TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[l789]

I know people who got through to HR/partner interview with ABB

Thanks for this!

Do you think Sidley winter vac scheme is more competitive to get on to, or the summer and spring scheme

 

[sal44]

DLA piper interview invite

Congratulations! If you don’t mind me asking, when did they email saying you’d passed the test? Best of luck 🙌🏼

 

[yk1906]

Any news on the Sidley Austin spring/summer scheme? Any interviews?

 

[aspringlawyer25]

I'm so sorry to hear this
Was Cleary before or after the WG do you mind me asking?

Never got the WG

 

[msclm]

Thanks for this!

Do you think Sidley winter vac scheme is more competitive to get on to, or the summer and spring scheme

I have no idea (I got the winter vac scheme for Sidley this year) but from what I gather winter vac schemes in general typically attract applicants who have move experience (final years)/post grads/career changers. Sidley’s wvs is also only 1 week and has a smaller intake because its use to feed their tc for the coming year.

 

[p2bv]

Congratulations! If you don’t mind me asking, when did they email saying you’d passed the test? Best of luck 🙌🏼

13th October ! Thanks!

 

[Bbhu19]

Guys... Any tips on how to manage anticipation anxiety?

I've never made so many applications and awaited for so many results, worrying about their outcomes. Life in academia was so smooth and I always got into wherever I wanted to.

Dealing with rejections for the first time, in bulk is mildly shivering but I'm getting past it well. It's the anticipation and uncertainty of not knowing anything I'm struggling with. I'm on my email page once in 20 mns refreshing... And it just spikes up my heartbeat and makes me feel nauseating.

If any of you have been there, I would like to know what helps you!

Thanks in Advance.

Pick up a hobby or two to distract yourself, take a walk, listen to music, just do something unrelated

 

[l789]

I'm quite confident in my abilities, as I've also got a lot of experience under my belt and office experience too.

Idk if I would be at an advantage applying for the summer/spring scheme then, as a way to stand out more amongst general undergrads, with not so much experience. Not in a conceited way, but to just help increase my chances amongst what will be a very talented cohort of students/graduates and career changers.

 

[Sharkfin]

Guys... Any tips on how to manage anticipation anxiety?

I've never made so many applications and awaited for so many results, worrying about their outcomes. Life in academia was so smooth and I always got into wherever I wanted to.

Dealing with rejections for the first time, in bulk is mildly shivering but I'm getting past it well. It's the anticipation and uncertainty of not knowing anything I'm struggling with. I'm on my email page once in 20 mns refreshing... And it just spikes up my heartbeat and makes me feel nauseating.

If any of you have been there, I would like to know what helps you!

Thanks in Advance.

Idk how useful (or coherent) any of this is but hope it helps 1. Anticpation + uncertainty is an unavoidable pain, it just is a part of the process. However, It shows you give a f*** about what you're doing, your applications and this whole process - it shows ur putting in effort, care and time into ur applications so massive W for this. 2. The only way out this situ is through it, legit you just gotta keep ur head down and stay pushing - imagine urself as a rhino (me off 3 white monster cans at 2am) and just visualise you making ur way outta this process. 3. From my experience, the best advice I got is assuming the moment you hit send on an application, assume a rej. Then whatever may come is either what you expected, or a pleasant surprise. and 4. Remember to do other stuff apart from apps, even though apps are really important and everyone wants a job at the end of the day, keep doing ur hobbies, keep going outside and getting fresh air. - TDLR: its horrible process, your feelings are more than valid, and the only way out of it is through it, keep your focus, keep your hobbies, and keep having faith in yourself 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi @Andrei Radu,
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience and for your encouraging words. It genuinely means a lot to hear from someone who has been through something similar. I also appreciate the guide you shared — I’ll definitely take a closer look and try to apply the advice.

I’ve spent a lot of time refining my interview skills over the past year, but given that I haven’t even been invited to a single AC this cycle, I’m starting to worry that all that effort might have been for nothing. Recruitment also feels completely different this year — I was finally starting to feel like I understood the process last cycle, and now suddenly it’s a whole new landscape with constant tests and VIs. Do you have any advice for handling those?

So far I’ve submitted 5 applications, with 3 more planned for this week, and 16 more lined up over the next couple of months. Would that be enough? I’m trying to balance a job to pay my bills alongside all of this, and nothing seems to be progressing. With rolling deadlines, I also feel like I’m racing against time — it’s starting to feel really overwhelming.

I completely understand your worries around the changing applications landscape - SJTs and VIs used to be the part of applications I dreaded the most as well. The only thing I think makes a major difference for VIs is, unsurprisingly, hours and hours of practice in front of the camera. It can be a uniquely boring and awkward exercise to go through, but in truth it is the only way you can ever get comfortable with the format. Section A and B of the competency interview guide I linked bellow go more in-depth in terms of the particulars of how you should prepare for VIs as well, so maybe also take a look there.

As for the number of applications, I think a total of 24 is a solid goal and will definitely improve your chances significantly compared to last year. If you figure out you can actually do more in the later stages of this cycle (particularly as you may find that your researching and application writing speed increases drastically with time), I would of course advise you to go for it; but for now I think this is a very reasonable target.

 

[AP2000]

Guys... Any tips on how to manage anticipation anxiety?

I've never made so many applications and awaited for so many results, worrying about their outcomes. Life in academia was so smooth and I always got into wherever I wanted to.

Dealing with rejections for the first time, in bulk is mildly shivering but I'm getting past it well. It's the anticipation and uncertainty of not knowing anything I'm struggling with. I'm on my email page once in 20 mns refreshing... And it just spikes up my heartbeat and makes me feel nauseating.

If any of you have been there, I would like to know what helps you!

Thanks in Advance.

Hey, really sorry you feel that way!! Like others have said, this is natural because you care. It's also natural because our brains are hard-wired to scan for threats and at the moment many of our brains react to law firm emails the same way we'd react to being chased by a bear. What I've found to work quite well after lots of coaching and counselling, is to acknowledge when these thoughts come up and speak to yourself like you'd talk to a child have a meltdown: "it's fine, I checked my email 5 mins ago, I don't need to do this again. The result is out of our hands, but we'll be fine in any case. Shall we go for a walk and a sweet treat?". Don't beat yourself up for these thoughts, but also remember they're not rational, they're not "real".

Plus, if it's any consolation, as someone a few years out of uni I can confidently say that where you get rejected by one place another door will open. I didn't expect to be in my current role, and it was the result of many, many rejections, but I currently work at the biggest US bank. Just trust it will all be fine!

 

[msclm]

I'm quite confident in my abilities, as I've also got a lot of experience under my belt and office experience too.

Idk if I would be at an advantage applying for the summer/spring scheme then, as a way to stand out more amongst general undergrads, with not so much experience. Not in a conceited way, but to just help increase my chances amongst what will be a very talented cohort of students/graduates and career changers.

From going through their interview process over the last month, they def take a holistic review of your app. If you think it’s strong, they will see it. Good luck!

 

[1stCycleApplicant]

Is this for VS or OD?

VS

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi @Andrei Radu @Amma Usman,

I’m re-applying to Gibson Dunn this cycle after reaching the AC last year and would really appreciate your advice.

I’ve re-written my “why commercial law” paragraph and fully refreshed my first “why Gibson Dunn” paragraph.

My question is about my two other reasons for wanting to join the firm: the disputes/transactions balance, and the training philosophy. My reasoning on those hasn’t changed — so is it acceptable to keep those broadly the same this year, or is that still too risky even if I lightly rephrase?

Separately, my final “why me” paragraph is currently focused on my university research achievement and my society leadership roles (I graduated two years ago). Should I keep the research award and add a recent achievement to show progression — or would you replace it entirely?

Would really appreciate your thoughts. I thought last year’s application was strong and I’d like to keep elements of it this year if I can.

A general rule when reapplying is that the broad theme of your motivations, interests, and skills can stay the same, but you should change how you elaborate on those underlying motivations, how you tie it to experiences, or at least the particular form in which you express these substantive points. I would advise you to therefore seek to connect these general why-the-firm reasons to any new pieces of research you can find (such as new deals/cases, rankings, awards, etc) or any new experiences you have had.

As for the second question, I think you should keep the experiences that are most impressive but change/add at least one new one - you certainly do not need to replace all of them. Finally, I would say that when you are reviewing your work, to ascertain whether the new application is different enough, I think you should ask yourself the following question: when looking at the application on the whole, does it look as a genuine new attempt or just as an altered version of the prior one?

 

[user55998384]

anyone else waiting for Simmons OD still?

 

[whywhy88]

I have seen a few posts about Jones Day AC invites. Are these for the spring or summer scheme? Applied for spring yesterday and am thinking it might have been a better idea to apply for summer if people are already getting AC invites for spring...

 

[Trophy]

Thanks for this!

Do you think Sidley winter vac scheme is more competitive to get on to, or the summer and spring scheme

Winter vacation schemes tend to be open for finalist and graduates only across most firms.

Most international students cannot apply to WVS due to visa and term date restrictions so you’ve already eliminated some “competition”.

I’d say sidley is always the first to open the applications and people tend to rush and apply within the first 3 days writing half hearted answers. Given their scheme dates this year it’s within holiday period (same with dechert) for most universities, many international students would be eligible to apply so the possibly makes it equally competitive as its other dates.

I’ve applied to vac scheme for a couple years and found no luck with winter but did with spring and summer not sure why but I found those who succeed (post winter scheme) and post on LinkedIn had a vs the previous cycle they did not convert or had a bit of work experience. But this is all my observation and waffle 😅

 

[lawstudent2]

If anyone is still applying for DLA Piper and has issues with uploading their CV, if you put it through dropbox it should work.
Fixed the issue immediately for me.

 

[MaryAra299]

Has anybody done the mayer brown sjt plus vi, was your camera turned on the entire time and was there numerical element. They said to keep a calculator but the problem is I use my phone to calculate don't have a calculator so if they see me using Mt phone during the numerical part would that have a negative effect? Is there anyone who used their phone as a calculator during the mayer brown numerical reasoning

 

[lelezb1]

Has anybody done the mayer brown sjt plus vi, was your camera turned on the entire time and was there numerical element. They said to keep a calculator but the problem is I use my phone to calculate don't have a calculator so if they see me using Mt phone during the numerical part would that have a negative effect? Is there anyone who used their phone as a calculator during the mayer brown numerical reasoning

i used my phone calculator during the numerical part and my camera was turned on during the entire test