🚨 Reed Smith has just announced its Direct Training Contract route!
The deadline is 20th June.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LS12" data-source="post: 40694" data-attributes="member: 5714">I was in a similar position, besides a summer internship with an in-house team I had no tangible legal experience. I did have pro Bono experience and non-law work experience which I think is important to make clear for the purpose of my story. I know lots of people say don’t apply to jobs that require more experience than you have. And I really think is an each to their own situation, but I did. In my opinion, where I live (the Midlands) did not have masses of options, I knew I was smart, I had the work experience over the summer to lean back on and I had strong academics.I was successful to getting to the interview stage of 4 jobs, 3 of these asked for experience. Looking at these jobs I always looked at the responsibilities the position required covering comparing it to my own skills; whether the spec asked for specific experience completing a task (a strong indicator I was definitely under-qualified) and what kind of firm it was. Also I avoided using recruitment sites like indeed as much as possible (the algorithms really favour tangible experience) instead favouring direct applications. I’ll be honest this approach requires so much resilience. I was applying for a month (not a long time compared to most) but I had the added pressure of having moved out of my family home so needing some kind of income as my savings were quickly running out. You’ll get a lot more rejections because there are firms who are inflexible with their requirements and it’s about telling yourself that it’s okay not to win straight away.post interviews I was made 2 job offers. My current role is a paralegal in-house for a financial technology company. One month in I’ve been given loads of responsibility and loads of support and my HR review went excellently. I’m sharing this story because I think if it can help one person then I’d be so happy. My current role asked for 2 years compliance experience and/or 1 year as a paralegal. I was fresh out of university with 7 weeks experience as an intern. I genuinely believe my success was because I knew every company I interviewed for so well. I did so much research and I really fine tuned my answers so it was clear I was a strong candidate for THEM. I developed an understanding of all the key regulations that might affect them, understood their business and showed I understood what it meant to be a paralegal for an in-house team. Along side this I knew my own cv so well, practiced competency questions for days in advance of my interviews. Gave non-legal examples for skills they asked for. And I partook in as much as I could in the legal space, webinars, open days. These are so valuable even if it’s to help you learn how to talk like someone in the legal profession (language, phrases how to structure answers to questions). I would really say put emphasis on how interested you are, put emphasis on valuable soft skills like organisation skills etc. I know with reflection, I was super lucky. I know some firms don’t even look at applications that don’t have the experience, so this isn’t me saying it will work for everyone. But it did work for me. The only other advice I’d give is to be real about your expectations, for me I knew I needed to pay my bills, and get the 12 months experience in a position that would open up more opportunities later. I wanted legal experience of some sort to support Tc applications and I just wanted to enjoy my first proper job. The hardest part was being realistic about salary, moving from a well-paid internship over the summer to looking at some of the salaries for these paralegal roles really bothered me. But realistically, you’re entering an over-saturated profession at an entry-level point. Be realistic. Know your minimum and don’t apply below that (there are firms who offer pennies) but also be flexible on the transition to an entry-level wage. (I’m happy to discuss this further with anyone in dms) overall I think anyone trying to enter the legal profession now has to be resilient. It’s competitive anyway, add a pandemic and a fresh load of graduates who are all applying at once it can feel overwhelming. Be patient with yourself. Try not to be angry at the system. It’s easy to feel frustrated when you know you’re a strong candidate but firms aren’t seeing it. But know your time will come. Slowly I’m seeing more of my friends start legal roles, my linked in contacts are slowly getting job offers. There will be a position out there it’s just about being ready when it becomes available and believing in yourself along the way!</blockquote>

Verification: Our company is called, "The Corporate ___ Academy". What is the missing word here?

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