Hello,
I am in my final year of studying law and slightly unclear on next steps. I have applied for vac schemes last year and this year, but with little success. What should my next steps be? Just keep applying for vac schemes? Try and apply for training contracts?
Thanks for responding, I am just lost right now.
Hiya
@lilypetunia1
I'm sure that
@Andrei Radu @Amma Usman and
@Jessica Booker would have much more insight here, but I wanted to send across some thoughts in the meantime.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re feeling lost right now. It’s completely understandable, and I remember feeling the same way when I graduated. I hadn't secured my first vacation scheme until my final year of studies and I only secured my training contract whilst working full-time. I think the important thing is to keep moving forward, exploring different work experience opportunities to strengthen your existing skill set, and continuing to apply for vacation schemes and training contracts.
If you’re still interested in applying for vacation schemes, it’s worth taking some time to reflect on your applications so far. I'd encourage you to take a look at where you’ve succeeded and where you may have struggled. Did you get to the interview stage? Were you receiving rejections after applications? In my case, I noticed a significant difference in my application writing after having it reviewed by other trainees and also by TCLA. This allowed me to better understand the 'art' of application writing. I also ensured that I was pracising mock interviews through my university's career services and through TCLA. All of these were crucial to building my commercial awareness and the skills tested during the application process.
After graduation, I gained some significant work experience and this also strengthened my applications and helped me to develop some important transferrable skills. I'd encourage you to start looking for full-time roles alongside your vacation scheme applications. Paralegal roles are a great option, but they aren’t the only valuable way to develop the skills that are valuable in law (I have no paralegal experience to date). They can also be challenging to secure. That said, you can also consider business services roles in areas such as business development, risk/compliance, or finance - all of which can give you insight into how firms operate and help you build transferable skills. You might also want to consider roles outside law firms (like I did). For example, research roles tied to the legal sector, roles with regulators, or even strong administration roles that offer significant responsibility and develop your client-facing and organisational abilities.
These are just some things to keep in mind and I hope they offer some help in your journey to securing a training contract!
Wishing you all the best!
