My TC journey (career changer advice)

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Hi! Thought it might be helpful for future posters if I shared some of what I have learnt over the past few months, to try to give something back to TCLA and to the community. Apologies for length and the musings, but hope some of this will be helpful to someone…

 

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Me

I fall between a full career changer and a graduate, in that I am only four years out of undergrad but have four years professional experience in a related sector (plus master’s). I work in politics/policy, previously specialising in legal disputes and now in an area of the built environment.

I first started giving serious thought to becoming a solicitor in autumn 2020, and accepted a TC offer around April 2021 (I also received offers for two VSs, which I didn't attend due to accepting the TC). I know I'm in an incredibly fortunate position to have secured a TC with a firm I love in the first cycle, and with such a short turnaround in my change of direction.

Falling between career changer and graduate put me in a slightly odd position with applications. I am at a fairly senior level in my current role but I don't really have enough distance from university days to truly say I've full pursued my current career before changing.

As I worked in the legal sector previously and work full time I was also pretty reluctant to go through the whole “open day” and endless engagement process—I also wasn’t hugely interested in actually doing a VS, but felt happy to do one if needed to get a TC.

 

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Tactics

I think a lot of the advice that you see online tends to focus on people who have been wanting to pursue law for a decent while, probably still at uni/recently graduated/working to pursue this as e.g. a paralegal. And then a separate area of advice for full career changers, people who come from a completely different background e.g. teachers who want to transition over.

For me, I wanted to step into a TC without committing to study/work in the area first—I think partially risk reduction due to having a decent career that I didn’t want to risk. This definitely makes it harder and in a way puts more of the risk on to firms, but I wouldn’t change my approach. My attitude was very much “I am getting a TC I like, this cycle, regardless of what it takes,” and reflected this in the amount of time spent on applications.

I made a super spreadsheet of all the firms I wanted to apply to, with separate pages for sent/working on/potentials. I applied to a LOT of firms, but realistically most of them were not serious applications likely to go anywhere. However as many firms had questions that could be recycled, I don’t regret bunging these off as many weren’t hugely laborious. I also missed deadlines for a lot of firms I really liked.

I know some people do multiple years of applications and have a very set vision of a specific firm where they want to train—my approach was having criteria of what I wanted and an attitude that I would then pick from the offers I received.

Ultimately my idea of the firm I wanted to work at changed a lot during applications. I knew I like disputes, I like built environment (RE, construction, development) and I like art/high end work. I ultimately want to not do huge “small cog in a big wheel” kind of work—I want to be able to work with clients and have my own projects/smallish teams. I had clear salary expectations that ruled out some avenues, and ultimately when I had options I also decided that culture, hours and leadership in the departments I liked were deciding factors. I think this tactic worked for me—I wanted a TC and would have been happy to work at somewhere not my perfect fit if necessary, but am glad I had the option to choose what I actually wanted.

I think if I had been a student I would have wanted to do VSs, but I had little appetite for that now and just wanted the TC. Some firms did however move me from direct TC stream to VS stream. I did applications for direct and for VS, ultimately as I had summer VSs lined up I started doing only direct applications too.

 

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Applications

My initial tactic when I started applying in autumn 2020 was to bung out applications that I thought were good, but now look back on and cringe. I cannot emphasise enough: USE THE TCLA APPLICATION REVIEW. I didn’t do this until late in the process (actually after I had secured my ACs/VSs) but am kicking myself for leaving it so late. The feedback was incredible, and far beyond what a friend/ lawyer/colleague can give you. For the majority of my applications, I was knocked out at the first written questions stage.

 

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Interviews

While I don’t think my work experience and career gave me any help in the written Qs, I found interviews great. Other than some VIs I actually got to the next stage every time I did a (with a real person) interview. Which is why it is extra maddening that I didn’t improve my written applications!! While I don’t agree with her politics, I always envisage the way Kate Andrews from the Adam Smith Institute speaks when I’m in an interview.

My first interview was for a VS at a US firm. I don’t think I could have been any more prepared—99% of the preparation was not helpful for anything but my confidence. I always make a “study bible” ahead of any significant event, like a folder containing everything I might need for the day. I didn’t rehearse answers but had everything mind mapped so even if my brain had died, I would still have points to make! It was with a Partner and an OC, so a bit of a baptism of fire. It was a high energy genuine back and forth and they gave me a definite yes in the interview, so I think my fairly eclectic CV that turned off some early screeners went down a lot better in conversation with partners!

My second interview (different firm) was a Partner and Associate as part of an AC, slightly different dynamic (I definitely prefer interviews that are more neutral and free flowing, where the firm allows them to deviate from the script) but thoroughly enjoyed, feedback was I had best interview at the AC, I was around the middle in the other tests.

My final mini VS/AC (two days long) was for the firm I am now joining. REALLY enjoyed my interview although I don’t think it was my best—by then I was bloody exhausted so there were moments when I went on autopilot and guffed. But there was a lot of focus on emotional intelligence, wider experience, client skills and that sort of thing where my work experience had a chance to shine.

 

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Commercial awareness

My experience was that the vast majority of what I learnt was not directly tested, but allowed me to speak with confidence and hugely improved my written tests. I used the TCLA resources, the TCLA webinars, the sample Qs, Know the City, etc. and basically rote learned as much as possible.

A lot of my interviews tested a general “business sense”—like do you actually understand why businesses do what they do, how decisions are made, the factors and psychology behind it? The ideas behind retaining clients vs getting new business, reputation, risk reduction, the need to understand your sector? Working in BD, studying economic policy and having parents with a small business all helped a lot! Being able to articulate these motivations and understanding the WHY (more so than the technical terms) was absolutely crucial. One of my written tests explicitly measured this, with a scenario designed to make you think through the client’s motivations, as well as how you link soft and hard skills. I think this would be tough to really learn without some experience, even just working with a small business owner for a while.

However on the other hand basic M&A questions came up constantly, and there’s no excuse to not know that fairly inside out—for me it was a matter of rote learning, then trying to link with what I already knew. The TCLA resources are amazing here, I treated this like exam learning and it helped so much. I made up simple acronyms to remember key things—e.g. “cheeky fellows in restaurants enjoy takeaway lamb curries” got me out of some tough spots! (Departments in M&A—corporate, finance, IP, real estate, employment, taxation, litigation, competition, still in the brain months later).

I found a lot of the questions I was asked related as much to policy/political awareness as a more narrow “commercial” angle. Things like bad laws, working with controversial clients, journalism that I deeply disagreed with and why, law’s position within the City’s ecosystem, the relationship between lawyers and politicians, etc. These were by far my best questions as a result of my work experience, but I think areas that a lot of others might have found tricky. You really need either good experience or wider reading for these.

 

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Support

Finally, this process is the most awfully stressful thing imaginable!!! And not great for the self esteem at times either. Seriously, the TCLA forum was essential to get me through. I would say: control how often you look at emails (once per day), don’t get emotionally attached to firms, always have another application on the go so if you get a rejection you can remind yourself of your pipeline, and treat yourself!

I'm happy to help anyone in any way I can, although I am a far far way away from being an expert--Jessica is the source of all knowledge! Thanks so much TCLA, thrilled with my TC and looking forward to being a solicitor.

 

[Jaysen]

Ah you are a gem, thank you so much for sharing your story @HorsesForCoursesNeighNeighNeigh.

 

[Jacob Miller]

This is an absolutely brilliant thread, thanks so much @HorsesForCoursesNeighNeighNeigh for putting it together.

 

[Daniel Boden]

What a brilliant thread! I know this will help so many people in the future so thank you so much for doing this @HorsesForCoursesNeighNeighNeigh

 

[panzerfahrer]

@HorsesForCoursesNeighNeighNeigh Thank you for sharing this. I also fall between the *sort of* career changer. I have been out of university for three years and decided to do the GDL (part-time whilst working full time) to give me more flexibility in my field (all senior management had some sort of legal qualification and I didn't want to fall short later down the line) and then in January 2021 decided I might as well try to see if I could get a TC. I pushed out two apps before the 31 Jan deadline and was lucky enough to have secured a TC from one of those. Obviously, I understand my position is not normal as I've managed to get a TC out of a first cycle but I found it was completely due to my current experience and choosing a firm in my sector. I didn't have to evidence a desire to work in that field (which they found refreshing); I had 3 years of proof. It made me question why so many people do paralegal work whilst trying to get a TC when, from speaking to trainees at my future firm (many of whom are career changers), I found many were doing something industry-specific before which led them to a TC instead. If there is something I could pass on it would be that. If you want to work in legal finance, get a job in financial services whilst you apply for a TC! If you're looking at an insurance firm, there are so many claims-handling entry jobs that will pay as much as a paralegal but will elevate you as a candidate. Experience isn't linear and thinking outside the box when it comes to a job post-uni can be so much more rewarding. That experience then carries you through interviews and vacation schemes because you can grasp the material much better plus you bring natural contacts in the industry which a firm will look positively on. Obviously, this may not work for all people, but if you're looking at something sector-specific (trade/energy/insurance/shipping/healthcare etc.) I really do think this is a game-changer. It seems many who have done sector-specific work before applying to law firms have been successful in their first attempts and I really think this is a key reason. Just my two cents from another [older] graduate slash career changer