2020-21 Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion

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Haz

Legendary Member
  • Dec 28, 2020
    150
    451
    For the Reed Smith questions, if I received them on Tuesday, what day is “within 5 days” please? My laptop’s current state means I have nothing to type on and no alternative laptop to use till I get a new one in (hopefully) 2 days :/
    5 exact days from the time you received the email on Tuesday. For example, if you received the email at 10:30 am, you'd need to send them off by 10:30am on Sunday :)
     

    SouffléSouffléSoufflé

    Valued Member
    Future Trainee
    Mar 17, 2020
    115
    391
    It was a bit of a challenge motivating myself whilst unemployed to do something on an application every day as I was quite burnt out from an accelerated law degree. But weirdly enough once I got a temp job to tide myself over, it became a lot easier to do it as the structure added a familiar pressure that helped me get on with it!

    I also had a lot of help from the 15 apps and the interviews I had made from the last cycle. I reckon the majority of firms I reapplied to were those - although my answers to questions changed, I didn't really need to do much in the way of extra research into each of them. It made things a lot quicker.

    I was in exactly in the same situation - you're certainly not alone :) Thank you for being so open. Your tenacity is inspiring.

    I applied for about 13 firms last cycle whilst doing the GDL. I received 3 ACs invites (I was on the reserve list for one vacation scheme, accepted another and I narrowly missed out on a TC). I finished the GDL and found that the job market for graduates had dried up. I kept applying for jobs and found there were hundreds of people applying for one position. Law firms sent emails saying that they had postponed their recruitment. I had a spreadsheet filled with rejections. I can't really articulate how difficult it was, everything felt like it was falling apart.

    I tried to turn that negative time into a positive, and picked myself up. I volunteered for two pro bono clinics, completed short courses to improve my skills and reached out to people a bit more (on here and to diversity organisations). I really thought about what law firms I wanted to apply to and for this cycle I have sent off 27 vacation scheme applications.

    It was incredibly tough to be positive enough to do vacation scheme applications, as well as normal job applications, and deal with the rejection after rejection. But things can change pretty quickly. In the past three weeks alone I had my first interview for an actual job - I start in the role next week. On the law front so far I have completed two AC's and a case study assessment.

    Sorry for the long post but I am just writing this as I know that there will be other graduates in a similar situation who read this thread. I was too embarrassed and anxious to say anything. You are not alone, and things really do get better. If anyone wants to have a chat don't hesitate to message me.
     

    Jooooopp7

    Legendary Member
    Junior Lawyer
    Nov 25, 2019
    149
    193
    this is a little strange - I have passed to AC with having below average... not sure how they review the test results tbh
    yeah, I'm not sure if it was just a generic rejection email they send and it was actually my application that was bad/they filled their places but they did specifically say that I had 'not performed sufficiently well in the online assessments' so I'm a little confused 🤷‍♀️
     
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    cmaj

    Legendary Member
    Forum Winner
  • Sep 18, 2019
    166
    1,118
    I wouldn't say "brave", just stubborn. I don't take no for an answer to be honest. And, I wasn't unwanted, the other students liked me and we got on well, they elected me to the committee. Quite frankly, the Head of the Faculty was new and no one knew him when he started saying I wasn't allowed in - people largely just ignored him and it made him look like a petty bully.
    I can't really see why alumni would withhold funding just because they allow non-law students in? Seems like a strange logic.

    Love that for you!!! A test of resilience! See, for our university it really was a defined policy that non-law students could not join and the people in the society fully supported that policy. That's why we had the non-law society. It sucked. I don't think they were suggesting that alumni would withhold funding, but more that if the law society needed to raise funds, it could reach out to alumni rather than raising money through new membership fees.
     

    Elle W

    Valued Member
    Jan 12, 2021
    102
    249
    I was in exactly in the same situation - you're certainly not alone :) Thank you for being so open. Your tenacity is inspiring.

    I applied for about 13 firms last cycle whilst doing the GDL. I received 3 ACs invites (I was on the reserve list for one vacation scheme, accepted another and I narrowly missed out on a TC). I finished the GDL and found that the job market for graduates had dried up. I kept applying for jobs and found there were hundreds of people applying for one position. Law firms sent emails saying that they had postponed their recruitment. I had a spreadsheet filled with rejections. I can't really articulate how difficult it was, everything felt like it was falling apart.

    I tried to turn that negative time into a positive, and picked myself up. I volunteered for two pro bono clinics, completed short courses to improve my skills and reached out to people a bit more (on here and to diversity organisations). I really thought about what law firms I wanted to apply to and for this cycle I have sent off 27 vacation scheme applications.

    It was incredibly tough to be positive enough to do vacation scheme applications, as well as normal job applications, and deal with the rejection after rejection. But things can change pretty quickly. In the past three weeks alone I had my first interview for an actual job - I start in the role next week. On the law front so far I have completed two AC's and a case study assessment.

    Sorry for the long post but I am just writing this as I know that there will be other graduates in a similar situation who read this thread. I was too embarrassed and anxious to say anything. You are not alone, and things really do get better. If anyone wants to have a chat don't hesitate to message me.
    This was really encouraging to read and you're obviously extremely resilient! Hope that the ACs went well :)
     
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    Ricky

    Legendary Member
    2020 Community Winner
    Sep 16, 2018
    331
    1,488
    yeah, I'm not sure if it was just a generic rejection email they send and it was actually my application that was bad/they filled their places but they did specifically say that I had 'not performed sufficiently well in the online assessments' so I'm a little confused 🤷‍♀️

    They mentioned at the AC you have to pass the online test and then the cover letter is reviewed. About 50% pass the online test and then 60-70% pass the cover letter.
     
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    Matt_96

    Legendary Member
    Future Trainee
  • Dec 15, 2018
    455
    1,196
    I was in exactly in the same situation - you're certainly not alone :) Thank you for being so open. Your tenacity is inspiring.

    I applied for about 13 firms last cycle whilst doing the GDL. I received 3 ACs invites (I was on the reserve list for one vacation scheme, accepted another and I narrowly missed out on a TC). I finished the GDL and found that the job market for graduates had dried up. I kept applying for jobs and found there were hundreds of people applying for one position. Law firms sent emails saying that they had postponed their recruitment. I had a spreadsheet filled with rejections. I can't really articulate how difficult it was, everything felt like it was falling apart.

    I tried to turn that negative time into a positive, and picked myself up. I volunteered for two pro bono clinics, completed short courses to improve my skills and reached out to people a bit more (on here and to diversity organisations). I really thought about what law firms I wanted to apply to and for this cycle I have sent off 27 vacation scheme applications.

    It was incredibly tough to be positive enough to do vacation scheme applications, as well as normal job applications, and deal with the rejection after rejection. But things can change pretty quickly. In the past three weeks alone I had my first interview for an actual job - I start in the role next week. On the law front so far I have completed two AC's and a case study assessment.

    Sorry for the long post but I am just writing this as I know that there will be other graduates in a similar situation who read this thread. I was too embarrassed and anxious to say anything. You are not alone, and things really do get better. If anyone wants to have a chat don't hesitate to message me.
    Glad to see I'm not the only one who's submitted a monstrous amount of apps! I'm well on the way to my 29th, although I'm taking a break to do the Reed Smith research questions right now.

    I'm not usually one for mantras but the way I've dealt with rejection is by remembering that failure is is a mindset--not something that just happens to you. Instead of getting too angsty, I like to see every rejection as a learning opportunity, or at the very least a chance to move onto the next thing. If I'm not successful at interview, I use the feedback to measure where my current strengths and weaknesses are and what I need to work on for the next one. Unfortunately, I had to do that a lot last cycle!

    Something else I've noticed that some people do on these forums is get too attached to individual firms. Don't get attached! If you get rejected it will just feel so much worse, and the odds of rejection are high. The graduate recruiters aren't going to notice your passion when they have 3000+ applications to read. This also applies to getting rejected after vacation schemes too. Try to stay as neutral as possible.
     

    Jony

    Legendary Member
    M&A Bootcamp
  • Oct 19, 2020
    183
    948
    Glad to see I'm not the only one who's submitted a monstrous amount of apps! I'm well on the way to my 29th, although I'm taking a break to do the Reed Smith research questions right now.

    I'm not usually one for mantras but the way I've dealt with rejection is by remembering that failure is is a mindset--not something that just happens to you. Instead of getting too angsty, I like to see every rejection as a learning opportunity, or at the very least a chance to move onto the next thing. If I'm not successful at interview, I use the feedback to measure where my current strengths and weaknesses are and what I need to work on for the next one. Unfortunately, I had to do that a lot last cycle!

    Something else I've noticed that some people do on these forums is get too attached to individual firms. Don't get attached! If you get rejected it will just feel so much worse, and the odds of rejection are high. The graduate recruiters aren't going to notice your passion when they have 3000+ applications to read. This also applies to getting rejected after vacation schemes too. Try to stay as neutral as possible.

    Definitely great to see people like you here who've been keeping up the fight! I'm not at 29 applications, but I'm currently standing tall at 23 applications while juggling my final year LLB and my businesses and daytrading gigs ... it's been a journey but I'm honestly coming out of it a better, stronger person with even more motivation to jump into this career! As ex-military I used to see my two years of service as a cut into my peak years, but now I see it as a strength that I've been leveraging in interviews, alongside my extensive hitchhiking sojourns across Europe and Asia - and I've found that when explained clearly and with zest, recruiters are really interested in how you can be a great client-facing fella over my average grades.

    Keep hustling my friends! But don't forget to grab a pret every once in a while and lie on a bench somewhere and look up at the blue sky.
     

    E.A

    Legendary Member
    M&A Bootcamp
    Junior Lawyer
    Dec 11, 2019
    351
    1,064
    Happy Wednesday all, let's try be productive and stay away from refreshing our emails 24/7 🥴🥴🥴

    Dyvon Keep Calm GIF by Muser Magazine
     

    S87

    Legendary Member
    Gold Member
    Premium Member
    Sep 4, 2018
    1,644
    2,402
    Guys can i have your opinion on a matter?

    I am currently answering a commercial awareness question and I would like to mention Brexit.

    The recently signed deal is a major blow to the financial services plus does not protect many sectors (retail banking, insurance and so on). I am reluctant to talk about Brexit, but I believe it is more relevant than ever (with covid) as the implications are wild!

    What do you think?
     
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