Hi everyone, just received my fourth post-AC rejection. That's it for me this cycle. No vac scheme/TC this year. I hate be complaining because I know many others are in the same position as I am. But I am just so disappointed in myself. I don't get how some people are able to get it right the first round. It feels very bad being in a friendship circle where people are all getting their vac schemes and I am the one with nothing. I feel like the ultimate failure. Last semester I put my studies aside to focus on the apps. I was hoping to get something this year so I could focus on graduating with a first. Now I won't be able to do that. I'm still lagging behind even though I've been putting in so much effort trying all ways to be ahead of the game. It feels really bad when you try your best and you are told that you best isn't even enough. I don't know if I have more to give. I feel like a total failure. Some nights I cry myself to sleep because I feel like a total let down to my parents. I am under so much pressure and so much stress.
I'm on my third cycle and the constant rejection despite putting so much effort in used to get me down too. I've said it before in this thread recently but the best advice I've ever received for dealing with it was to just focus on controlling the controllables. You can't control the competition, the state of the economy, and each firm's preferences and recruitment priorities. The only things you can control is how you prepare for an interview, how you view the recruitment process in general, and how you take feedback. Everything else is out of your hands so there is little point feeling too stressed over it.
Getting into law is deliberately designed to be a tedious grind. It has to be with the sheer numbers that come through every year. So I think that the best approach, in a weird way, is to do the following.
1. Be a little cynical about every interview you get or application you make, to save yourself from over-investing and the possibility of disappointment.
2. Try to take every inch of feedback you get positively and proactively, and make sure to go through it with someone else - preferably someone who knows your personality or is an experienced careers advisor (someone who won't just tell you what you want to hear). Given that we spend all day walking around in our own bodies, it always surprises me how little I actually know about how I come across sometimes.
3. Don't be too hard on yourself. It may feel frustrating not having a job, but believe me when I say there are PLENTY of people in the same boat. You are not a failure if you don't get into law straight away. The average qualifying age of a solicitor in the UK is 30. You've got plenty of time. Many people I've met and know personally actually wish they'd spent a few years doing something else before coming to the grind of corporate law.
I hope this helps, even if just a little.
