Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="j.s.cox" data-source="post: 127346" data-attributes="member: 20454">Reflections on 2022My mother has always told me that you are where you are supposed to be. Starting the year off with some serious personal issues and a list of law firm rejections longer than me, that advice really irritated me. It's easy to say things like that when everything is going right, but so difficult when everything is going wrong. Upon reflection, my mother (as always) was right.A MentorThroughout 2021, I thought that I could do everything by myself when it came to law firm applications. This had left me with rejection after rejection and I was beginning to see that this method was not working for me and needed to change, so I logged on to LinkedIn mulling over how I could seek out help. As I scrolled down, I found a post saying that the poster would mentor the first fifteen people to send them a DM. I checked the timestamp - "just posted". I couldn't believe my luck and immediately send a message. The next day, I found out that I was in those first fifteen and I now had a mentor. This was gamechanging and an amazing bit of serendipity.  I only sent in two more applications for spring/summer vacation schemes after this and managed to get through the application stage for both. Now I felt like things were moving and I could get going.Vinson and ElkinsMy mentor gave me advice for each stage of the process and thoroughly reviewed my written applications. I ended up making it to the interview stage at Vinson and Elkins. I was so nervous as this was the first time I had done an in-person interview for a job. The lift on the way up had gone so fast that I felt a little unwell and I could feel the nerves piling up as I looked out to the fantastic view from the Walkie Talkie building. The receptionist was a lovely man who talked to me as I sat waiting for my interview time and helped me to relax a great deal. I was then called in for the interview. I started off with a presentation that I'd had to prepare beforehand and I thought it went pretty well. We moved on to the questions. These were a broad range from competencies to motivations, technical questions to situational judgement questions. Halfway through, a partner rushed in and began asking me questions. These started with questions I had already covered in my presentation and I wasn't sure how to adequately answer them without wasting the time of the other panel members. The partner then asked me a question that had me totally stumped, then left before I could answer. I'll admit, I felt completely flustered and out of my depth. Suffice to say, the interview was my last stop at Vinson and Elkins. At the time, I felt so disappointed as the firm specialised in the type of work I was desperate to get involved in.DAC BeachcroftAfter this disappointment, I made it onto the vacation scheme for DAC Beachcroft. To be perfectly honest, I had only applied to this firm because I happened to meet someone who worked there at my rowing club a month before the deadline. The work was the polar opposite from what I wanted to do, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get some work experience and at the end of the day, a TC is a TC. I ended up loving the people I met on the vacation scheme, but I had been sent to the Newcastle office by myself as a trial for the office to see if they could offer TC's in the future. It meant that I didn't do the same things that the other vacation schemers did and, in the end, I didn't get offered a training contract because they didn't have any evidence of my writing ability. I was beyond irritated as I felt like I didn't have an opportunity to show my talent, despite my best efforts.GROW MentorAround this time, I was paired up with a mentor from GROW mentoring. They work at Clifford Chance and had very similar career aspirations to me. At first, I felt almost as if I was betraying my other mentor by having more than one person to help me, but I soon found the benefits of having multiple perspectives. I received advice for the same things, but the advice given was different.  Each mentor had had different experiences in their journeys and I was able to benefit from both. I also really appreciated the fact that GROW made such an effort to pair me with someone who both reflected my previous experiences and was in a place that I aspired to be.Personal DevelopmentWhen September came, I wanted to hit the ground running and be better than I was the cycle before. I properly utilised TCLA Premium and the programmes on offer by Aspiring Solicitors (Aspire, the AS Commercial Awareness Competition, and metoring with BP and NRF). I started "My Training Contract Journey" thread. These helped me to develop as well as giving me a motivation to continue to meet my goals. This was fundamental to my success this year, especially the progress I made with my commercial awareness.Norton Rose FulbrightI realised just how much everything above had helped me when I was applying to NRF. Firstly, the advice I had been given by my mentors helped me to get through the initial stages of my application. Then, when I got to the assessment centre, I wasn't thrown off by difficult questions. In fact, one piece of feedback I received was that I was very calm in the face of difficult questions. I would not have been able to do this without the trainwreck that was my Vinson and Elkins interview. When asked in my exit interview "Why NRF?", I didn't even have to think about it. For me, everything had clicked: the work and the people. Without my previous experiences, I'm not sure I would have recognised this so easily. Aside from anything else, I was glad I had been rejected from other firms because after completing the vacation scheme at NRF, I knew this was the place for me and the placeI wanted to be.2023 Goals2022 was a year in which I was given a phenomenal amount of help to achieve my goals. This is reflected in the goals I have set myself for 2023:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pay forward the help I was given by sharing my experiences and offering advice to other aspiring solicitors.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Continue to develop my commercial awareness.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stay on top of SQE work.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Earn enough from my part-time jobs to go abroad after the SQE.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Begin learning British Sign Language.</li> </ul>Happy New Year!</blockquote>

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

Top Bottom

Search

Search

Reply to thread