Disclosing past mental health problem in application

[hahei]

Hi,

I am applying for a vac scheme, where the question asks my greatest achievement to date. I am using a sporting achievement, and one aspect that I mention is fact that it required a lot of resilience, as I had to eat a lot, but had just recovered from an eating disorder. Is this inappropriate to mention?

Thanks very much

 

[IRO]

Hi,

I am applying for a vac scheme, where the question asks my greatest achievement to date. I am using a sporting achievement, and one aspect that I mention is fact that it required a lot of resilience, as I had to eat a lot, but had just recovered from an eating disorder. Is this inappropriate to mention?

Thanks very much

This is fine, especially for a question involving resilience. I did something similar: I was asked about an example of resilience I spoke about being diagnosed with a life long mental health condition.
I would say you want to focus on your strengths/how you demonstrated your resilience, rather on how difficult your ED made it for you. Really emphasise your positive characteristics, rather than difficulties you have faced because firms want to see what you’ve done to overcome challenges rather than hear about how hard something was.
Best of luck, and congratulations on your achievement ☺️

 

[Jessica Booker]

@IRO has got this spot on.

As long as you are comfortable talking about this (for instance, your interviewer potentially asking for more information about this), it is fine to include it in an application and I have seen this work very well in applications in the past.

When it does work well, people focus on the positive aspects and the development parts, rather than focusing on the detail of the disorder itself. You have to focus on how you have moved on from the disorder or learnt to manage it, and the positive characteristic developed from it.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

Hello @Jessica Booker , hope you are well. Could you please tell me if the grad rec and the partners/managing associates would already be aware of our mitigating circumstances at the AC stage? Even I'm thinking of turning to my mitigating circumstances and mental health for answering a question on resilience but I wanted to ask you, how much detail do we really have to go into while narrating facts from our mitigating circumstances box?

Thanks.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hello @Jessica Booker , hope you are well. Could you please tell me if the grad rec and the partners/managing associates would already be aware of our mitigating circumstances at the AC stage? Even I'm thinking of turning to my mitigating circumstances and mental health for answering a question on resilience but I wanted to ask you, how much detail do we really have to go into while narrating facts from our mitigating circumstances box?

Thanks.

If it is in your application and it is not a CV blind recruitment process, then your assessors will be aware of anything you have written. That will include mitigating circumstances.

I wouldn't expect much detail in a mitigating circumstances section and where there is detail, it should focus on how it impacted your ability to show evidence normally looked for in an application (e.g. academics, ability to work or take on extracurriculars). I wouldn't expect this to cover the same type of detail you would cover if you chose this same situation for a competency question/answer.

 

[futuretraineesolicitor]

If it is in your application and it is not a CV blind recruitment process, then your assessors will be aware of anything you have written. That will include mitigating circumstances.

I wouldn't expect much detail in a mitigating circumstances section and where there is detail, it should focus on how it impacted your ability to show evidence normally looked for in an application (e.g. academics, ability to work or take on extracurriculars). I wouldn't expect this to cover the same type of detail you would cover if you chose this same situation for a competency question/answer.

Thank you so much.