My TC Diaries

[studenttolawyer]

Hi everyone!

I've been reading some TC threads on here, which inspired me to start my own! For some background, I just graduated from an RG uni with a 2:1. I've applied for vacation schemes in my second and third years but none of the applications passed the first stages. In hindsight, I was feeling very lost for the past three years: I am coming from a low socio-economic background, attended a state comprehensive school, first generation university graduate, and neither of my parents have ever stepped foot in corporate. These factors really affected my confidence, as I was surrounded by peers coming from backgrounds entirely different from my own. However, I have still largely participated in the life at university, and held some really good society positions. I also have experience in office-based roles, legal advice roles, hospitality and customer service.

Now I'm back home and preparing for the next application cycle. So far I have:

• Been working on reframing my mindset regarding my background (it's a fake it till you make it situation sometimes, but I'm working on it!).
• Created a list of prospective firms I'd like to apply to. I am re-applying to some firms and adding others to my list.
• Started conducting a more in-depth research on firms from my list.
• Re-assessed my motivations for pursuing corporate law and law in general.
• Been reading and engaging more with news in attempts to improve my commercial awareness.
• Reached out to future and current trainees from 2 firms I'm interested in.

My goals:

• Improve my commercial awareness. To do this, I keep a digital commercial awareness diary, where I record news stories that interest me, summarise them, reflect on why I find them interesting, and how do they relate to law firms. I've already been recording at least one story every day.
• Improve my application technique. To do this, I will review my previous applications and analyse where do I think I went wrong. The goal is to review 1-2 applications weekly.
• Practice Watson Glaser. This is self-explanatory.
• Create better firm profiles. I want to understand the firms I'm applying to on a deeper level. To do this, I will research firm strategy, recent deals, recent hires, clients, and learn what actually differentiates the firms I'm applying to.

On my firm criteria:

• Must have a strong presence in at least one of the sectors I'm interested in: real estate, technology (including fintech and crypto), and / or financial services.
  • I find a lot of topics interesting, but these are some that I naturally gravitate towards usually.
• Must have an international presence.
• Ideally, it will offer either a client or an international secondment.

To be honest, it is a bit difficult establishing my criteria - I haven't been successful in the past, and I feel like I don't really have the privilege of being selective here. However, I am sure that as I continue my research, I will remove some firms from my prospective list. My goal is about 15 applications.

Finally, I am considering a TCLA subscription. It's quite pricey, so I've been indecisive, but it seems to have a lot of benefits.

This is the start of my diaries. If anyone has any comments or advise, I'd love to hear it. Good luck in the next application season!

 

[Ram Sabaratnam]

Hiya @studenttolawyer

This is a fantastic way to track your progress and keep yourself accountable as you work toward your goals. You're clearly putting a lot of thought into your approach/strategy for the upcoming cycle, and it’s great to see how much you’re already doing to strengthen your applications. If you ever have any questions along the way, feel free to post them here and tag any of the community assistants. We’ll do our best to support you however we can. Wishing you the best of luck this cycle!

 

[studenttolawyer]

Hi there! It has now been a bit over a week since I posted here last, and to keep myself accountable, I am sharing how far did I get with my goals here.

The past week has been busy as I was balancing preparation for the citizenship test, looking for jobs and preparing for the next application cycle. I have now passed the UK citizenship test and am ready to naturalise here! It's been a long journey, but I'm really glad that it's getting to a nice outcome of becoming a British citizen :')

Apart from that test, here are the updates on my VS-related goals.

Improving my commercial awareness
I've attended the past week's (free) TCLA Commercial Awareness webinar, and I've really enjoyed it! We discussed the news on Trump's comment about the UK's taxes on North Sea oil. This has never been a topic I looked into, so it was engaging to explore the oil and gas sector and how the UK's taxes reconcile with the Net Zero targets. Following up on this, I've read an article about bp's recent strategy. They're essentially moving away from green energy and into fossil fuels. bp have discovered a field in Brazil that is apparently particularly lucrative for their strategic growth. In the context of climate crisis, this approach is quite worrying, but I analysed this news with reference to opportunities this may bring to law firms within M&A, litigation and regulatory practices, among others. I'd like to look into this further by reading up on the Energy (Oil and Gas) Profits Levy and its impact on the sector.

Commercial awareness still remains a challenge for me, so I'm awaiting the delivery of two books by Chris Stoakes which will hopefully be helpful for me to grow my business acumen further.

Firm research
I've completed three firm profiles this week. What I've noticed so far is that I have been learning more about the firms that I have previously applied to. This was both surprising and unsurprising – I believe my research previously was quite simplistic, and I'm glad that I've spotted this and can develop in this area. Some firms have been easier to research, but one of the firms I'm looking to apply for does not have a lot of information about their deals available online, so I'm going to work with whatever little information I can find!

Other
I haven't reviewed my previous applications and I have not practiced the WG yet, but this week, with less on my plate, I can dedicate more time towards this.

I've seen that some firms have already announced their application dates, so it's time to get ready for writing those applications! Good luck to everyone this application season

 

[SoonToBeTrainee]

Hi there! It has now been a bit over a week since I posted here last, and to keep myself accountable, I am sharing how far did I get with my goals here.

The past week has been busy as I was balancing preparation for the citizenship test, looking for jobs and preparing for the next application cycle. I have now passed the UK citizenship test and am ready to naturalise here! It's been a long journey, but I'm really glad that it's getting to a nice outcome of becoming a British citizen :')

Apart from that test, here are the updates on my VS-related goals.

Improving my commercial awareness
I've attended the past week's (free) TCLA Commercial Awareness webinar, and I've really enjoyed it! We discussed the news on Trump's comment about the UK's taxes on North Sea oil. This has never been a topic I looked into, so it was engaging to explore the oil and gas sector and how the UK's taxes reconcile with the Net Zero targets. Following up on this, I've read an article about bp's recent strategy. They're essentially moving away from green energy and into fossil fuels. bp have discovered a field in Brazil that is apparently particularly lucrative for their strategic growth. In the context of climate crisis, this approach is quite worrying, but I analysed this news with reference to opportunities this may bring to law firms within M&A, litigation and regulatory practices, among others. I'd like to look into this further by reading up on the Energy (Oil and Gas) Profits Levy and its impact on the sector.

Commercial awareness still remains a challenge for me, so I'm awaiting the delivery of two books by Chris Stoakes which will hopefully be helpful for me to grow my business acumen further.

Firm research
I've completed three firm profiles this week. What I've noticed so far is that I have been learning more about the firms that I have previously applied to. This was both surprising and unsurprising – I believe my research previously was quite simplistic, and I'm glad that I've spotted this and can develop in this area. Some firms have been easier to research, but one of the firms I'm looking to apply for does not have a lot of information about their deals available online, so I'm going to work with whatever little information I can find!

Other
I haven't reviewed my previous applications and I have not practiced the WG yet, but this week, with less on my plate, I can dedicate more time towards this.

I've seen that some firms have already announced their application dates, so it's time to get ready for writing those applications! Good luck to everyone this application season

Great update, I look forward to following along
And congrats on your route to becoming a British citizen! That’s huge news!

 

[studenttolawyer]

Great update, I look forward to following along
And congrats on your route to becoming a British citizen! That’s huge news!

Thank you for reading and for your kind words!