Open Day Applications 2024

[Ria Nar]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on my Open Day applications and would love some guidance on how to best approach the typical questions firms ask, especially:

"Why are you applying to attend an open day at X firm?" (200-300 words).

I’m hoping to get advice on:

1. Structure: How should I approach this answer to keep it clear and focused?
2. Content: What key points should I include to make my response stand out?
3. Examples: If anyone is willing to share successful application examples (anonymously, of course!), that would be really appreciated.

Any tips or insights would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance!

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on my Open Day applications and would love some guidance on how to best approach the typical questions firms ask, especially:

"Why are you applying to attend an open day at X firm?" (200-300 words).

I’m hoping to get advice on:

1. Structure: How should I approach this answer to keep it clear and focused?
2. Content: What key points should I include to make my response stand out?
3. Examples: If anyone is willing to share successful application examples (anonymously, of course!), that would be really appreciated.

Any tips or insights would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance!

Hi @Ria Nar, I hope this response does not come to late and is still helpful with your open day application!

I think there is no one ideal structure, but what worked well for me in the past was:

1. Explain which aspect of the firm that attracts me from the perspective of a potential trainee I want to learn more about;
2. Explain the substantive reason why the aforementioned aspect of the firm attracts me
3. Link this with an experience which illustrates the substantive reason: For instance, if I said I am interested to learn more about a firm's corporate practice because I am interested in M&A deals, I could then link this with an M&A Forage Virtual Work Experience.

As for content, this will be highly depended on the firm and on your personal motivations. However, I think you are essentially looking for two things:

• The firm's unique selling points (USPs): these will be important features of a firm that differentiate it from rival firms. USPs can include: practice area and sector strengths, to international expansion strategy, seat rotations, training style, legal technology, secondments, client base and past deals and cases.
• Your motivations: you should explain not only how a USP differentiates a firm from its competitors, but also why you particularly care about the USP - how will it affect your life and work as a potential future trainee?