm, and eventually received one training contract offer from a vacation scheme and two through the direct training contract route.

I definitely did not get everything right from the start, and a lot of what helped me came from reflecting on unsuccessful applications and interviews and adjusting my approach.
1. Apply selectively and research properly
I found that my strongest applications were usually the ones where I genuinely understood the firm and could explain why specific aspects of it interested me. Rather than simply mentioning a highly ranked practice or recent deal, I tried to explain why it mattered to me.
For example, when discussing renewable energy work, I could link this to my consulting experience on solar projects and explain why I was interested in seeing how lawyers structure and finance these projects.

2. Make the most of the experiences you already have
I always tried to identify transferable skills, even from experiences that were not legal.
For example, organising a large student event during severe weather gave me a strong example of adaptability, teamwork and working under pressure.
I think specific examples are much stronger than simply saying that an experience developed certain skills.

3. Focus on what you actually did
I tried to avoid simply listing responsibilities. During my vacation schemes, for example, rather than saying I gained exposure to Finance, I could talk about what I actually did, and then explain what these tasks taught me.

4. Prepare for interviews, but do not memorise answers
I found it much more useful to prepare key examples and themes rather than full scripts. For competency questions, I often used the STARR structure: Situation, Task, Action, Result and Reflection.
I also found recording mock answers really useful. It felt uncomfortable at first, but it helped me identify where I was speaking too quickly, giving too much context or not answering the question directly enough.

5. Do not try to know everything about commercial awareness
I found it much easier to follow a smaller number of stories that genuinely interested me and ask: what happened, why does it matter commercially, who is affected and what could this mean for clients and law firms? Besides newsletters, I found podcasts extremely helpful for processing and retaining commercial news. I would usually follow outlets such as the Financial Times, Reuters and The Economist for daily developments, and then use resources such as LittleLaw, the Financial Times News Briefing and The Intelligence by The Economist to hear the same issues discussed in more context. I found this especially useful because it helped me understand why a story mattered commercially, rather than simply remembering the headline.

However, the best advice I ever received was to use rejection as information.
Eventually, I started looking at where I was consistently progressing to. If I was getting through written applications but struggling at video interview, that told me something very different from repeatedly being rejected at application stage.


Looking back, I think the biggest improvement came from being more reflective, more specific and less focused on finding a perfect formula.


Hopefully some of these are useful to anyone currently going through applications! Very happy to answer any questions on applications, vacation schemes, video interviews or assessment centres

This is such a useful post! A few things I’d add from what I’ve seen, both having been through the process and speaking to others on the same journey:

Don’t spend the whole process trying to work out what the “perfect candidate” would say. Some of the strongest answers are often the ones where you can tell the person has actually thought about the question rather than reverse-engineered what they think graduate recruitment wants to hear. Being able to explain why you think something, even where the answer itself is fairly simple, goes a long way.

Don’t confuse rejection with a definitive judgment on your ability. Recruitment processes have limited places and different firms are looking for different things. What is useful is looking for patterns. One rejection tells you very little; repeatedly getting stuck at the same stage gives you something you can actually work on. If you consistently reach assessment centres but don't convert them, for example, completely rewriting your applications probably isn't where your time is best spent.

Keep a running record during vac schemes and assessment centres. At the end of each day, I’d write down the tasks I had done, who I had spoken to, feedback I had received and anything interesting I had learnt about the firm. It takes five minutes but makes such a difference when you later have a TC interview and are asked what you learnt, what challenged you or why the experience confirmed your interest in the firm. Remeber positive experience at an assessment centre can certainly be used as an anecdotal evidence in a later interview!

Don’t underestimate how important it is to be easy to work with. This skill is assessed as early as an assessment centre day, during group tasks such as negotiations as well as presentations. Being open to ideas presented by others, while ensuring you are contributing with new ideas is a difficult balance to strike but 100% possible. My advice would be to treat these tasks as an opportunity to fully engage with the material and your interest and genuine nature will come across naturally! Looking forward to the vac scheme, people can become so focused on producing technically perfect work that they forget they’re also effectively spending a week (or two) working with the firm. Things like communicating clearly, being reliable, showing enthusiasm, taking feedback well and being someone people feel comfortable giving work to, matter just as much as trying to impress with every task.

Ask questions, but show your thinking first! There can be a temptation on vac schemes to either ask about absolutely everything or, at the other extreme, avoid asking anything because you’re worried about looking incapable. A really useful middle ground is explaining what you think the answer is and where exactly you’re stuck. Something like, “My understanding is X because of Y, but I wasn’t sure whether Z changes the position” shows that you’ve actually thought about the problem before asking for help, which goes a long way in making a positive impression!

Treat feedback as part of the assessment rather than evidence that you’re doing badly. You will almost certainly get things wrong at some point. What is important is how you react afterwards. Write feedback down, make sure you understand it and try to demonstrate that you’ve applied it the next time you do something similar. I think a lot of candidates unnecessarily panic when a supervisor corrects their work when being able to receive and implement feedback is itself an important skill.

Hopefully these are useful to anyone currently going through applications, whatever stage of the process you are at! More than happy to answer any questions on all things applications and beyond