Ask A Graduate Recruiter Anything!

[Jessica Booker]

thank you! ps don't think it's said enough but really appreciate everything you do for the forums (y)

Thank you! It’s really nice to hear that.

 

[Deleted member 8227]

Hi Jessica, if I am in full-time employment am I allowed to complete vacation schemes? Do you have to declare the scheme to your employer even if you don't work in the legal industry?

 

[Numerius Negidius]

Hi Jessica, I will be doing a virtual vac scheme over the summer, but have a board meeting for a charity that I am a trustee of which will take place during work hours. Would it acceptable to ask for a few hours off to attend such a meeting?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica, if I am in full-time employment am I allowed to complete vacation schemes? Do you have to declare the scheme to your employer even if you don't work in the legal industry?

It’s not an automatic yes or no.

You will most likely need to declare any employment to your employer and also declare any interests (eg employment) to the law firm you are doing the vac scheme with, just to check there aren’t any conflicts of interest (law firm or not).

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica, I will be doing a virtual vac scheme over the summer, but have a board meeting for a charity that I am a trustee of which will take place during work hours. Would it acceptable to ask for a few hours off to attend such a meeting?

Yes, not an issue to ask. The law firm could obviously say no if there is something important scheduled at the same time, but I would expect them to be flexible in most scenarios. You may just want to frame it in how you will make up the time/missed opportunities.

 

[k.k]

Hi Jessica,

In the fieldfisher TC application it requires a CV to be uploaded using a template that they provide.
In the CV there is a employment responsibilities box to type in - however, there is no word limit.
Would it be appropriate to bullet point responsibilities or should I write more formal paragraphs?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica,

In the fieldfisher TC application it requires a CV to be uploaded using a template that they provide.
In the CV there is a employment responsibilities box to type in - however, there is no word limit.
Would it be appropriate to bullet point responsibilities or should I write more formal paragraphs?

Thanks for your help!

If it is a CV template, then I would say bullet points are fine/most appropriate to use.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hi @Jessica Booker , hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me, is it better to intern at a full-service big law firm in India or should I rather intern at a smaller firm that shares a best-friends relationship with a UK firm? If I intern at the best-friend firm, I feel I can describe it as my attempt to get the closest to working with an International law firm (although I'm not sure if this makes sense or not) but if I intern at the full-service big law firm, I wouldn't be able to make such a point.

Thanks.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jessica Booker , hope you are doing well. Could you please tell me, is it better to intern at a full-service big law firm in India or should I rather intern at a smaller firm that shares a best-friends relationship with a UK firm? If I intern at the best-friend firm, I feel I can describe it as my attempt to get the closest to working with an International law firm (although I'm not sure if this makes sense or not) but if I intern at the full-service big law firm, I wouldn't be able to make such a point.

Thanks.

I don't think it is really a case of one being directly better than the other. If the full service firm is working on international matters, then you could have a similar experience. Just because a firm has a "best friends" relationship with one UK firm, doesn't necessarily mean their work will be much different to a firm that works of cross jursidictional matters but doesn't have a formal "relationship" with a firm.

The only way I would see the best friends firm having an advantage is if you worked closely with people in the London office of that specific firm during your internship and impressed them. But again, that could happen at a firm that is just working with a UK firm without that formal partnernship.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

I don't think it is really a case of one being directly better than the other. If the full service firm is working on international matters, then you could have a similar experience. Just because a firm has a "best friends" relationship with one UK firm, doesn't necessarily mean their work will be much different to a firm that works of cross jursidictional matters but doesn't have a formal "relationship" with a firm.

The only way I would see the best friends firm having an advantage is if you worked closely with people in the London office of that specific firm during your internship and impressed them. But again, that could happen at a firm that is just working with a UK firm without that formal partnernship.

Thank you. Just one follow-up question please, how do things change when you're interning at a firm in your home country that shares a best-friend relationship with the UK firm that you're going to apply to. Does this experience become valuable automatically, or does it only become valuable if you've worked on something which was common to both, the Indian best-friend and the UK firm.

Thanks

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thank you. Just one follow-up question please, how do things change when you're interning at a firm in your home country that shares a best-friend relationship with the UK firm that you're going to apply to. Does this experience become valuable automatically, or does it only become valuable if you've worked on something which was common to both, the Indian best-friend and the UK firm.

Thanks

I don't think it necessarily does change - work at a non best friends firm could be more valuable. The work at a best friend firm could be less valuable - it is really going to be down to what you do on the internship and then how you present that in applications and interviews.

Unfortunately things arent as black and white as a certain job title with a certain employer equating to a certain weighting.

 

[JoeyTr]

Hi @Jessica Booker! on average, how many bullet points should I be adding to work experience sections of applications? how much is too much and how much is too little? sorry if this is a broad question

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jessica Booker! on average, how many bullet points should I be adding to work experience sections of applications? how much is too much and how much is too little? sorry if this is a broad question

No fixed number really - it will depend on the nature of the role and how long you did it for.

Unless formatting on the application allows it though, bullet points may not be suitable for work experience sections.

 

[JoeyTr]

No fixed number really - it will depend on the nature of the role and how long you did it for.

Unless formatting on the application allows it though, bullet points may not be suitable for work experience sections.

that makes sense. thank you! & in your experience, at freshfields, was it better to go with bullet points or full text?

 

[Jessica Booker]

that makes sense. thank you! & in your experience, at freshfields, was it better to go with bullet points or full text?

The form when I was there didn’t really allow bullet point formatting - not sure if that is possible now though.

 

[JoeyTr]

The form when I was there didn’t really allow bullet point formatting - not sure if that is possible now though.

thank you so much Jessica!

 

[M777]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but if I'm applying for paralegal positions where they ask for a CV is it common practice to write a cover letter as well? Or should I leave this out? Bearing in mind the role I'm applying for has no application questions- it's just "attach your CV here" and I'm good to go.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but if I'm applying for paralegal positions where they ask for a CV is it common practice to write a cover letter as well? Or should I leave this out? Bearing in mind the role I'm applying for has no application questions- it's just "attach your CV here" and I'm good to go.

If it’s just asking for a CV, I would just provide a CV. Paralegal roles are much more like recruitment for non-graduate roles, where you tend to apply just with a CV unless you are explicitly asked to provide a cover letter/answers to questions.

 

[Mea]

Hi @Jessica Booker 😊 I have a TC interview with a smaller firm next week and I'm trying to do some preparation. However, there is no information about the seats it offers or what sort of clients it serves. The website touch on the sectors it operates in, but there are not many details about it (I did mention some in my cover letter). I was also told who the first interview will be with, and if I get to the second stage, that it will be a presentation.

In terms of preparation, how can I do this with this little information? Secondly, what do you believe the first interview will be like? I'm finding it difficult to prepare for a firm that leaves out lots of information.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jessica Booker 😊 I have a TC interview with a smaller firm next week and I'm trying to do some preparation. However, there is no information about the seats it offers or what sort of clients it serves. The website touch on the sectors it operates in, but there are not many details about it (I did mention some in my cover letter). I was also told who the first interview will be with, and if I get to the second stage, that it will be a presentation.

In terms of preparation, how can I do this with this little information? Secondly, what do you believe the first interview will be like? I'm finding it difficult to prepare for a firm that leaves out lots of information.

I’d try to find people who have worked at the firm / who are trainees or recently qualified on LinkedIn and see if they can give you more guidance on what they experienced.

I would also check websites like Glassdoor to see if there are any interview submissions on there (might not be if it is a small firm, but still worth checking).

I’d also look to see if the firm has described its company values on their website (check any “about us” sections on their website). In most cases, interviews will be aligned in some way to the values that the firm has and expects of its people, and so this can be a reasonably good guide to the type of evidence of your skills/qualities/attributes they would like to see in an interview.