2020-21 Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion
- Thread starter Jaysen
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Hiya!
I completely agree with the responses given above and think they will be super useful in helping streamline your prep.
From my own experiences, I have always took this question as one that is very open-ended. I don't think there is necessarily a right or wrong answer. My personal approach was to make sure that I had a good understanding of key and recent headline issues, but then my actual stories that I would discuss were based on areas of personal interest. I think your answer will naturally be stronger if you choose stories that you genuinely find interesting and are able to form an opinion on because it will feel less forced/ artificial.
It's important to remember that it's not a test but a discussion, so the expectation is that if you mention something, it's something that you understand and feel comfortable to speak on. Similarly, if a question comes up that you aren't as aware of- be honest and approach your response logically using what you do know.
For my prep, I often used podcasts such as BBC's Wake Up to Money and The Commercial Awareness Podcast by Tapiwa Musemba on Spotify. I was personally quite interested in consumer retailers so I also subscribed to the retail gazette which is a great resource.
Whilst these helped improve my commercial awareness, it's important that you structure your research in a way that's conducive for discussion ( which is why I mentioned before that it is important to remember that it is not a test). So whilst researching you want to try to pay special attention to causes, implications and perspectives. You can perhaps use techniques like the PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) factor breakdown or try to consider the stories from the perspectives of different practice areas.
I've also included my response to a similar question which may also help ☺️
I’m ngl I’m pretty low at the minute and don’t think I’ve got much more to give. My Work is crazy busy currently with a high level remediation project so under a lot of pressure most of the time.
Then spending all of my spare time doing applications which don’t even get anywhere (at least past VI/WG) is just frankly soul crushing.
I’m clearly doing something fundamentally wrong, which I can’t seem to identify as I’ve had good feedback on all my apps/practice VIs.
honestly I don’t know where I go from here. I’ll go and go again until I get my TC but right now I feel a million miles away, and my mental health is as low as it’s ever been.
Jessica Booker
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I was asked what my friends would say about me. One of my points was that I'm someone who will talk very passionate about and in depth about things I'm interested in. Such as Britney Spears and RuPaul. 🙃
Jessica Booker
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Yes, I’d advise against it.@Jessica Booker opinions on changing AC dates for a third time? I was fast tracked to a January AC with a firm following an insight scheme, and changed it to a TC one in March. I then changed it to April. However, just realised that a vacation scheme I am interviewing for is in April, and I'd rather go through the TC process in March, and have that as my interview month.
Would this annoy the firm- 😅 😅 they've been so supportive and considerate so far but I feel really weird(not sure if I should)
Thank you
But you haven’t got the vac scheme yet, so you could be changing it for no reason
Congratulations!! I just got mine as well! Pretty shocked tbh because I genuinely thought the interview was a car crash...
Which AC are you on?
Hiya!
I usually took the former approach. I think it's best to choose a story that has progressed over time, perhaps over a couple of months. This way you have more scope for discussion as you can include in your answer the impact and role played by the different trends and your opinions on them. I think this is usually better than trying to talk in great length about a story that emerged a week ago without much background insight.
The issue with speaking solely about trends alone, is that I think it's easy to go off track. You don't necessarily want to end up merely describing trends but rather you want to be able to discuss them in detail e.g. why they're occurring, their present impacts and what you think is likely to happen next. I think it's usually a bit easier to do this when you have one or two stories as your focus points, allowing you to use the trends to explain why such stories have occurred or to use the trends as evaluation points.
Personally, I don't think you would have to relate it back to the law firm unless it was specifically mentioned.
Hope this helps! ☺️
Those who've had PFOs from Osborne Clarke (despite attending their events etc) I don't know how helpful it'll be but let me know if you want me to have a look at the app and see what could have been the issue. I totally would've been upset too if I didn't get the AC invite, because I attended all their events, arranged phone calls etc.
And also, perhaps you can call up the firm to ask whether it was the VRT score that could've let you down?
And also, perhaps you can call up the firm to ask whether it was the VRT score that could've let you down?
Hey i was invited to interview with boodle Hatfield last week and had my interview this week but haven’t heard of the outcome yet
Lovely, a PFO from PwC as well 😭 😭 😭 didn't think that my VI went that badly too, this sucks
They have only just started sending out interview invites today..... this does not mean you have been rejected!
Haven't heard anything since I applied on the 12th Jan
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