thank you!! Do you have any tips for VS prep? Which types of tasks should I be prepared for?Hey!
Congratulations on the vacation scheme!
I wouldn't say that there is necessarily harder departments for a vacation scheme. In my experience, the difficult usually depends more on the specific task and supervisor, rather than the practice area itself. Whilst I did notice that some teams were busier during vacation schemes that I completed, so the candidates in those teams usually ended up staying slightly later, supervisors generally know that you'll have limited experience and will try to set work that is appropriate for that level.
If you don't have experience in any of the teams, I would simply choose the one that sounds most interesting to you or that you are most curious to learn about! One of the purposes of the scheme is to explore different areas of practice, so firms don't expect you to already have knowledge of the department you choose. I also would try not to be disappointed if you are placed in a department that you didn't have a pre-existing interest in! During my Stephenson Harwood vacation scheme, I was in Regulatory Litigation for part of the scheme, and I had convinced myself I was not a litigious person in any way. However, I really enjoyed my time in the team and found the work super interesting - so you might be surprised!
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TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26
- Thread starter Ram Sabaratnam
- Start date
Anyone heard back from CRS (London) or SH post video interview?
For my vac at Sidley I did one coffee chat during the vac. I honestly just didn’t have the time to be meeting people every hour for coffee. My supervisor told me that coffee chats are fine if you have the time to do it but never let them take preference over work. With that said, it might make more sense for you to just schedule coffee chats if and when you have capacity rather than committing to 10+ and sacrificing work for it.
General advice to convert - be nice!!!! Feedback comes from whoever wants to give feedback, so you never know who might take an interest in you (for better or worse). Also try and control as much as you can - which is very little in vacs if I’m honest. Look out for typos/spelling mistakes and please ask questions if you are confused.
I don't think I have seen someone in the thread confirm they have got an offer, unless they were asked not to post it online
I think some ppl thumbs up messages saying they received offers from other offices not london
I converted a US firm VS without doing any coffee chats! I know people who didn't convert who did several.
People talk on and on about coffee chats, but the truth is they are 99% for your own benefit, and usually don't have much if any bearing on whether you get the TC. Most firms have a set of criteria they are assessing you against, which will usually be supervisor feedback + scores on whatever formal assessments you did during the scheme. The only way that coffee chats help is by evidencing interest in the firm, and good attitude etc. But this is equally shown by just being positive and amiable throughout the scheme. For me, I got close with my team and got work from several different partners. I attended the firm-arranged networking events and spoke to people there, and I made good friends with other vac schemers.
One of the grad rec team actually warned us off doing too many chats at the start of the scheme. Saying they usually have no idea if you've done any or not. Only if you somehow manage to really impress who you're chatting with so that they feel like relaying it, but that basically never happens. So yeah they are mainly just for you, if you actually really want to find out about a practice area or something. I chose not to because I was really busy with work and (While i didn't say this obviously), I was really tired, and I couldn't be arsed lol
Are we assuming PFO if we haven’t heard from Winston & Strawn post WG?
I’m an international student and have a flight home for break the dates of the vac scheme. I can move the flights if I am successful but I need to know soon.. do you think it’s worth emailing grad recruitment? I don’t want to be pushy at all but I need to know quite soon
I’m an international student and have a flight home for break the dates of the vac scheme. I can move the flights if I am successful but I need to know soon.. do you think it’s worth emailing grad recruitment? I don’t want to be pushy at all but I need to know quite soon
For what it's worth, I'd caution for a middle path on this. Coffee chats are useful to help you learn more about the firm and be able to name drop at the exit interview because you may explicitly be asked who you've spoken to and what you've learned. However, it's also a double-edged sword because you expose yourself to giving off a bad impression. No amount of yay votes will offset a partner veto, so while you want people you interact with to like you, it's arguably more important to first ensure you don't give anyone a reason to dislike you. By the law of numbers, the more coffee chats you have, the more opportunities you present to not click with someone and whereas in a normal office environment, it's unreasonable to expect everyone to be friends with everyone, on a vacation scheme, you need to make sure you haven't given anyone a reason to reach out to grad recruitment to voice objection to hiring you.
I agree with this completely. Unconverted Sidley winter vac schemer here. Hopefully will take stuff I learned and try it out at vac scheme this summer (have a second chance but will be doing things differently for sure). I went on TONS of coffee chats at Sidley - about 15, and I didn’t get the TC. I deffo treated it like more of an exercise rather than actually doing it meaningfully, as everyone gives you different advice (ie, ‘it’s all about networking’) but it’s also about showing you can balance, and also form actual connections. I think be more relaxed about coffees. Sidley ended up not asking coffee people for feedback, it was just a nice thing for us, so don’t feel like you need to perform in there either - just be natural. My two cents lol.
Pretty much this. I also didn't convert and for sure, part of it was exactly that reason: I treated it like more of an exercise rather than doing it meaningfully, so I looked for anyone that shares any kind of overlap with me in profile or interests and went into the talks feeling like I needed to sell myself rather than just being a normal person and asking them about what they do.
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