Sorry to hear that 😞 Time for a bit of mental recovery I think.CMS PFO 😍 great way to end one of the worst weeks
Do you have any other apps (other than Eversheds) in the pipeline?
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a confused law student's TC journey :)
- Thread starter confusedlawstudent
- Start date
Do you have any other apps (other than Eversheds) in the pipeline?
Yeah, I have made 13 apps so far. Did a VI for Addleshaw Goddard and Bristows but still waiting to hear back. The others have been rejections or still waiting to hear back post-app. But genuinely so tired from the whole process right now, don't want to do another app, and especially another AC, ever again lol. Don't know how people are able to do multiple cycles. Sorry this is just me being all down hahah
Hang in there! Give yourself a couple of days off, take a mental health day/week, and then evaluate what went wrong. You're getting so much valuable experience from these "rejections" because it's an opportunity to tweak your approach.
All you need now is to understand how to convert ACs to offers, which could potentially be used in your other apps that proceeded to VIs. It's too early to give up, especially since there are direct TCs to apply for.
thank you for your encouragement 😭😭 much appreciated
No worries, update TCLA on your future progress when you feel ready
Rooting for you to secure a VS/TC offer very soon!I totally agree with @ml_vk2022! I also understand how exhausting it is when you give so much of yourself to this process. Did you get any feedback after CMS AC? That's usually a good place to start! Also, you could have a look at the law firm processes that tire you out the most, and focus your efforts on other firms?
I'm rooting for you!
Bristows TC partner interview
is it weird that I wasn't even happy with this news? I saw the email and it just made me so stressed and the thought of going through another interview makes me sick
Bristows is one of my top 2 firms so I am of course happy to be through to the next stage, I'm just so fed up right now and lacking any motivation.
is it weird that I wasn't even happy with this news? I saw the email and it just made me so stressed and the thought of going through another interview makes me sick
Bristows is one of my top 2 firms so I am of course happy to be through to the next stage, I'm just so fed up right now and lacking any motivation.
From reading your thread, seems like you’ve struggled with group exercises. If this is just a partner interview, take comfort in the fact that you’ve passed VIs before and this should be an easier version of that (bc it’s not as awkward!).Bristows TC partner interview
is it weird that I wasn't even happy with this news? I saw the email and it just made me so stressed and the thought of going through another interview makes me sick
Bristows is one of my top 2 firms so I am of course happy to be through to the next stage, I'm just so fed up right now and lacking any motivation.
that’s actually made me feel a lot better thank you!! it’s also just an hour, so a lot better than the ACs, some which last 6 hours!
EVERSHEDS SUTHERLAND VACATION SCHEME OFFER!!! i am so over the moon right now
I just wanna says thank you SO MUCH to everyone at TCLA for their advice and encouragement. I genuinely could not have done it without you all. I know I am still so far away from getting a TC, but I am one big step closer now!! THANK YOU GUYS AGAIN
I just wanna says thank you SO MUCH to everyone at TCLA for their advice and encouragement. I genuinely could not have done it without you all. I know I am still so far away from getting a TC, but I am one big step closer now!! THANK YOU GUYS AGAIN
Hey congrats! You’ve worked so hard and really deserve this!! Can I ask when and how you were told - did you get a call?
- Feb 17, 2018
- 4,717
- 8,627
thank you! did the AC last tuesday (24 jan) and got a call with the outcome yesterday (31 jan) !
Eversheds Sutherland VS application process!
Thought I would do a post about how I prepared for the Eversheds AC as I had a few messages about it, and thought it could help future applicants as these kinds of posts definitely helped me a lot. This is also to track how I prepared/how I found it for my own future reference. Have included some stuff about the VI too.
Video Interview
For this, I did quite a bit of research about Eversheds, and had developed a solid answer for why I wanted to work there. The questions were mostly scenario based, and I genuinely just answered them honestly - I didn't pressure myself to get the right answer, I just said what I would do. It really helped to know the role of a trainee inside out, so I could really put myself in the scenarios. The main thing about this is to just be RELAXED and be yourself. I think they're looking for personality and don't just want a corporate robot. This is something I kept in mind when doing the VI.
Assessment Centre
Preparation
I did a substantial amount of prep for the AC. I made a 15-page document about Eversheds, detailing their sectors, any cases I found interesting, clients, culture, support, pro bono etc. While this wasn't directly useful in the AC, it did help me truly understand what Eversheds is like as a firm and develop a real enthusiasm for it. I was able to note a few facts about Eversheds during the interview though e.g. I spoke about legal tech and gave examples of legal tech that Eversheds uses.
I think my main help was this document. I prepared all of the competency, motivational and character questions, as well as a few of the others like commercial awareness. This was great in helping me think about my experiences and skills. With each of these experiences, I thought about what I enjoyed and what I didn't enjoy, as I knew they would ask these as follow-up questions. During the AC interview, there was no question which I hadn't prepared an answer for, and this was the same for my other AC, so I really can't stress the help of that document enough.
I also made even more of an effort to work on my commercial awareness in the week leading up to the AC. I posted a few of my ideas on my commercial awareness thread here. I read the FT everyday, and made a mind map about some of the articles, noting the impact on law firms and their clients. ZipLaw newsletters were SO helpful in really figuring out what the role of law firms is in relation to commercial news stories. I also listened to Watson's Daily occasionally. All that is needed really for the AC is general commercial awareness, I was never asked any technical questions.
Aside from all that, I did a ton of practice interviews with my mum and also by inputting questions into a random generator online and testing myself on them. I made sure not to memorise answers as I wanted to be more flexible in case a different question was asked.
Written Exercise
You get 1 hour 30 mins (I think) to read a bunch of emails and respond. Some of them required you to do actual thinking and work e.g. one of them asked me to write a one-page client briefing, and another asked me to note down some potential business development opportunities for a client. I really don't think you can prepare for this kind of thing. For me, my main issue was taking in all the information I was reading and understand it quickly. I found myself losing time because I just wasn't understanding what I was reading. I made up for this by just telling myself I had to move on at a certain point.
You don't need to respond to all the emails! I think that is really important - some of them were just saying hello, well done etc. I think it's impossible to reply to them all in such a short time. Prioritising is really important - I prioritised the ones that were urgent, from a partner and for a client.
Interview
The questions were mostly competency. From what I can remember, I was asked:
With each one of those there were a few follow up questions:
- What is keeping you at Eversheds?
- What DON'T you like about Eversheds?
Role play
I found this aspect the most difficult. You basically have to read over a bunch of information in 30 minutes and then discuss it with a partner. When reading the information, you will have to pick a side to argue for. Then you will argue for your chosen side and the partner will argue for the other. For me, the most difficult part was picking a side as soon as possible. Therefore, make sure to be decisive and decide quickly! That way you will have time to form your arguments more and will be able to focus your reading. The questions that the partner asked were not difficult. The main difficulty with this was reading all the information in such a short time frame.
Summary
Overall, the process was fine! A lot more chill than some other firms out there. My main tip is to BE YOURSELF. I know this sounds cliché, but genuinely, when preparing, take the time to think honestly about your experiences - what has genuinely made you who you are today? I think in my first few applications, I was being rejected because I wasn't being genuine in my answers, I was just putting what I thought the firms wanted to hear. It is so important to be genuine. For example, a few months ago, I would have thought firms would only want me to talk about legal experience and that they didn't care about my semester abroad or my part time job as a barista. But in my Eversheds interview, I spent ages talking about my barista job and they seemed to be really interested! So yeah - just be honest!!
Hope that helps anyone about to do the Eversheds AC or an AC in general!
Thought I would do a post about how I prepared for the Eversheds AC as I had a few messages about it, and thought it could help future applicants as these kinds of posts definitely helped me a lot. This is also to track how I prepared/how I found it for my own future reference. Have included some stuff about the VI too.
Video Interview
For this, I did quite a bit of research about Eversheds, and had developed a solid answer for why I wanted to work there. The questions were mostly scenario based, and I genuinely just answered them honestly - I didn't pressure myself to get the right answer, I just said what I would do. It really helped to know the role of a trainee inside out, so I could really put myself in the scenarios. The main thing about this is to just be RELAXED and be yourself. I think they're looking for personality and don't just want a corporate robot. This is something I kept in mind when doing the VI.
Assessment Centre
Preparation
I did a substantial amount of prep for the AC. I made a 15-page document about Eversheds, detailing their sectors, any cases I found interesting, clients, culture, support, pro bono etc. While this wasn't directly useful in the AC, it did help me truly understand what Eversheds is like as a firm and develop a real enthusiasm for it. I was able to note a few facts about Eversheds during the interview though e.g. I spoke about legal tech and gave examples of legal tech that Eversheds uses.
I think my main help was this document. I prepared all of the competency, motivational and character questions, as well as a few of the others like commercial awareness. This was great in helping me think about my experiences and skills. With each of these experiences, I thought about what I enjoyed and what I didn't enjoy, as I knew they would ask these as follow-up questions. During the AC interview, there was no question which I hadn't prepared an answer for, and this was the same for my other AC, so I really can't stress the help of that document enough.
I also made even more of an effort to work on my commercial awareness in the week leading up to the AC. I posted a few of my ideas on my commercial awareness thread here. I read the FT everyday, and made a mind map about some of the articles, noting the impact on law firms and their clients. ZipLaw newsletters were SO helpful in really figuring out what the role of law firms is in relation to commercial news stories. I also listened to Watson's Daily occasionally. All that is needed really for the AC is general commercial awareness, I was never asked any technical questions.
Aside from all that, I did a ton of practice interviews with my mum and also by inputting questions into a random generator online and testing myself on them. I made sure not to memorise answers as I wanted to be more flexible in case a different question was asked.
Written Exercise
You get 1 hour 30 mins (I think) to read a bunch of emails and respond. Some of them required you to do actual thinking and work e.g. one of them asked me to write a one-page client briefing, and another asked me to note down some potential business development opportunities for a client. I really don't think you can prepare for this kind of thing. For me, my main issue was taking in all the information I was reading and understand it quickly. I found myself losing time because I just wasn't understanding what I was reading. I made up for this by just telling myself I had to move on at a certain point.
You don't need to respond to all the emails! I think that is really important - some of them were just saying hello, well done etc. I think it's impossible to reply to them all in such a short time. Prioritising is really important - I prioritised the ones that were urgent, from a partner and for a client.
Interview
The questions were mostly competency. From what I can remember, I was asked:
- When have you worked with someone you didn't like?
- When have you worked in a group where the dynamic was off? What did you do to change this?
- When have you had to adapt to a new situation?
- What would you do if a partner gave you loads of negative feedback on a piece of work?
- What are some issues affecting law firms right now?
With each one of those there were a few follow up questions:
- What did you enjoy/ what energised you in that situation?
- What didn't you enjoy?
- What skills did you use?
- What is keeping you at Eversheds?
- What DON'T you like about Eversheds?
Role play
I found this aspect the most difficult. You basically have to read over a bunch of information in 30 minutes and then discuss it with a partner. When reading the information, you will have to pick a side to argue for. Then you will argue for your chosen side and the partner will argue for the other. For me, the most difficult part was picking a side as soon as possible. Therefore, make sure to be decisive and decide quickly! That way you will have time to form your arguments more and will be able to focus your reading. The questions that the partner asked were not difficult. The main difficulty with this was reading all the information in such a short time frame.
Summary
Overall, the process was fine! A lot more chill than some other firms out there. My main tip is to BE YOURSELF. I know this sounds cliché, but genuinely, when preparing, take the time to think honestly about your experiences - what has genuinely made you who you are today? I think in my first few applications, I was being rejected because I wasn't being genuine in my answers, I was just putting what I thought the firms wanted to hear. It is so important to be genuine. For example, a few months ago, I would have thought firms would only want me to talk about legal experience and that they didn't care about my semester abroad or my part time job as a barista. But in my Eversheds interview, I spent ages talking about my barista job and they seemed to be really interested! So yeah - just be honest!!
Hope that helps anyone about to do the Eversheds AC or an AC in general!
Hi! Thanks for sharing all the details, it comes very useful.
I was wondering how much time you took to prepare for the AC? I'm looking to start ramping up my commercial awareness and practice questions and was wondering if you've got thoughts on the best way to allocate time and start revising. Thanks
I was wondering how much time you took to prepare for the AC? I'm looking to start ramping up my commercial awareness and practice questions and was wondering if you've got thoughts on the best way to allocate time and start revising. Thanks
Hey!Hi! Thanks for sharing all the details, it comes very useful.
I was wondering how much time you took to prepare for the AC? I'm looking to start ramping up my commercial awareness and practice questions and was wondering if you've got thoughts on the best way to allocate time and start revising. Thanks
So I didn't start fully preparing for the AC until 1 week before it. In this week, I of course still had uni work to do, so I did my uni work in the mornings, and then spent the afternoons and evenings prepping for the AC. Roughly 2-3 hours a day probably. I spent this time doing firm research, commercial awareness and practise interview questions.
For commercial awareness, I read the FT everyday in the week leading up to the AC and made mind maps of 3-4 articles noting the impact on law firms and their clients. I also read ZipLaw newsletters and took notes from them which was SO helpful.
I think practising interview questions was the most helpful thing I did. I started by looking at the 265 TCLA interview questions document and just writing down briefly what I would talk about. This was so helpful as it made me think about my experiences and what I learnt from them. Also, ALL the questions that they asked me in the interview were on that document, so I had ended up preparing for all of them. However, I didn't memorise answers as this doesn't allow me to speak naturally. I just knew roughly what I would speak about for each question.
Hope that helps and wishing you all the best! You got this 💪
Just had my feedback call with CMS, and thought I would note down what they said for future reference.
Interview
They said this was my highest scoring aspect of the AC. They said I was really personable and gave relevant examples. However, they said I should have developed my examples more and also that my commercial awareness in terms of what CMS does was lacking.
Case study
This was my weakest aspect. They said I should have focused more on understanding the information and the data given. While my brief was well-written, the structure was confusing and my research was not very relevant to the information.
Group exercise
They said I did really well here (which surprised me!), and that I contributed relevant points. They did say I could have been more confident though as I did come off a bit quiet.
Interview
They said this was my highest scoring aspect of the AC. They said I was really personable and gave relevant examples. However, they said I should have developed my examples more and also that my commercial awareness in terms of what CMS does was lacking.
Case study
This was my weakest aspect. They said I should have focused more on understanding the information and the data given. While my brief was well-written, the structure was confusing and my research was not very relevant to the information.
Group exercise
They said I did really well here (which surprised me!), and that I contributed relevant points. They did say I could have been more confident though as I did come off a bit quiet.
Preparing for my Vac Scheme!
So my VS starts in 24 days and I am SO NERVOUS and feel so unprepared. I haven't done much at all to prepare for it so far so I'm feeling very stressed. Haven't even been reading the FT or anything( Anyway, this is my action plan for making sure I am as prepared as possible:
- Finish the Pinsent Masons Commercial Law Forage
- Do at least 3 more Forage schemes (one more on commercial law, another on real estate, and one on employment)
- Read the FT EVERYDAY - no exceptions!
- Watch some commercial law talks online
- Analyse at least one commercial news story every day
If anyone has any other tips on how to prepare please let me know!
So my VS starts in 24 days and I am SO NERVOUS and feel so unprepared. I haven't done much at all to prepare for it so far so I'm feeling very stressed. Haven't even been reading the FT or anything
( Anyway, this is my action plan for making sure I am as prepared as possible:- Finish the Pinsent Masons Commercial Law Forage
- Do at least 3 more Forage schemes (one more on commercial law, another on real estate, and one on employment)
- Read the FT EVERYDAY - no exceptions!
- Watch some commercial law talks online
- Analyse at least one commercial news story every day
If anyone has any other tips on how to prepare please let me know!
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