• Get Everything You Need to Secure a Training Contract
    Now half the price. Join TCLA Premium for £30/month and get step-by-step application support, daily commercial awareness practice, and 700+ successful examples of past applications and interview experiences. Plus so much more.
    Join Premium →

TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

Status
Not open for further replies.

Amma Usman

Legendary Member
Staff member
Future Trainee
Gold Member
Premium Member
Sep 7, 2024
1,492
1,589
WHAT IS AN IPO (INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING)?

Imagine you and your friends have a lemonade stand. At first, you and your family pay for everything; lemons, sugar, cups, so you own the whole business. But one day, you want to make your stand bigger, buy better ingredients, and maybe even open more stands.

Since you don’t have enough money yourself, you decide to sell small parts of your business (called shares) to other people. In return, they give you money to help your business grow.

When a big company does this for the first time, it’s called an IPO (Initial Public Offering). They sell shares to the public on the stock market, allowing regular people to buy a small piece of the company. If the company does well, those shares can become more valuable, and the people who bought them can make money!


Money Nasdaq GIF by Li-Anne Dias
 

confusedbird

Distinguished Member
Nov 8, 2024
63
129
I don’t want to turn this into a dispute either. But I don’t want people to be disingenuous and lack integrity either. Especially if they are applying to a profession where they will be bound by a code of conduct…
Hi,

I'm sorry if this comes off as mean or anything ..I promise I'm not trying to be. I see where you are coming from but there are aspects of the situation you might not have considered like - not everyone's support plan has all the reasonable adjustments they might need. Additionally, if OP was recently diagnosed or hasn't asked for adjustments before, it is very nerve wracking because they themselves might not know what they need or are entitled to. It's hard figuring out what you need and what is the impact of your neurodiversity on your life, especially if you're late diagnosed.

Asking for 'what they can get' can also be interpreted as them being anxious and not wanting to overburden gradrec / be dismissed by them. A lot of us were not privileged/lucky enough to be diagnosed early and assuming their intentions based on your interpretation feels plain wrong.

I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. All I'm trying to do is point out the other side of this situation. Hope you understand and we can all support each other through this very exhausting process!
 
Last edited:

papaya

New Member
Nov 7, 2024
3
2
So it’s looking unlikely that I will get a vac scheme this year 🙃 Is it worth applying to a few direct TCs? I’m career changer and plan on starting the gdl in the fall. It would be ideal to have an offer before then but I’m just wondering how realistic that is? I graduated from architecture and have worked in practice for about 1.5 years, but it seems like most people who get a direct TC worked as paralegals beforehand.

Working full time and going through the application process has been torturous. I don’t want to put myself through it again unless there’s some hope.
 

studentdelaw786

Legendary Member
Gold Member
Premium Member
Sep 11, 2019
133
167
“Does anyone know what I can get”

You are making your reasonable adjustments sound like you have just won a free burger at Burger King.

Ideally, you should have a support plan in place which has been created by a medical expert or disability coordinator. That’s where you will find out what adjustments you will require for work/studies. If they deem that you require written materials or questions in advance, then absolutely you may request this.

If you do not have this, and you have self diagnosed your neurodivergence, then it is most likely self curable too.

It’s highly unlikely that you will get the questions in advance as this is a massive risk to law firms and they have no way to stop you from circulating or leaking the information.
this was very inappropriate of you.
 

Rhohia

Star Member
Jan 12, 2024
37
76
“Does anyone know what I can get”

You are making your reasonable adjustments sound like you have just won a free burger at Burger King.

Ideally, you should have a support plan in place which has been created by a medical expert or disability coordinator. That’s where you will find out what adjustments you will require for work/studies. If they deem that you require written materials or questions in advance, then absolutely you may request this.

If you do not have this, and you have self diagnosed your neurodivergence, then it is most likely self curable too.

It’s highly unlikely that you will get the questions in advance as this is a massive risk to law firms and they have no way to stop you from circulating or leaking the information.
Why is it your business? It’s an open forum to ask questions - drop the self-righteousness
 

desperateTCseeker1998

Legendary Member
Gold Member
Premium Member
Jan 1, 2023
443
515
All adjustments that someone requires are clearly stated in a support plan or needs based report. The OP should just refer to what is in there and let grad rec know.

However, from the tone of the post, It seems like they were trying to get extra adjustments which they were not entitled to
This is just not correct? What constitutes reasonable adjustments will vary depending on the format of an assessment/interview. Also I’ve personally never been given a support plan or needs-based report with a list of examples even..
 

Mug Fan

Esteemed Member
Dec 15, 2024
95
174
So it’s looking unlikely that I will get a vac scheme this year 🙃 Is it worth applying to a few direct TCs? I’m career changer and plan on starting the gdl in the fall. It would be ideal to have an offer before then but I’m just wondering how realistic that is? I graduated from architecture and have worked in practice for about 1.5 years, but it seems like most people who get a direct TC worked as paralegals beforehand.

Working full time and going through the application process has been torturous. I don’t want to put myself through it again unless there’s some hope.
I’d say do it. There aren’t that many that are still open anyway so might as well give it a shot. I’m a career changer too and I’ve got an AC for a DTC coming up and am waiting to hear back after VI for multiple others.
 

Amma Usman

Legendary Member
Staff member
Future Trainee
Gold Member
Premium Member
Sep 7, 2024
1,492
1,589
My ropes and gray answer is 325 words... do I need to pump those numbers up to reach closer to 500?😭😭

There are two ways to view this. On one hand, if it is the only application question on the form, then you will ideally want to spend as much words covering all the relevant aspects, backed up with specific examples. On another hand, meeting the word count exhaustively when you do not have much to say, may come at the expense of tarnishing the quality you have already built. That said, I do know that the ropes question asks one to cover three qualities their lawyers must have. In 300 words, you may not be able to cover this fully. Thus, I would personally try to up the word count by critiquing your own work and deducing what would make it better when added.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

About Us

The Corporate Law Academy (TCLA) was founded in 2018 because we wanted to improve the legal journey. We wanted more transparency and better training. We wanted to form a community of aspiring lawyers who care about becoming the best version of themselves.

Get Our 2026 Vacation Scheme Guide

Nail your vacation scheme applications this year with our latest guide, with sample answers to law firm questions.