work experience section

[Zahra]

Hey everyone!

I had initially embarked on the barrister route and have done a few mini-pupillages in commercial sets. However, the work was quite similar in all: shadowing barristers to court; assisting in preparing case strategies; drafting.

I was just wondering if there was a need for me to separate each mini-pupillage experience I had, or if I could just put them all under a general heading mini-pupillage (and ofc name the sets I have done the experience with underneath that).

Thank you in advance!

 

[AJ]

Don't think there is a right or wrong answer here. It will depend on firm, what you're trying to show/how you use them, type of application format, and so on. Key is to draw skills and experience out of the mini-pupillage

I would suggest going one mini-pupillage at a time and treat it like a VS or job. List out the responsibilities, skills, tasks, what you learnt, etc and a line if appropriate how it made you think about covering to the TC route. There's a danger grouping them together you lose the skills and experience. Try and show you've learnt something from each one.

Cover letter, perhaps treat them as a group and highlight skills/experience and how it's made you want to change path.

Some applications will only give you 4 spaces and then an other info section/box (I think CVmail from memory do this). So it depends on what else you have to include here in the work experience section.

CV, split out chronologically.

Hope that helps. It's just how I would do it, but i'm sure open to other comments.

 

[Abstruser]

I think AJ makes some good points about losing the individual experiences of each mini, but at open days at Ashurst and Shearman & Sterling, the advice I heard being given to a student in a similar situation was to put all mini-pupillages under a single heading.

Perhaps a middle ground would be to adopt a single heading, but expand on mini-pupillages that were particularly interesting within the given section. However, I would agree with AJ about putting the mini-pupillages individually if the application form takes the form of a CV rather than work experience input section.

 

[Zahra]

I think AJ makes some good points about losing the individual experiences of each mini, but at open days at Ashurst and Shearman & Sterling, the advice I heard being given to a student in a similar situation was to put all mini-pupillages under a single heading.

Perhaps a middle ground would be to adopt a single heading, but expand on mini-pupillages that were particularly interesting within the given section. However, I would agree with AJ about putting the mini-pupillages individually if the application form takes the form of a CV rather than work experience input section.

Don't think there is a right or wrong answer here. It will depend on firm, what you're trying to show/how you use them, type of application format, and so on. Key is to draw skills and experience out of the mini-pupillage

I would suggest going one mini-pupillage at a time and treat it like a VS or job. List out the responsibilities, skills, tasks, what you learnt, etc and a line if appropriate how it made you think about covering to the TC route. There's a danger grouping them together you lose the skills and experience. Try and show you've learnt something from each one.

Cover letter, perhaps treat them as a group and highlight skills/experience and how it's made you want to change path.

Some applications will only give you 4 spaces and then an other info section/box (I think CVmail from memory do this). So it depends on what else you have to include here in the work experience section.

CV, split out chronologically.

Hope that helps. It's just how I would do it, but i'm sure open to other comments.

Thank you so much @Abstruser and @AJ