General Discussion Thread 2020-21

[tractor12]

To everyone getting a FF rejection post-WG. Honestly, I think they simply have fewer places this year. I know they are holding AC's this week for Direct TC applicants, however, they may simply only have a couple of spots to offer after they had given out TC's to their VS candidates. I'd urge everyone who was successful with their application pre-WG to re-apply this cycle for the VS. I think you'll have a better chance.

Keep on grinding guys.

D

Does FF recruit predominately by VS? Do you think it’s better than applying Direct TC in September?

 

[Jessica Booker]

When people keep saying FF do you with Fieldfisher or Freshfields?

 

[tractor12]

When people keep saying FF do you with Fieldfisher or Freshfields?

Haha I meant Freshfields - I guess FBD would be better

 

[S87]

When people keep saying FF do you with Fieldfisher or Freshfields?

I think Fresh..

By the way..Fieldfisher are not bad and damn lovely people!

 

[D]

Does FF recruit predominately by VS? Do you think it’s better than applying Direct TC in September?

They are definitely one of the better firms for a Direct TC. My personal view is that you are in a much stronger position interviewing for a TC once you have done a VS though. You just know the firm a lot better.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Haha I meant Freshfields - I guess FBD would be better

I thought that was the case, but you never quite know! The mix up happens more often than you'd think.

If anyone is applying to Freshfields, never use FF as an abbreviation in an application

 

[Jessica Booker]

FBD will also probably have a higher acceptance rate this year meaning it has less offers to make where fewer people decline. At times of recession there will be a flight to quality and larger firms/offices with diverse practice groups will generally be seen as a safer bet.

I suspect for a firm like FBD that also typically has a stronger reputation for trainee support, all the time there is a lot of disruption in working patterns and methods, people will also put more weighting on the support mechanisms firms in place too.

 

[D]

FBD will also probably have a higher acceptance rate this year meaning it has less offers to make where fewer people decline...

This is an excellent point I hadn't considered.

 

[Jessica Booker]

This is an excellent point I hadn't considered.

I think fewer people will be looking to trade up on offers too and will just accept a "good" offer rather than put much more effort into finding a slightly better offer for potentially little return given how competitive the market is.

 

[Mo M]

Hi guys

Is there anyone else with a BCLP rejection post-app who wasn't given feedback? I'm a bit confused as the website clearly states they offer it but my email was a simple rejection and I have emailed grad recruitment twice with no response:

What do I do if I am unsuccessful during the application process?
BCLP are proud to offer feedback on your application form, we will send you an email response with the main reasons we have not invited you to the next stage. Due to the number of applications we receive, we cannot give any further detail other than this email. If you are unsuccessful during the application process and wish to reapply you can do so in the next recruitment season.

 

[Camilla]

Hi guys

Is there anyone else with a BCLP rejection post-app who wasn't given feedback? I'm a bit confused as the website clearly states they offer it but my email was a simple rejection and I have emailed grad recruitment twice with no response:

What do I do if I am unsuccessful during the application process?
BCLP are proud to offer feedback on your application form, we will send you an email response with the main reasons we have not invited you to the next stage. Due to the number of applications we receive, we cannot give any further detail other than this email. If you are unsuccessful during the application process and wish to reapply you can do so in the next recruitment season.

I wasn't given feedback this year either. I haven't chased it though. Please do let me know if they respond to you.

Just in case this helps you at all, this was my feedback last year, but it's probably generic feedback they give to everyone. I doubt they provide bespoke feedback to thousands of applicants (I could be wrong):

Although your application on the whole was strong, we felt that your application lacked in some of the following:
• A very clear alignment to BCLP with a strong understanding of the firms differentiators, competitors and wider alignment to commercial law.
• Strong research skills; demonstrating that you sought out valuable information from a wide range of sources, incorporating firm facts, statistics, cases and financials etc.
• Clear commercial focus when answering all questions, as well as showing why you are suited to the role of a commercial solicitor, over another city career.

We would like to take this opportunity to highlight that we considered your application to be strong and would encourage you to apply again in future and show improvements to our points made above.

 

[Shalli]

I wasn't given feedback this year either. I haven't chased it though. Please do let me know if they respond to you.

Just in case this helps you at all, this was my feedback last year, but it's probably generic feedback they give to everyone. I doubt they provide bespoke feedback to thousands of applicants (I could be wrong):

Although your application on the whole was strong, we felt that your application lacked in some of the following:
• A very clear alignment to BCLP with a strong understanding of the firms differentiators, competitors and wider alignment to commercial law.
• Strong research skills; demonstrating that you sought out valuable information from a wide range of sources, incorporating firm facts, statistics, cases and financials etc.
• Clear commercial focus when answering all questions, as well as showing why you are suited to the role of a commercial solicitor, over another city career.

We would like to take this opportunity to highlight that we considered your application to be strong and would encourage you to apply again in future and show improvements to our points made above.

I received the same feedback last week, useful to know that it is indeed "generic" ...

 

[Camilla]

I received the same feedback last week, useful to know that it is indeed "generic" ...

Yeah. It's funny because I made a huge effort to implement all the feedback and then got rejected again. But this time received zero feedback.

 

[Jessica Booker]

I received the same feedback last week, useful to know that it is indeed "generic" ...

It might not be generic as such - in that everyone received the same feedback. They may categorise applications into "buckets" of where they fell down and some people were put into this bucket that received this feedback, while others were put in a different bucket and received a different email.

This is a realistic way of dealing with high volumes of applications but providing more detailed feedback to different applicants, without being individual feedback (which would be near on impossible to provide).

 

[Dannys]

I received the same feedback last week, useful to know that it is indeed "generic" ...

I also received the exact same feedback last week! Hilarious

 

[33c]

I also received the exact same feedback last week! Hilarious

same

 

[tractor12]

same

Same! But I agree with Jess, it is likely that they have categories to fit different candidates into.

Although, I wonder if the reason some people didn't receive feedback is because it wasn't their first time applying and they didn't want to risk sending the exact same thing as they did the previous year...

 

[SaulGoodman]

Just received a virtual assessment day invite from Trowers & Hamlins!

The invite says that the day will consist of a written exercise, an analytical interview and a general interview - does anyone have any experience of these?

 

[Velikilawyer123]

Jessica, what's the procedure for asking a firm for an SAR - just sending an email to grad rec? Would they then have to give me any internal communication / notes regarding my application, interview performance, etc.?

Also, would you suggest first asking for feedback informally, or leading with the SAR?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Jessica, what's the procedure for asking a firm for an SAR - just sending an email to grad rec? Would they then have to give me any internal communication / notes regarding my application, interview performance, etc.?

Also, would you suggest first asking for feedback informally, or leading with the SAR?

I am not an expert on SARs mainly where they are actually quite rare.

You can find templates online for SAR requests. You need to be explicit including timeframes of the data, type of data you want etc.

This will then form the basis of any information they provide to you.

I would always try to get feedback before putting in a SAR request though. A SAR will be very annoying/time consuming and it will be much easier for a firm to provide you with some feedback rather than going through a process of a SAR. The other issue with SAR is that it doesn’t get the feedback to you in a timely manner - from memory it can take up to 90 days for them to respond with no issues.