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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Camilla" data-source="post: 59647" data-attributes="member: 2130">Hi KubedThere has already been a lot of good advice here but I thought I would provide my opinion as a career changer who secured a TC in August 2020 after starting my application journey at the start of 2019.I am 32, I graduated in 2012 from a non-Russell Group uni with a low 2.1 and very inconsistent grades. I only had a week's work experience in a high street solicitors firm on my CV and I have been a financial services contractor for the past 8+ years.Despite not having legal work experience and a less-than-perfect academic record, I managed to secure 7 interviews at a range of firms including Magic Circle, Silver Circle, international and national firms. For context, I made around 35 applications over 2 cycles.I thought about trying to get a paralegal job on numerous occasions, but I decided against it mainly for the reasons you have touched upon in your post. Firstly, I was not in a financial position to take a pay cut for an entry-level paralegal role. Secondly, paralegal roles are very competitive in London and you usually need experience and/or the LPC (not always but usually) which I did not have. I thought it would be a better use of my time to put all of my effort into applying for TC's rather than also applying for paralegal roles which I suspected would be almost as competitive as trying to get a TC. Finally, I didn't think it would add much to my applications. I have never been questioned on my commitment to a legal career at interview, so I don't think you need to worry about that. However, you do need to demonstrate a clear understanding of what being a solicitor involves, and how the skills you have gained in your career will enable you to thrive as a trainee solicitor. In some ways, I agree paralegal experience would make this easier as you have tangible legal experience as evidence that you know what a legal career entails, but I do not think it is at all necessary. My ability to secure interviews without much legal experience is evidence of that. I also doubt that the one week's experience I had on my CV made much of a difference in grad recruitment's decision to interview me, although it did help me to build a more convincing "why commercial law" narrative.Instead of trying to be a "perfect" applicant with stellar grades and bags of legal experience (which was impossible for me anyway), I tried to lean on what made me different to stand out against other applicants. I focused on unpicking and selling the experiences I did have, and also threw myself into building up my CV with other interesting experiences like writing and producing social media content for student legal websites etc. This helped me to gain insight into the legal sector without needing to secure a paralegal role. Looking back, I am sure that paralegal work would have been helpful for certain parts of the application process, but remember that vacation schemes and training contracts are offered to second and final year uni students every year without significant paralegal/legal experience. I would definitely focus on writing well-tailored applications and selling the experiences you do have. I personally do not think that paralegal experience will make a huge amount of difference to your ability to secure interviews, especially for vacation schemes where firms usually do not require any prior legal work experience. Good luck and keep going! Happy to answer any questions you have <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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