TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2025-26

[ninarosee]

congratulations! when did you do the test?

Thank you! I did the test on November 25th

 

[Andrei Radu]

Thank you so much Andrei for your advice. I am a little reluctant to change it majorly as I did pass the first stage so in this would you recommend keeping some things similar? Many Thanks

You can and definitely should keep some things similar, particularly main themes and motivations. Since you have previously progressed, graduate recruiters will likely expect less in terms of how much you will have changed your answers. That said, I would highly encourage you to at least change some things, even if it is only a change in terms of how you structure an answer and how you formulate a given substantive point - you want to avoid similarity checkers showing your answers as nearly identical to last year, as this is generally not a good look ( some recruiters say they interpret this as you not having enough motivation to try to seek to improve).

 

[Andrei Radu]

@Andrei Radu @Abbie Whitlock Accidentally listed my attendance at Skadden's October Open Day as a November Open Day. Although there was also a November Open Day (which I attended) but the October Open Day was selective/competitive. So it's not necessarily false info, just sort of omitting the info(?). Should I email Grad Rec regarding this (or add it as part of 'Additional Information' on All Hires)?

I do not think this is a major enough issue to warrant emailing the graduate recruitment team about it directly; instead, I would advise you to update it in the Additional Information section. That will show attention to detail and will also dispel and potential doubts that may have arisen in the future as to whether this was a genuine oversight or a dishonest one.

 

[pfoapplicant]

Hi @pfoapplicant just to add to the great response from @wooliewoo I wanted say that based on the firm's prompt, you can definitely include a wide range of experiences that go beyond contract-based roles that would formally be classified as "work experiences". That said, as I see it, if you have attended many commercial law-related events, you should not make a separate entry for each of them and provide a detailed description. Instead, I would advise you to have one big "Careers events" entry, where you list the events you attended and also explain how these events/any particularly impactful event shaped your motivations. If you have completed multiple virtual experiences or short volunteering activities (or, really, any less substantial experiences that can be easily grouped together based on a set of common features), I would advise the same thing (although, of course, you can also draw connections to skills/abilities they've helped you develop).

As for your more general worry on including too many or two few of your experiences: I think you want to find a right balance and not overwhelm recruiters with dozens of long entries, but, at the same time, you want to add as much value to your application as possible by including many experiences that formed relevant skills. Sometimes, it is true that "less is more" in that if you have way too many long entries, your most impressive and substantive experiences may make less of an impact on a recruiter than they could have had if they had not been drowned in a sea of other information. As such, I would advise you not to feel like you have to include everything and anything that could possibly go in. That said, generally, people err more often by being under-inclusive rather than over-inclusive, and recruiters constantly try to emphasise that a very wide range of experiences can be included in the work experience section.

As such, I would say that as long as you do not have more than 7-8 entries, you should not worry about this issue; while if you have 8+ lengthier ones, you should start considering the overall value add of each new entry vs the cost of adding more information for a recruiter to get through.

Thank you so much @Andrei Radu @wooliewoo !

 

[user55998384]

does anyone know the benchmark for FF stage 1?

 

[gao8899]

Hi @Andrei Radu ,
I was wondering whether you might be able to offer some advice on preparing in advance for the final interview on Sidley's winter vac scheme: particularly around the big macro stories and developments I should be up to date on specifically for the firm as well as Sidley's strengths/position versus other US firms?
Sorry if this is a bit general!
Thanks so much