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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dheepa" data-source="post: 73893" data-attributes="member: 1572">Adding to Neville's super comprehensive advice, if I were to rewind back to first year here's some things I'd tell myself:1. Work experienceDemonstrating your motivation for commercial law is not impossible without legal work experience (in fact plenty of people do it very successfully) but it is more plausible if you do have some experience to draw on. The summer of your first year is the best time to go all out trying to get that legal work experience. Because of how limited the spaces are on first year schemes and the limited number of firms that even run them, they tend to be more competitive than vac schemes. So while it would be ideal to secure work experience at a City law firm (MC, SC, US, etc.), most people don't. However, this doesn't mean work experience at small high street firms or boutique law firms will not be taken equally as seriously. As Neville says, at the end of the day it's all about being able to link your experiences to the transferrable skills firms expect from trainees. So even if you were working on a small negligence case in the summer, you can still draw links to enjoying the client facing aspect, the research aspect, etc. I would actually also recommend actively seek non-legal 'commercial' work experience. This can help you justify what you might enjoy about the business side of the work.2. Extra-curricular activitiesFantastic that you already actively do a sport. Definitely stick with it throughout university. I also think it would be beneficial to get involved with at least one society (if not the sporting one) and take on one leadership role. A lot of societies have positions for first year representatives which is an excellent way to start. In most cases these first year reps go on to much higher responsibility positions in societies anyway which again can be very beneficial for answering competency questions. It's not entirely necessary to take up a society position, especially if you do something else that's quite time consuming (for example: working more than 20/30 hours a week part-time; actively volunteering with a particular organisation). Law firms want to see that you have a life outside of academics not just because it makes you a more interesting person to work with but also because academics alone don't replicate the working environment. So definitely try to get heavily involved with at least one society.3. Diversity NetworksObviously this is a bit presumptuous as I’m not sure if you qualify as an applicant from a minority background, but if you do, I highly highly recommend getting involved with Aspiring Solicitors, SEO London and Rare Recruitment.Generally across the board all three offer invites to open days, application reviews and some great mentoring and coaching. If you ask me the most beneficial thing that comes out joining any of these is you automatically get invited to numerous open days with different firms without having to send off additional applications to each one. I cannot even begin to tell you how much time that will save you when researching firms.Aspiring Solicitors run a fantastic first year scheme called AS First. You'll need to submit a written application and I think there might be a short video interview if you get past the application stage as well. Being on the scheme also means you possibly end up getting work experience placements with the likes of Barclays, Sky and Facebook. If you don't make it onto AS First in your first year, they also run the Aspire coaching programme for second and third year students. I took part in the Aspire programme and in addition to the open day invites, you also get a fortnightly half an hour call with a mentor (usually an ex-associate or graduate recruiter) who can help you review apps, give you advice on application strategy on firms, or just chat to you about anything at all you're struggling with.SEO London similarly run the Corporate Law Programme which involves a submitting an application and then an assessment centre. Personally the biggest benefit I derived from the SEO was the fantastic speed networking event they hold with their sponsor firms and the fantastic network of trainees and future trainees they have to help you with ACs.Side note:  Like Neville has said, I think it's so impressive that you've already thought about these things before even entering university. However, if for some reason things don't go according to plan and you don't manage to do most or even some of the things we've talked about here in your first year, it's completely okay. All I did in my first year was have a good time, focus on my grades and send some rogue applications here and there that ultimately all failed. I still did far better than I ever thought I would on the TC front by the time I graduated. Basically, don't put too much pressure on yourself is all I'm trying to say.</blockquote>

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