How many firms to apply to?

[FutureCity]

I am curious, [and please guide me to the right thread if this has been asked before], what is the right number of firms to apply to?

Applications, if done properly, will usually at the very least take 10-15 hours to complete which would ideally be stretched out over 2-3 days. Which is difficult, even without other school work and such that you might have.

I was wondering how to decide what firms are worth applying to, and how to limit the number from just growing? Should I apply to 5? 10? 20?

Then there is the question of the kind of firm. You have your US firms, magic circle, and silver circle but how do you expand from there?

Thanks a lot!

- S

 

[AJ]

How long is a piece of string...

Apply to as many as you can, whilst maintaining quality and fitting applications around all your other committments. The end number of applications will be different for you, different for me and different for others.

Quality and quantity are not mutually exclusive. I don’t agreed with advice which suggests limiting the number of applications. That’s naive advice as it’s a highly competitive process!

There are so many factors to narrow firms. For example, practice areas, size of intake, type of work you want to do, guaranteed seat or secondment, size of office, training style, structure of training contract, etc. Once you do this, by coincidence you may arrive at a small list of firms. But an exact number will just come down to lots of researching.

Personally, I hate answering the why firm X question, so I narrow firms by where I can come up with clear reasons for wanting to work there over firm Y.

 

[Daniel Boden]

Agree with AJ but the number I think that allows you to do the above is between 8-12 applications

 

[Abstruser]

There is already a helpful thread on how to decide which firm to apply to - https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/forum/threads/tcs-for-beginners.815/#post-4692

As for how many applications to send - like everyone else has said, it depends on your writing speed really. It also depends on the application style of each firm - some firms need only a simple cover letter (eg Slaughters) and others require 5 or 6 different questions (eg Stephenson Harwood).

I agree with AJ that artificially limiting yourself to a small number of applications is unnecessary. Equally though, there is no need to rush out a half-baked application just because you want to be quick or cover as many bases as possible. There’s no point applying to a firm that you wouldn’t readily accept a TC from.

All the best.

 

[Salma]

^^ completely agree with everything said above.

Another helpful thread in terms of how to balance applications/interviews/uni/having a life - https://www.thecorporatelawacademy....nd-applications-and-interviews.772/#post-4289

 

[S87]

As many as you can do. I started with 6 but now I increased to 8 just because I am working and managing other things too. But after the first deadlines in January I plan to apply to as many firms as possible. The sky is not my limit!!