Hi all! Let me introduce myself: I'm Jacob, and, alongside @Naomi U and @Dheepa I've just joined TCLA as part of the forum team. This thread will be an AMA for all three of us!
By way of introduction, I'm a future trainee at Travers Smith LLP (commencing Sept '23) and I'm currently in my final year of a Scots Law degree at the University of Aberdeen.
I've more or less always wanted to go into law, but only really started exploring 'BigLaw' in early-2018- I had initially considered joining the criminal bar here in Scotland! I quickly realised that commercial practice in the City was far more up my street, and so began investigating career options in that field.
My first application cycle was the Autumn/ Winter 2018 into 2019 cycle. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks before applications opened en mass, I was involved in a freak accident where I broke my back in 3 places and became paralysed. Thankfully, I've made a fairly full recovery since then but the recovery from that blighted my application season and I was only able to make one application to Clifford Chance's SPARK scheme, for which I was later invited to interview. I was unsuccessful at that (watch out for the full story coming fairly soon in a new thread) and then waited until the next application cycle, Autumn/ Winter 2019 into 2020, when I would be applying for Vacation Schemes. In that time, I worked on identifying the firms I was most interested in, creating a 'shortlist' of about 12-14 firms to whom I wanted to apply, researching them in some more depth and also working on my 'stock answers' (e.g., why law, why me, why X firm) that I knew I would have to hit in applications and at interviews.
In the end, I made 12 applications to a wide variety of Magic Circle, Silver Circle, American and International Elite firms. I secured three interviews, with Travers Smith, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Herbert Smith Freehills. Of those, I was made VS offers by Travers and Norton Rose. I took part (virtually) in those schemes in July and September respectively, and was delighted to be made an offer by Travers Smith without having to attend an exit interview. I elected not to partake in the exit interview with Norton Rose as, for various reasons, I felt that Travers was the best firm for me- to that end, I don't know whether I would have been made an offer.
Aside from Vacation Schemes, I'm also a RARE and AS candidate, and, as such, I've attended various events with a wide variety of Magic Circle, Silver Circle and International firms.
I feel that my successes really came when I let my personality shine through everything I was doing- whether that was in my written application, at the interview stage or anywhere in between, as soon as I actually showed my personality and character to those assessing me, I started getting more offers. Is that because I have some sort of wonderfully charming and endearing personality? Well, although it would probably depend who you ask, that's not the case at all. It was because I realised that I was being assessed on so much more than just the substantive content and reasoning in written and oral responses. This is also content I'll go over in more detail in separate posts in the near future- keep your eyes peeled!
That's all from me at the moment! I look forward to answering all your questions and I'm sure the rest of the team do too. Of course, my DMs are open if there's anything particularly private you'd like to discuss but, as with the general ethos of the forum, we'd really appreciate it if substantive discussion and questions were all kept on the thread!
By way of introduction, I'm a future trainee at Travers Smith LLP (commencing Sept '23) and I'm currently in my final year of a Scots Law degree at the University of Aberdeen.
I've more or less always wanted to go into law, but only really started exploring 'BigLaw' in early-2018- I had initially considered joining the criminal bar here in Scotland! I quickly realised that commercial practice in the City was far more up my street, and so began investigating career options in that field.
My first application cycle was the Autumn/ Winter 2018 into 2019 cycle. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks before applications opened en mass, I was involved in a freak accident where I broke my back in 3 places and became paralysed. Thankfully, I've made a fairly full recovery since then but the recovery from that blighted my application season and I was only able to make one application to Clifford Chance's SPARK scheme, for which I was later invited to interview. I was unsuccessful at that (watch out for the full story coming fairly soon in a new thread) and then waited until the next application cycle, Autumn/ Winter 2019 into 2020, when I would be applying for Vacation Schemes. In that time, I worked on identifying the firms I was most interested in, creating a 'shortlist' of about 12-14 firms to whom I wanted to apply, researching them in some more depth and also working on my 'stock answers' (e.g., why law, why me, why X firm) that I knew I would have to hit in applications and at interviews.
In the end, I made 12 applications to a wide variety of Magic Circle, Silver Circle, American and International Elite firms. I secured three interviews, with Travers Smith, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Herbert Smith Freehills. Of those, I was made VS offers by Travers and Norton Rose. I took part (virtually) in those schemes in July and September respectively, and was delighted to be made an offer by Travers Smith without having to attend an exit interview. I elected not to partake in the exit interview with Norton Rose as, for various reasons, I felt that Travers was the best firm for me- to that end, I don't know whether I would have been made an offer.
Aside from Vacation Schemes, I'm also a RARE and AS candidate, and, as such, I've attended various events with a wide variety of Magic Circle, Silver Circle and International firms.
I feel that my successes really came when I let my personality shine through everything I was doing- whether that was in my written application, at the interview stage or anywhere in between, as soon as I actually showed my personality and character to those assessing me, I started getting more offers. Is that because I have some sort of wonderfully charming and endearing personality? Well, although it would probably depend who you ask, that's not the case at all. It was because I realised that I was being assessed on so much more than just the substantive content and reasoning in written and oral responses. This is also content I'll go over in more detail in separate posts in the near future- keep your eyes peeled!
That's all from me at the moment! I look forward to answering all your questions and I'm sure the rest of the team do too. Of course, my DMs are open if there's anything particularly private you'd like to discuss but, as with the general ethos of the forum, we'd really appreciate it if substantive discussion and questions were all kept on the thread!
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