2020-21 Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion

[Jessica Booker]

Doesn't prove discrimination which can be tried/sued, but does not mean the firm doesn't have 'ageist' and overly-selective tendencies which need to re-evaluated.

I agree with you on the second point of overly selective. That won't just impact demographics related to age either.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hey guys! I’m trying to prepare an answer to ‘when have you shown resilience’ and I’m struggling to come up with anything. Any advice would be really useful!

Again, this is a tricky question to help you on as its reliant on your own experiences. But think of the following:

- when have you been outside of your comfort zone
- when have you had to deal with something that wasnt nice to deal with or made you uncomfortable
- when have you had to deal with something highly unexpected and change your approach to ensure success
- when have you come out the other side of something and though "I wouldn't want to do that again, but I feel all the better for doing it"
- when did something not go to plan. You organised something, you realised it wasn't going to have a successful outcome and so you had to change your approach to ensure success.

 

[Jessica Booker]

"To what extent would Clifford Chance be liable under the Equality Act 2010 for age discrimination?" Discuss. (20 marks)

As a law firm, with employment lawyers both in-house and on call, I am sure they will have that one covered

 

[Rob93]

CC targets first and second year students because they lack a clear sense of what it would be like to commute to Canary Wharf every day.

 

[Numerius Negidius]

Has anyone been able to submit Sidley?

 

[HorsesForCoursesNeighNeighNeigh]

Has anyone been able to submit Sidley?

I'm trying the same, argh!!! Can't get into it at all

 

[Carmen H]

Guys you know for the Mayer Brown app where it says to address the cover letter to 'Mark Dubes, Graduate Recruitment and Development and Development Manager' - the way I interpreted this was to begin by saying "Dear Mark Dubes" then starting to write. Are they actually asking us to write "Dear Mark Dubes, Graduate Recruitment and Development and Development Manager" then start writing?

Seems to me that it'd be an unnecessary waste of words - what did you do?

 

[Lily721]

Guys you know for the Mayer Brown app where it says to address the cover letter to 'Mark Dubes, Graduate Recruitment and Development and Development Manager' - the way I interpreted this was to begin by saying "Dear Mark Dubes" then starting to write. Are they actually asking us to write "Dear Mark Dubes, Graduate Recruitment and Development and Development Manager" then start writing?

Seems to me that it'd be an unnecessary waste of words - what did you do?

Just Dear Mark Dubes is alright.

 

[Numerius Negidius]

is it advisable to email the firm letting them know i haven't been able to access cvmail?

 

[Jessica Booker]

The one question I had about CC's process was more how unpredictable it must be. They must get a higher decline/renege rate where people secure a TC with them super early on and then those individual's think about "upgrading" their offer to another firm.

I also wonder how it will impact their retention rates 3-5 years down the line. To me, I think this approach would lead to higher attrition rates post NQ, as the individuals will have feel "tied" to the firm much earlier and may not have explored opportunities with other firms and then got itchy feet as a quaified lawyer.

They will have their reasons for doing this, and knowing the team, they will have put a lot of thought/research/data reporting into it to justify it. Even if it seems odd for all of us, I suspect they do have some logical reasons, even if the outcome is annoying to many.

 

[Holly]

Guys you know for the Mayer Brown app where it says to address the cover letter to 'Mark Dubes, Graduate Recruitment and Development and Development Manager' - the way I interpreted this was to begin by saying "Dear Mark Dubes" then starting to write. Are they actually asking us to write "Dear Mark Dubes, Graduate Recruitment and Development and Development Manager" then start writing?

Seems to me that it'd be an unnecessary waste of words - what did you do?

Just “Dear Mark” or “Dear Mark Dubes”
Don’t bother with the rest

 

[Mxkry]

Can you include virtual work experiences/ virtual open days on the work history section on the app?

 

[Jessica Booker]

is it advisable to email the firm letting them know i haven't been able to access cvmail?

They will have had lots of email about it - but no harm in emailing them if you can't get it to submit your application later this evening.

Quelle surpise CV Mail is down on the 31 Jan. I can't think of a year when it hasn't been down (and thats going back at least a decade).

 

[whisperingrock]

As a law firm, with employment lawyers both in-house and on call, I am sure they will have that one covered

Considering most graduate recruitment and lateral recruitment teams in the City seem to barely know or understand immigration rules for foreign applicants half the time, I wouldn't be shocked if this recruitment policy wasn't fully vetted.

 

[Legal_rawn]

This can be a really hard question to answer - I often found it quite uncomfortable because you're essentially bigging yourself up!

It's an inherently personal question, so it's really hard to suggest a particular example for you based on your life experiences. Resilience, at its core, is the ability to overcome adversity or challenge in some manner. This could be from a personal or professional experience - think outside the box here! When was a time in your life when you really had to fight to get through a time or experience?

For what it's worth, if you feel comfortable using a personal example as opposed to a professional one, I would tend to use that: I think it shows more dimension to you as a candidate overall rather than everything being grounded in professional experiences. See, for example, my own response to this question in my last article:

Definitive Guide to Law Firm Interviews! *Monday Article Series*

In this week's (slightly delayed - sorry!) Article, we take a look at law firm interviews. Introduction Almost every law firm’s application process involves some form of interview. This style of interview is designed to find out about your motivations, experiences, skills and characteristics...

www.thecorporatelawacademy.com

(n.b.: it's phrased as "tell me about a time you overcame a challenge", but these are basically the same)

Thanks for your response! I have a few personal experiences which were very difficult to overcome but I’m worried how they would come across since they are mental health related and could show me in a bad light and also they were a few years ago so I am unsure if that would be appropriate?

 

[dorisbeg]

They will have had lots of email about it - but no harm in emailing them if you can't get it to submit your application later this evening.

Quelle surpise CV Mail is down on the 31 Jan. I can't think of a year when it hasn't been down (and thats going back at least a decade).

But in the past, did the CV Mail worke later in the evening or once it has been down - it stays down?

 

[Jessica Booker]

But in the past, did the CV Mail worke later in the evening or once it has been down - it stays down?

There will be someone working on it most likely - its a global system. It just is always a capacity issue - lots of people accessing it at the same time and it crashes.

I know some firms purposely move their closing date to avoid this because it is a known fault every year. It isn't unique to CV Mail though, just CV mail is usually the worst offender.

 

[dorisbeg]

There will be someone working on it most likely - its a global system. It just is always a capacity issue - lots of people accessing it at the same time and it crashes.

I know some firms purposely move their closing date to avoid this because it is a known fault every year. It isn't unique to CV Mail though, just CV mail is usually the worst offender.

Ok thanks! So there is still hope it will open until midnight?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Ok thanks! So there is still hope it will open until midnight?

Possibly - but equally knowing how applications are submitted, the system will only get busier up until the deadline and if people have been struggling to get on, the system is likely to only get more traffic rather than less.

 

[Bugsy Malone]

Possibly - but equally knowing how applications are submitted, the system will only get busier up until the deadline and if people have been struggling to get on, the system is likely to only get more traffic rather than less.