TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[legal18]

Does anyone who did the GDL at BPP want to PM me? I have a few questions

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thank you very much! One last thing (as I have heard contrasting opinions on this), should I link to 'why law'/why the firm in the work experience section? Also should I explicitly state skills I have learned? Wondering whether I do all of that or just stick to the facts of my role, its responsibilities, and maybe an outstanding achievement etc.

Absolutely no need to link to why law/why the firm in the work experience section.

9 times out of 10 if you focus on your skills, output and achievements in a role, you don’t have to claim the skills as it will be evident from your description. For instance, saying you reviewed 1000 pages of documents scream attention to detail, saying you did it within a short period of time says you can manage challenging deadlines, and saying you worked with three others review a wider range of documents shows teamworking.

 

[pleasepleaseplease]

Completed online assessment 12 Sept, received first stage interview invite 5 Oct for 12 Oct, received AC offer 5 Nov, nothing since on booking. Best of luck!

Congrats on reaching the AC!!! I think they probably don't have enough people for the AC yet so don't worry, I'm sure you will hear something soon!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Please use the space below to describe the reasons you want to be a solicitor.
Outline what first prompted your interest in the profession, your research on the profession, and particular areas of law that interest you. Max 300 words

Can anyone provide guidance on how to approach this question? Is this 'why commercial law' in disguise or do I need to just focus on the law aspect and leave out the 'commercial' bit?

It’s basically a why commercial law question but focused a little more on your journey to this point rather than what you are looking forward to experiencing within the career.

 

[Jessica Booker]

hi @Andrei Radu @Ram Sabaratnam @Amma Usman

how would you go about answering this in an interview/app question?

"Imagine you have a lot of conflicting deadlines coming up, how would you prioritse and manage your time?"

My advice for this is to focus on more of the decision making process of how you will decide what is urgent and what resources you may use to guide you during that time. Focus more on the factors you’d need to consider to prioritise the work, and also what options you have for effective time management (4 Ds of time management is a good starting point for this).

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi, what would be the best things to highlight if asked how I ensure that I don’t overcommit to a task?

I would focus on how you practically manage this in your life, rather than talking about it generally. Think about how you manage your time so you don’t over commit and then let yourself or others down. For instance, do you use time management tools to manage your time, do you take a flexible approach to your time, do you plan ahead, do you find ways to adapt deadlines?

 

[Bread]

For those who have been successful with open day would appreciate advice as have been rejected from a few open day applications this cycle.

Anyone feel free to message me or provide advice here for anyone who has been successful with open day applications.

I'd say generally it's good to get across what you hope to gain from attending the open day by demonstrating a genuine interest in learning about a certain practice area of the firm or the culture. In my successful applications (though I have no idea how competitive they were) I really emphasised my curiosity in whether the work done by the firm would be interesting to me and – most importantly – whether I would fit in well with the firm

 

[A worried graduate]

I was about to look at applying for Dentons and then I saw


Before you start your application:

Please make sure that you have the following documents ready to upload. Please upload the below as an official copy in pdf format in the additional documents section of the application form.

- A copy of your current right to work, if you have this

- Official copy of your A Levels or equivalent post-16 education, including a breakdown of your grades per subject

- Official copy of your undergraduate results up to date or official completion certificate with a breakdown of your grades per subject

We strongly encourage candidates to visit our website dentons.challengers.com and FAQs ahead of making this application.

If you have any questions regarding this role, please contact earlycareers@dentons.com


I have never seen something like this and I don't have actual proof of the module results.

I also want to know if this is a new thing or was I rejected last year as I don't recall doing this then.

 

[A worried graduate]

Another question.

Taylor Wessing have both a cover letter requirement and application questions with one of these being about why them and what I bring.

As this is typically the majority of a cover letter, how should I approach such a question?

 

[rvvacscheme]

this has probably already been asked so please forgive me... i have secured a winter VS (yay!!) and am also applying to a handful of spring/summer schemes before it begins so that i have some security if i am unable to convert this one to a TC. how should i approach including the winter VS in my other applications - list it under work experience and then note in the description that it has not yet been completed? or is it better to leave it off entirely? thanks!

 

[A worried graduate]

this has probably already been asked so please forgive me... i have secured a winter VS (yay!!) and am also applying to a handful of spring/summer schemes before it begins so that i have some security if i am unable to convert this one to a TC. how should i approach including the winter VS in my other applications - list it under work experience and then note in the description that it has not yet been completed? or is it better to leave it off entirely? thanks!

Maybe just put the start date to be when it will start

 

[Andrei Radu]

this has probably already been asked so please forgive me... i have secured a winter VS (yay!!) and am also applying to a handful of spring/summer schemes before it begins so that i have some security if i am unable to convert this one to a TC. how should i approach including the winter VS in my other applications - list it under work experience and then note in the description that it has not yet been completed? or is it better to leave it off entirely? thanks!

I can think of two ways to include it:

• Integrate it into your cover letter or application form answer: it can make a lot of sense to have it as the 'Result' part of a STAR-structured paragraph. For instance, if you are discussing your interest in commercial law and how it grew over time, you can explain how once you have confirmed you wanted to pursue this path you have been making VS applications and have subsequently received a WVS offer. Another example of how you can use it is when discussing your skills - for instance, you can show how your commercial awareness improved over time, which led to you performing really well in interviews, which led to receiving a WVS offer.
• Mention it in your work experience section: if you cannot do the former, I would advise you to still try to mention it in your work experience section. I think having a VS offer from another firm gives you a lot of clout and significantly improves your candidate profile, and as such it would be a mistake not to write about the achievement. The way I would approach the fact that you haven't yet completed it is either through the dates (if the form allows to input future dates), the the title of the work experience (you can say something like 'Upcoming Vacation Scheme at ...'), or in the description section. Besides this, I would try to offer a short description which would include (i) the application process at this firm; (ii) any impressive statistics as to the application/VS offer ratio; (iii) your reasons for applying, to the extent there are commonalities with the reasons for applying at the current firm; and (iv) any details as to the structure and work of the VS, including information relating to the practice area you will be sitting in.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Another question.

Taylor Wessing have both a cover letter requirement and application questions with one of these being about why them and what I bring.

As this is typically the majority of a cover letter, how should I approach such a question?

Hi @A worried graduate I have wrote a post discussing this issue in depth, I have quoted it bellow. However, please let me know if you have any follow up questions or you are still uncertain as to how to approach this.

I would still seek to answer the three main questions in the cover letter as well (Why commercial law, Why the firm, Why me) but I would seek to employ more of a 'narrative structure' and speak more about personal experiences. Essentially, you should describe your personal, academic, and professional trajectory more broadly, focusing on how your journey had led to where you are now. In the application form question, while answering the same questions, you should write in a to-the-point style and implement a very clear structure. Your points should be a lot more factual and the experiences you describe should be more academic/work related.

As for the 'Why the firm' section, as @Jessica Booker mentioned, you can make the application form question answer more around the work opportunities (seats and rotations; secondments; practice area and sector expertise; client base etc) and the cover letter answer more around the working environment and why that is a great fit for your personality (here, you can discuss the training programme specifics and culture more, but perhaps also the working environment in the teams/practice areas of the firm you are interested in and more broadly the working environment at a type of commercial law firm like Taylor Wessing).

The one thing I will add is that while avoiding repeating the experiences you mention is ideal, it is not an issue if the points that you are illustrating through those experiences and the details of the experiences you are describing are different in the application form answer and the cover letter. As said before, the cover letter is meant to allow you to show your personality more. As such, you could also provide a more detailed explanation as to your fundamental motivations from a personal perspective in it. For instance, say your basic answer to 'Why commercial law' in the application form question looks something like this:

1. Becoming a commercial solicitor because this is the only career path that involves working at the junction point of legal and business advisory.
2. I have this academic/professional experience (explained with a STAR structure) which has shown me I am attracted to/a good fit for a career that involves both business and legal advisory.
3. Therefore, I want to be a commercial solicitor.

In the cover letter, you could discuss the same experience and underlying motivation for commercial law, but from a different perspective. You could use the opportunity to dig a lot deeper into your deeper personal interests and motivations: what is it about you that makes you attracted to an advisory role as opposed to an executive one? What is it about the legal and business world that would make learning about it more interesting than other fields? When did you realise you had these interests, and did you consider any other career paths? If so, which did you consider, and what steps did you take to confirm that commercial law is indeed the optimal choice? How did this impact you and lead to the evolution of your professional interests and preferences over time? The point is, you can delve a lot deeper into all the thought processes and less significant prior experiences that led up to the point at which you are now. While the final conclusion of this exposition might be the same attraction to business and legal advisory you mention in your application form answer, this does add a lot of value to the recruiter's understanding of you as a person. This is a lot of useful information and contextualization that would simply be impossible to include in the application form answer due to the space constraints and would therefore likely not be deemed a mere repetition.

 

[lawyersum]

For firms that have an international 'best friends network' - what are the advantages of this approach when it comes to the trainee experience?

 

[theonecompetant]

Hi all

With many firms issuing psychometric tests to be completed after submitting an online application, does anyone know of any good websites/providers where we could practice these tests to get somewhat better (if that is at all possible)? I understand that there are often no right/wrong answers to these tests as these might depend on what the firm is looking for, but are there any places we could go to practice these?

Thanks.

 

[Legalstalker]

For those who have been successful with open day would appreciate advice as have been rejected from a few open day applications this cycle.

Anyone feel free to message me or provide advice here for anyone who has been successful with open day applications.

I'd say generally it's good to get across what you hope to gain from attending the open day by demonstrating a genuine interest in learning about a certain practice area of the firm or the culture. In my successful applications (though I have no idea how competitive they were) I really emphasised my curiosity in whether the work done by the firm would be interesting to me and – most importantly – whether I would fit in well with the firm

Yes, this is the correct approach! I also added in statistics of the firm's growth to show I had done research and my eagerness to understand how they've grown. Also adding what the benefits of me attending the onee day would have? A firm I applied to showed statistics that their most profitable practice in recent years was surpassed by another practice area. I added this information, noting that I was keen to understand this shift in more detail. You have to make your application very specific. I found my generalised applications never progressed to invite, whereas my heavily researched ones did. Hope this helped

 

[Andrei Radu]

I was about to look at applying for Dentons and then I saw


Before you start your application:

Please make sure that you have the following documents ready to upload. Please upload the below as an official copy in pdf format in the additional documents section of the application form.

- A copy of your current right to work, if you have this

- Official copy of your A Levels or equivalent post-16 education, including a breakdown of your grades per subject

- Official copy of your undergraduate results up to date or official completion certificate with a breakdown of your grades per subject

We strongly encourage candidates to visit our website dentons.challengers.com and FAQs ahead of making this application.

If you have any questions regarding this role, please contact earlycareers@dentons.com


I have never seen something like this and I don't have actual proof of the module results.

I also want to know if this is a new thing or was I rejected last year as I don't recall doing this then.

Besides the proof of module results which I have seen in one or two other application forms, I have not seen other firms ask for these documents at this stage either. However, I do not expect the fact that you do not have an official university transcript to be a big issue. Recruiters are aware that some universities only make transcripts available upon graduation and sometimes charge fees for earlier issues.

In my case, although firms preferred receiving transcripts, they were happy to accept other official documents evidencing my grades. These were either module results notification emails or screenshots of my modules results breakdown on my university's student portal webpage. I think it is likely Dentons would accept the same type of evidence in your case, but if you are worried about this it cannot hurt to send the graduate recruitment team an email explaining your situation and asking for clarification.

 

[Brandon93]

It’s basically a why commercial law question but focused a little more on your journey to this point rather than what you are looking forward to experiencing within the career.

Thank you, helpful as always Jessica.

 

[C_AJH]

Hi everyone,
In my work experience section, I tend to write in bullet points rather than prose [unless instructed to do otherwise]. I am able to more concisely detail achievements and responsibilities, and also write about how those developed certain skills. I tend to reach the maximum word count on my main experiences [previous vac schemes etc]. Writing in prose means I get much less in and it tends to become less detailed, but it seems like many do it that way.

Is this a poor approach that is holding me back? I have only submitted about half of those vs apps I intend to before mid January so I am unsure whether to alter this approach.

 

[Unknowncabbage]

Describe a specific instance where you have utilised artificial intelligence (AI) or other technologies in your work or studies. How have these tools enhanced your personal development?

Any tips for this CMS VS question? I'm struggling quite a bit 🫤