Hello, I start my vac scheme tomorrow. What questions should I ask trainees? And can someone pls give me a prompt on how to introduce myself and ask what do you do here haha. Also I want to talk to people in the corporate and intellectual property teams. What questions should I ask them which sounds insightful? Am I allowed to ask them about deals?
Hiya
@Kakaboo
I'm sure
@Amma Usman would also have more to add here, but wanted to get something to you in the meantime
I'd say don't overthink your intro. You can send an email and say something alone the lines of:
“Hi, I’m [Name], I’m here on the vacation scheme this week. I'd be really grateful to schedule a chat to discuss [your work in X team/your experiences at the firm]." That said, I'd say try to arrange coffee chats with people you genuinely want to speak with; I really believe those are the conversations that will seem more organic and where your enthusiasm can really shine through.
It’s also completely fine to ask about corporate/IP matters. Just make sure to do some research before each of your coffee chats. It's very easy to tell when candidates are simply scheduling coffee chats for the sake of it, instead of doing so because they are genuinely interested in engaging with the person on the other side. Even having a quick look at the person’s LinkedIn profile and the firm’s corporate/IP page of the website can help you ask genuinely interesting questions. To start off those conversations, you can ask/say something like:
- “What kind of matters are keeping the team busy right now?”
- “What does a typical day look like for you in corporate/IP?”
- “What sorts of clients or industries do you mostly work with? Do you find the corporate team is more sector-agnostic in the work it carries out?”
- “Is there a recent deal or case the team’s worked on that stood out to you?”
Without knowing which firm you're completing the scheme at, it's a bit difficult to give you more precise questions to suggest.
With respect to trainees, you'll want to try to get a sense of their professional development, training, and involvement at the firm. Some useful questions to put to them might include:
- What was it like when you actually began at the firm? How did you find the transition?
- How did you end in at your practice area? Where would you have gone if you hadn't ended up here?
- Is there any scope to contribute ideas to the firm as a trainee?
- How is it ensured that trainees on client secondments get the same standard of training?
- How would you describe X firm’s place in the market?
- How has the firm invested in your personal training/development?
- How many of you tend to work on a deal?
- Do you find the culture non-hierarchical? Open door policy?
- What do you wish you’d known about being a trainee before you started that you now do?
Hope this helps get the ball rolling on your coffee chat prep. Best of luck with the vac scheme!
