TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[Jessica Booker]

Can anyone explain to me what PFO means?

Forum slang for a rejection from a firm - stands for “please f*ck off”.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Can anyone explain to me what PFO means?

It is an acronym for 'Please (the F-word) Off', which is one phrase that has been commonly used on the forums to refer to a rejection.

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hi Everyone,
for slaughters, how many people do they tend to interview for the vac scheme. Firms I've interviewed at in the past have tended to sit around interviewing twice as many candidates as they had places. I'm wondering if the odds are fairly similar?

I have heard that they have a roughly 1/2-1/3 candidate per place ratio, but that it sometimes differs on a year by year basis. I would say this places the pure statistical odds just about the same as in your average AC elsewhere.

 

[lawstudent2]

Hey there @lawstudent2 ,

I completely get the nerves - I had them too. This depends on the firm. I have been invited to ACs with two weeks - 4 weeks notice. At the same time, I had also been invited to ACs with less than a week’s/five days notice. The experience made me realise that interview skills building, was a competency I had to constantly develop. For example, most of these ACs assess commercial awareness, making a consistent willingness to know about current affairs necessary. I certainly did not build on that skill overnight, but a little knowledge gained here and there contributed to my overall performance. I also practiced talking to myself on these commercial awareness topics through the mirror (yes, yes I know this sounds funny haha). I found that the more I was able to practice my intonation and communication of certain topics I found complex, the more natural they came out during the actual interview.

Overall, please do not try to overwhelm yourself by the thought of how much notice you will be given. Looking back, I wish I gave myself this advice. Focus more on building those soft and hard interview skills, such as clarity of tone and thought.

Thank you !!!

 

[g.cl.2020344]

Pinsent masons PFO!

 

[pleasepleaseplease]

Pinsent PFO

 

[LawLawLawLawLaw]

hello im going to apply for White & Case and HFW but their deadlines are the end of this week, and they're rolling deadlines - should i just apply straight for their TCs instead or still worth a shot?

 

[legallycece]

Pinsent PFO !

 

[jojo23]

Is it weird that I haven't heard a single thing from the firms I applied to in early October and November despite both being rolling?

 

[camrxc]

There will be a higher risk if you are presenting multiple entries as longer than they actually were. It is important to put such experiences in accurately into application forms.

When you are invited to the next stage of the recruitment process or if you have already been invited to a face to face stage or final round interview, I would notify the firm at the earliest opportunity about these discrepancies.

For future applications, ensure these two work experience entries are recorded accurately though.

Thanks again, if the reasoning for the discrepancies was that I originally had the exact dates listed next to the title of the work experience but then edited this out for formatting purposes and forgot to change the description to match the changes, would the best approach be to explain this to the firm and then offer to send an updated version of my cv ?

 

[C_AJH]

Is it weird that I haven't heard a single thing from the firms I applied to in early October and November despite both being rolling?

Not necessarily a bad thing, you could be in the maybe pile.

 

[EA95]

Forum slang for a rejection from a firm - stands for “please f*ck off”.

Oh ok, thank you for responding and educating me on that 🤣

 

[EA95]

It is an acronym for 'Please (the F-word) Off', which is one phrase that has been commonly used on the forums to refer to a rejection.

Ok thank you for responding and educating me on that 🤣

 

[Andrei Radu]

in a video interview about 'Why this firm', how many points would you say is sufficient enough? has anyone ever gotten past the vi stage citing one reason and going into detail about that?

I normally went for two or three points, but if you the time limit is quite restrictive (say, 60 seconds) or if the reason both quite uniquely applicable to the firm and also very important to your experience as a trainee there, I think it is fine. For instance, I would not expect a recruiter at Kirkland to have an issue with you going very in depth on only one Private Equity-based motivation. However, if you applied for Latham and only mentioned their litigation practice as a why the firm reason, that may not suffice. This is because their litigation practice, while it admittedly distinguishes Latham from some US firms, is not as uniquely remarkable as Kirkland's PE practice; and because their litigation team is quite small compared to other departments, so it is a less central part of the firm than PE is for a firm like Kirkland.

 

[C_AJH]

anyone heard back from Jones Day for the summer VS?

yep PFO

 

[hfbjsdhfbhf]

Pinsent masons pfo, kinda upset because my feedback report was pretty good!!

 

[lawyersum]

omg omg that Reed Smith test and VI were BRUTAL😭😭

 

[Shandy101]

It is an acronym for 'Please (the F-word) Off', which is one phrase that has been commonly used on the forums to refer to a rejection.

Sorry, can you elaborate on which F Word? 😂😂

 

[Devanshi Pandey]

Hi, if I have to change the location from a regional office to London of my training contract- What would be a good reason and is it easy to change?

 

[legallyad]

I normally went for two or three points, but if you the time limit is quite restrictive (say, 60 seconds) or if the reason both quite uniquely applicable to the firm and also very important to your experience as a trainee there, I think it is fine. For instance, I would not expect a recruiter at Kirkland to have an issue with you going very in depth on only one Private Equity-based motivation. However, if you applied for Latham and only mentioned their litigation practice as a why the firm reason, that may not suffice. This is because their litigation practice, while it admittedly distinguishes Latham from some US firms, is not as uniquely remarkable as Kirkland's PE practice; and because their litigation team is quite small compared to other departments, so it is a less central part of the firm than PE is for a firm like Kirkland.

This makes a lot of sense - thank you so much Andrei!