General Discussion Thread 2020-21

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thecorporatelawyer

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Apr 14, 2020
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Hi All, I'm working through the Macfarlane's application for a direct TC, and I'm unsure of how long the cover letter needs to be. There is no word limit and all of the other questions are each 500 words so I'm not sure if I should make it necessarily long.
 

Jessica Booker

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Hi All, I'm working through the Macfarlane's application for a direct TC, and I'm unsure of how long the cover letter needs to be. There is no word limit and all of the other questions are each 500 words so I'm not sure if I should make it necessarily long.

you should make sure it doesn’t repeat anything provided elsewhere in your application. If that makes it quiet short, so be it
 
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Jen E C

Esteemed Member
Sep 6, 2018
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Hi All, I'm working through the Macfarlane's application for a direct TC, and I'm unsure of how long the cover letter needs to be. There is no word limit and all of the other questions are each 500 words so I'm not sure if I should make it necessarily long.

At an open day HR gave an example of how one of their current trainees didn't even write a cover letter. Instead, they simply stated they had already covered everything in the application. The cover letter is really for anything you ran out of space for in the other sections - they read this last despite it being first on the form. Don't feel the need to make to make it long.
 

thecorporatelawyer

Legendary Member
Apr 14, 2020
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On the Macfarlanes app I'm a bit thrown off by this question "Please provide details of any noteworthy achievements e.g. awards, prizes, positions of responsibility, particular exam marks and your position in your cohort. (500 words)" does this only involve academic achievements? And would you only speak on exam marks where you received a first?
 

Jessica Booker

Legendary Member
TCLA Moderator
Gold Member
Graduate Recruitment
Premium Member
Forum Team
Aug 1, 2019
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20,356
On the Macfarlanes app I'm a bit thrown off by this question "Please provide details of any noteworthy achievements e.g. awards, prizes, positions of responsibility, particular exam marks and your position in your cohort. (500 words)" does this only involve academic achievements? And would you only speak on exam marks where you received a first?

no reason to limit yourself to either.
 

jan28

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Sep 12, 2019
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On the Macfarlanes app I'm a bit thrown off by this question "Please provide details of any noteworthy achievements e.g. awards, prizes, positions of responsibility, particular exam marks and your position in your cohort. (500 words)" does this only involve academic achievements? And would you only speak on exam marks where you received a first?

To answer your both questions, no.

Prizes can be won for sports, competitions etc.
You could have an academic achievement whereby you surpassed your target grade in a certain subject or made significant improvements. Key thing is to detail how you did these things.
 
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