- Sep 7, 2024
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Hi @lawstudent0708 ,
Question:
“Hello Amma,
I hope you are well.
Do you have any tips/advice for preparing for Vacation Schemes, in terms of performance, tasks and general advice? Are there any published articles on TCLA about this?
Thank you very much for your help!
”
Response:
I have quoted some previous posts from I and the team on this to help.
Question:
“Hello Amma,
I hope you are well.
Do you have any tips/advice for preparing for Vacation Schemes, in terms of performance, tasks and general advice? Are there any published articles on TCLA about this?
Thank you very much for your help!
Response:
I have quoted some previous posts from I and the team on this to help.
Hi @Chelsea101 I have just found one from 2021 that seems to include many useful resources and tips, you can take a look here. Since I have had a good VS conversion rate and since WVS are approaching, I am also planning to soon write a detailed guide on the topic, so be on the lookout for that!
Besides this, I have quoted bellow a great post from @Jessica Booker outlining the biggest mistakes people make during vacation schemes.
Hey @_shims_ , huge well done on securing the WVS! I’ve included some tips below from a past post I made.
Hi @Lalis, to list a few of my top VS conversion tips:
- Speak with people at the firm (particularly graduate recruitment, recruitment partners, and trainees) to find out what are the most important assessment criteria for conversion. Different firms have different policies - for instance, in my case conversion at Slaughter and May was 100% determined by the final TC interview and written task, at Willkie it was mostly determined by the quality of your work and your integration in the firm's culture, at Milbank it was a combination of the final assessment and the impression you left on people on your team. To maximize conversion chances, you should modify your approach to match the factors emphasized by each firm.
- Take notes: as you go through the vacation scheme, at the end of each day, write down a short summary of what you did: who did you meet and what did you learn from them, what tasks did you work on, what sessions did you attend etc. As you approach the final interview, this will help you with being reflecting about the experience and showing that you have taken all the opportunities the firm offered.
- Try to meet as many people as possible, particularly in your department, but do not overdo it. Of course, it is great to integrate yourself as much as you can and to make as many people as possible notice you. However, you should not be spending every second of the day inviting people for coffee chats. Firstly, there are many other things you should be doing, like getting involved in different workstreams, attending sessions, and deepening your relationship with people you have already met, such as your supervisor. Secondly, as you will know, lawyers are often very stressed and have very little free time on their hands. Most will accept coffee chat requests, but they will appreciate if you do not waste their time by asking to meet only with a view of getting them to potentially put in a good word for you. Thus, I would advise you to always have a genuine reason for meeting someone. That does not need to necessarily be work-related - you can simply ask for a coffee chat because you want to introduce yourself and get to know people in the firm - but you should be upfront about it. Furthermore, try to get an idea from your supervisor as to who is more and less busy at the moment and avoid targeting the former.
- Mirror the attitude of those around you, and know when to be more relaxed: a crucial element of succeeding in many vacation schemes is to be able to build rapport with a few important people - particularly your supervisor, one or two lawyers you will get to work more with, and the recruitment partners. Try to read the attitude and expectations of those people and do not always attempt to impress them. In my experience, the people who ended up not converting tended to be the slightly overbearing ones who wanted to be constantly seen. Sometimes, such as at an event over drinks or at a lunch, people will want to simply relax a bit and forget about work. Other times, they may be too busy and stressed to want to engage with you about something serious. They could and also many times do want to take a slightly more lighthearted approach when talking about their work, so try not to seem like you are taking yourself too seriously. From what I have seen, people more often fail in adapting to these circumstances rather that when adapting to more formal dynamics.
Hey!
I don’t have much to Andrei‘s great response on this. I’ve quoted a post on the past which I made on this. Best of luck on the VS..!