TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2021-22 (#1)

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Rob93

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Dec 29, 2020
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That’s true. Some firms have a more a smart casual policy - which I believe is more and more common. Though I think for people on vacation schemes it’s best to stick to smart business wear unless otherwise stated.
Yeah I think even at the more relaxed firms businesswear is best for short term things like open days, vac schemes and ofc interviews. On vac schemes maybe dress down on Fridays if casual Friday is an actually instituted norm.
 
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Rob93

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Dec 29, 2020
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Yeah I think even at the more relaxed firms businesswear is best for short term things like open days, vac schemes and ofc interviews. On vac schemes maybe dress down on Fridays if casual Friday is an actually instituted norm.
I think though that wearing a suit during a vac scheme is a logical extension of the 'dress for your day' policy that tends to sit behind smart-casual, insofar as the vac scheme is in some sense a protracted interview.

Realistically though grad rec will likely be forthcoming about what is or is not expected on a given scheme, if they say smart casual is fine it probably won't be held against you (though I would tend to lean a bit towards smart more than casual in a placement context)
 

Jessica Booker

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Do vac schemes tend to tell you what practice area you’re sitting in before the scheme? Mines only 2 weeks away and haven’t heard yet
Sometimes you won’t find out until your first day. Sometimes it will be earlier, but I wouldn’t worry to much if you don’t find out until the scheme starts.
 

Jessica Booker

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Need advice. Both of the firms I have a VS with asked me to tell them my preference for alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages… at a restaurant this would be an easy question but … am I genuinely meant to email grad recruitment that I like gin & tonics and copious amounts of Coke Zero? And is this a normal thing firms ask??
They want to ensure everyone is catered for at the restaurant, and so it is a normal thing to ask for that particular social (they are probably pre ordering drinks for the drinks on arrival).
 
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James Carrabino

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Is it conventional to include incoming vacation schemes in the work experience section of applications? If so, how should this be framed in the corresponding details/description section?
You'll probably hear a lot of feedback to this saying "No, never put future work experience on your application because you haven't worked it yet" but I know from my past successes, no one in grad recruitment will reject you because you did so lol. I think you have about a 1 in a million chance that your amazing application will be binned because you put "incoming VC at amazing LLP." If you want to, do it. I've done it a few times for VS myself.
I agree with @DTS; a lot of people say not to but I did because I wanted firms to know that I had vac schemes and I thought that at worst they would just ignore it - would a recruiter really say 'I am going to reject James because it annoys me that he put future vac schemes under work experience'?

I figured that one week of online work experience (as vac schemes were when I was applying) was not much different whether it had been completed or not, especially since mine were primarily made of presentations with minimal amounts of work... the main thing was getting accepted onto the scheme!

I found that the percentage of my applications which got past the application stage went up dramatically after I started mentioning that I had future vac schemes in the work experience section of my applications, although this is purely anecdotal and was probably down to the fact that I had no other legal work experience.

Anyway, regardless of convention or what someone told me 'should' be done, I was happy to have included these future vac schemes!
 

Jessica Booker

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Okay thank you! So if a TC starts in 2024, when would a firm expect its new intake to complete their SQE. Would it be in July/September of 2023?
Here are the expected assessment dates. You will most likely take the assessments closest to your start date.

4D29820E-6B7A-4FD5-B89B-7CB7F5FCC5B9.png
 
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