-
Join Premium →Get Everything You Need to Secure a Training ContractNow half the price. Join TCLA Premium for £30/month and get step-by-step application support, daily commercial awareness practice, and 700+ successful examples of past applications and interview experiences. Plus so much more.
TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26
- Thread starter Ram Sabaratnam
- Start date
Did anyone get asked to apply again next year in their PW PFOs?
- Sep 9, 2024
- 887
- 1,593
Hi @pfoapplicant I would advise you not to restrict yourself to direct TC applications, as I believe this may significantly lower your chances of securing a TC. Firstly, a lot of law firms nowadays only recruit from the VS track, so you would be excluding yourself from a lot of opportunities should you not apply. Secondly, most firms who have both a VS and a direct TC track prefer to recruit VS candidates as they have a better opportunity to assess them over a prolonged period of time - direct TC applicants tend to only be assessed for the places remaining available after VS track recruitment is finalised. Moreover, direct TC applicants tend to be held to higher standards in interviews and assessments, as the firm does not have the opportunity to test them in an office setting. Thus, I think placing all your bets on TC applications would not be an optimal strategy.
Of course, you have a legitimate concern as to potential overlap between your paralegal role and a summer VS, but as another forum member said, you should be able to use your holiday entitlement to cover that. Firms are well-aware that many paralegals will be applying for VSs/TCs and will in general seek to accommodate that; particularly in the summer, when they tend to be less busy.
- Sep 9, 2024
- 887
- 1,593
Hi @flower1 I do not have a lot to add to the amazing response from @Abbie Whitlock but I just wanted to mention that a game-changing type of resource for me were commercial awareness podcasts. Firstly, because I found they were an incredibly time-efficient way of working on my commercial awareness: while reading an article would require me to take away valuable working time off my day (which I much needed for researching firms, writing applications, or on my academics), I could listen to several hours of podcasts every day in the moments I could not use productively for another purpose (such as when commuting, doing laundry, cooking, or any other task that did not require significant concentration).Hello @Abbie Whitlock @Andrei Radu
This may seem ridiculous, but I was wondering what's the best way to actually gain commercial awareness to the point I'm fluent in using terminology and understanding the implications of things. Right now, I'm extremely new and don't know where to begin. I was thinking of first understanding terminology like equity, bonds etc and then after 2 weeks, start to read articles and see if I can apply this to the articles, but I don't know how to go about it. What did you find was successful for you? I feel like there's so much and am worried in interviews I wouldn't be able to answer follow-up questions. Also, how do you actually remember what you've read - like keep a log of it, and also how can I keep track of a news story from start to finish? Sorry for lots of questions, just really don't know where to even start
Thank you
Secondly, I found that beyond gaining information and knowledge about the world of business, podcasts were training my "inner commercial voice": by listening to hundreds of hours of recordings of experts talking about commercial topics, I started internalising a certain manner of thinking and speaking which is appropriate in a business context. This helped me immensely in being able to speak in a professional way about these topics in a manner that felt natural rather than performative; which is an aspect that I think can matter greatly in an interview context.
There are many great podcasts which can help you improve your knowledge and understanding of the world of business at different levels; I will list bellow a couple that were particularly useful for me:
- FT News Briefing: as Abbie mentioned, I think this is one of the best resources for a quick overview of the big news in business and politics in the last 24 hours; I would recommend this as a starting point, and would seek to listen to it every day.
- BBC Business News: A more comprehensive and in depth overview of business news in the last 24 hours, with more of a UK and Europe focus;
- Bloomberg Europe: A more comprehensive and in depth overview of business news, with a particular focus on impact to financial markets, dealmaking, and investment;
- Watson's Daily: an incredibly useful resource for learning how to critically analyse and debate a commercial topic; the participants here normally only tackle only two topics in a 40-50 minutes long podcast, but the analysis is a lot more detailed and involves a multitude of perspectives;
- Goldman Sachs Exchanges: a great periodic podcasts on a selected topic of importance to institutional investors; it goes into a lot of detail and can be jargon heavy, but can make you understand topics at a very impressive level of depth.
- The Lawyer Podcast: an amazing resource for learning more about the different market positions and strategies of big law firms;
I’m in the same position, I emailed grad recruitment early this week and was told on Thursday morning I’d get an update shortly and I’m yet to get a response. I think some people have had PFO since then. I think it’s just a waiting game I’m sure they would’ve out right rejected us if there were no plans for a potential AC. I guess we will have to just wait and see, I’m sure it’s a lot to deal with from their side too.
W&C interview invite!! Can’t believe it!
Anyone still waiting for Freshfields second online assessment?
Also have L&W sent out all OD invites now?
Also have L&W sent out all OD invites now?
Still waiting for Freshfields second assessment after being in the first batch to get the first assessment. As such, I'm assuming PFO.
This is before either! first time I’ve been rejected from my written application
When did you receive the first test out of interest? I got mine on 13/10. Idk what batch that is.
Similar threads
- Sticky
