From personal experience, I can say that they definitely do! hahah
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2020-21 Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion
- Thread starter Jaysen
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Hi! I just spoke to a Freshfield's trainee and he told me that quite a few VS offers have already been made. I'm a bit confused as I thought Freshfields' was non-rolling. Is this the norm for most firms to give out offers before hand even though they say non-rolling?
Could be the fast-track from the First Year Easter Scheme? Last year I was the first proper interview slot and that was mid January. They have 60 spaces so I wouldn't worry too much!
On their website they say that they are interviewing for TCs between March and August so wouldn't expect to hear for a while...
Yes, so last year was for a TC and this year was for the Winter VS!
Thank you for letting us know. Could you please let me know when this open day was?
Thanks in advance
Hi guys!
I just got an email today from Simmons & Simmons telling me that I progressed to the second stage of their application process which is a video interview, written exercise, and two tests (verbal reasoning and logical reasoning).
Can anyone who has perhaps gotten to this stage provide me with more insight on what the written exercise and video interview are like?
I know firms usually have written exercises in assessment centers but I've never done one before. Also, I've failed every video interview I have done so I am not sure where I am going wrong with that and would love to pass this one.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
I just got an email today from Simmons & Simmons telling me that I progressed to the second stage of their application process which is a video interview, written exercise, and two tests (verbal reasoning and logical reasoning).
Can anyone who has perhaps gotten to this stage provide me with more insight on what the written exercise and video interview are like?
I know firms usually have written exercises in assessment centers but I've never done one before. Also, I've failed every video interview I have done so I am not sure where I am going wrong with that and would love to pass this one.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Anyone know where I can find what Travers Smith look for in a trainee/key competencies or qualities?
Thanks
Thanks
hey guys, i received a video interview, written exercise and 2 tests from Simmons & Simmons this morning. Does anyone have any insight/tips into this or have undertaken any of these? thank you so much, i really do appreciate any help 
Hey everyone, I submitted my Simmons & Simmons application and received an invite for the online judgement test. Wanted to ask if anyone knows how to go about preparing for this test and what the questions are like?
Hi all, i'm on a VS at the moment and reached out to a partner after welcome drinks to be able to sit on a client call - he has said yes but it is at 4pm today and I am terrified lol. @Jaysen or @Jessica Booker or anyone else really, do you have any tips on impressing or things to be aware of?
Take notes on the call, or try and speak to the partner beforehand if there's anything he/she would like you to do. Equally, if you know who the client is, try and research their industry/trends in the industry so you have a bit of background of things/issues to be aware of.
Other than that, just use it as a learning experience and try to gain as much from it as you can!
You'll be fine
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Don't try to impress in a client call - this is about the client not you.
Where you can impress is in any conversations with the law firm representatives after the event. Eg can you support then with further work related to the matter; can you demonstrate you understood what happened in the call (Daniel’s comments about taking clear notes will help with that).
I have 4 open days, 1 insight scheme at a silver circle firm and 1 vac scheme at an MC firm under my belt - should I apply for a direct TC to Linklaters, or do they mostly recruit from vacs?
Sorry I didn't see this on time but the comments above are great. Definitely worth asking if you could have made notes and then summarised this for the partner's use - this is something I frequently did as a trainee. Even if that's not an option, I'd make notes and ask the partner a couple of genuine questions that crop up if he is able to answer. It'll show you are enthusiastic and keen to learn.
Good initiative and best of luck!
@Karen Taoube @Florawilliams Congratulations! I did the video interview, tests, and written exercise about a month ago so I can talk you through the structure/what to expect but I am awful at video interviews so I'm not sure my advice would be very helpful there. The written exercise is pretty straightforward, they give you 12 minutes (if I remember correctly) to read through a very short article and summarise your key takeaways in response to the question they asked. I'd never done a written exercise before and I'm generally a slow reader but the article was short and clear so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I would say it helped me to take brief notes on a piece of paper next to me (just one or two words to remind me what I want to say) so I could structure my answer better when I started writing.
This is quite an obvious tip but they have practice tests with feedback reports for their verbal reasoning and logical reasoning tests so make sure you do those before you attempt the real one so you can be prepared for the format and try to improve on the areas the feedback reports suggests.
As for the video interview, the questions I got were a mixture of motivational questions (why law, why the firm, etc), competency questions, and one situational judgment question. There's a thread on this forum about Simmons & Simmons video interviews that really helped me prep, and a couple of the questions on here came up in my VI too: https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/forum/threads/simmons-simmons-video-interview.1748/.
Good luck!!
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