They typically advise that you spend 5-10 minutes on it and I feel like that is enough time - I think I only wrote about a paragraph or two - hope this helps!Hey guys! For anyone who has done the CC AC, I was wondering how long do you think we are expected to write for the written exercise? I remember grad rec saying "don't write too much but you need to write enough so it's not too brief"... Did you guys aim for a page or maybe half a page? Not too sure what to expect!
Thanks
-
Hey Guest, do you have a question for graduate recruitment? Gemma Baker from Willkie is live to answer your questions!
-
Get line-by-line feedback on your applications, access to our weekly application workshops, and our law firm profiles. Use the coupon code 'SIXWEEKS' at checkout for 10% off.
TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2021-22 (#1)
- Thread starter Jaysen
- Start date
- Status
No it doesn't. There are so many variables to the outcome of an application and for the reason why one person has heard and the other person hasn't.
As easy as it is to think no response = pfo, I'd advise to adopt the mentality "it's not a pfo until you get one". If you find yourself worrying, keep yourself busy by doing other apps, other stuff you do day to day, etc.
Good luck!
Thank you for this! I didn’t subscribe to that belief at all but eventually the January blues got to me ! Thank you!
I totally get why people do though. I do too. And sometimes (more often than not), not hearing back does increase your chances of a PFO. I also think that most of us applicants are more pessimistic than not.
Either way, concentrate on other stuff and whatever happens, will happen. All the best!
Lots of people got CMS ACs before Christmas and I assumed I was a PFO because I hadn’t heard but I got a last minute AC and now I have a place on the scheme so definitely not a PFO if you haven’t heard yet!
Hi Jessica! I'm answering a similar question. I got two low 2:1 grades in the final year of university and then finished with good 2:1s and two firsts. I was thinking about speaking about this and saying how the failure was underperforming in my grades because of burnout/not implementing enough healthy habits and that I've now learnt from this and therefore improved in my final grades that year. But is this okay? Would this also make me look like a weaker candidate somehow if I talk about burnout etc? I want my response to be genuine and this really is my biggest failure and I can talk about how I genuinely learnt from it but I don't want to draw attention to my two bad grades and make myself look worse either.
Not really. It’s way shorter than the Linklaters Capp assessment. It took me about 45 mins to complete.
Hi everyone, could someone please help me with understanding whether finance and private equity are to be spoken about separately? e.g. finance like banks etc and then PE like PE firms. But does private equity come under finance? e.g. if I said 'im interested in both finance and private equity' is that a logical fallacy? Thanks in advance x
I may be wrong on this so don't take my word for it. These are just my thoughts.
I don't think getting 2 low 2:1's is a good example of bouncing back from failure. First of all, I think most people (law firms included) would not see low 2:1's as failing at all. In fact the requirement for firms is a mere 2:1- a low 2:1 suffices. So by deeming low 2:1's as failure, it kind of goes against common belief and is therefore not really a strong example of failure. I can understand why you may have been disappointed by those grades as you like many law students, are probably are a high achiever. But to deem a 2:1 as bad-despite it being low- might give off a bad impression of cockiness, which I am sure you are not.
Totally correct to discuss them separately, as they are separate (though often related) parts of a firm's business.
A 'PE practice' can involve three main things: funds, which will be the raising of institutional capital placed in the equity part of a private equity transaction; corporate M&A with a PE focus (this is what is most commonly meant by a firm's private equity practice); and debt finance, where firms will help PE sponsors or lenders set up the debt financing which makes up the 'leverage' part of a leveraged buyout. Highly focused firms' competition, tax, employment and other 'support departments' may also be focused on work related to the funds, M&A or debt financing of PE clients.
As a shorthand though, PE usually means PE m&a, whereas finance is the broad world of, mostly, debt finance - equity capital markets are often parked separately with corporate - in general terms corporate will cover off everything pertaining to the ownership & governance of a company. Finance will generally be loans, bonds, sometimes derivatives, securitisation (notionally still bonds usually).
At some firms much of the finance work will be in the context of PE buyouts, so notionally its part of the PE offering, but it's still perfectly valid to differentiate - at most firms, in any case, finance will involve lots of deals that have nothing to do with PE at all.
I have an AC coming up as well, and haven't been to one yet so not sure if the advice I am going to give is any good but this is what I did and I feel a lot more confident about my commercial awareness now.
- Listen to some sky news, FT or another type of podcasts. Sky News has some really good business podcasts and it's free! I took notes on them so that I can look back to remind myself, which I think will be helpful in the days running up to remember what happened in the last few weeks.
- Think about the firm's major clients/sectors and consider some key issues facing that industry/type of client
- Brush up don't the latest big issues (Covid, Brexit, but also supply chain issues, energy crisis, and inflation) - try and understand why this is happening and how clients have been impacted/would be impacted
- Find a few specific stories that REALLY GENUINELY interest you and then drive deep, think about how this is impacting the firm's clients, but maybe the world at large, and be curious about what this might mean in the future - this way you can talk about things you are genuinely interested in and confident talking about.
- Lastly, but also really important, brush up on the legal industry itself (legal tech, the firms competitors and how they differ, how law firms remain competitive) and how news issues might be impacting law firms as a business themselves.
Hope this gives you some ideas of where to start. Just like you, I felt pretty overwhelmed because there is so much information out there, but just stick to the basics and you should feel more confident! Just don't procrastinate, if you only have two weeks I would recommend starting today!
Hey there!
Just to clarify, you wouldn't look like a weaker candidate at all if you talked about burnout. We're all human so please don't think that.
However, as @Jessica Booker mentioned, the example should be quite tangible. I would interpret this as a question asking about weakness and use that. For example:
"As President of the X Society, my committee experienced a period of low morale due to a mindset I had which was "if you want it done right, do it yourself"... etc".
- Status
Similar threads
- Sticky
- Sticky
- Locked
