I see, I guess I’ll wait it out. Applied on Wed and nothing received Thursday or Friday. Thanks!
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TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25
- Thread starter Jessica Booker
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Personally I think even if you apply the night before you have a good chance as long as your application is really good. Some of my mates got vac schemes with firms where they applied literally an hour before the deadline, and the window was like 3 months. Of course applying like at least a month/few weeks in advance is ideal, but if you can still apply, definitely do it
my CV is two pages - think as long as it’s no more than two pages then it should be allowed. ideally, it should be one page but i’m the same as you and can’t fit all of the work experience into one page. just make sure that you use a good format, bullet point and quantify key achievements
- Sep 9, 2024
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I would agree with @patternteddybear that a one page CV is ideal, but that a two page one is also fine. Throughout my past application cycle, I always used a two paged CV in applications that required it and I progressed to the further stages multiple times. The only further caveat I'll add is to ensure you write in a very concise manner and avoid repetition. I believe the only issue a recruiter could take with a two paged CV is if they notice you took up that space unnecessarily by being too verbose without adding value to the description of your experiences and achievements.
- Sep 9, 2024
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I agree with @NMA's response here - if you can still write a high-quality application, it is worth applying even when very close to the deadline. Last year, a firm which reviewed applications on a rolling basis invited me to an AC even though I submitted mine a few minutes before the deadline. That said, unless you have a particular reason for preferring a winter/spring vac scheme to a summer one at this specific firm, I also see no reason why you cannot write your application now and then wait a few more days/weeks to submit it on the day the summer vac scheme applications open. Different firms recruiting on a rolling basis place a different level of emphasis on how early you submit your applications - and it's difficult to ascertain how important this is for each firm. As such, if this does not impact your application writing schedule too much, and all other things being equal, I don't see why you shouldn't wait to apply for the summer vac scheme to maximize your chances of success.
Linklaters is the only one that comes to mind, the others without questions usually just have automated VI.
The CC question was pretty straightforward and short.
If only they were all more like the Linklaters one!! At this point I would rather the automated VI than have to write anything else.
- Sep 9, 2024
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If you would be able to attend the open day at least one or two weeks before the application deadline and if this is a firm you are particularly attracted to, I think you should wait. While firms who recruit on a rolling basis place different levels on emphasis on the time at which you submit your applications, I know many candidates (including myself) who progressed despite submitting very close to the deadline. As such, I think it makes sense to prioritize the quality of your application more than the timing. Since for most firms attending an open day will significantly improve your chances of progressing past the application stage in a VS/TC application, I think it is worth waiting for.
However, there are some caveats to this. Firstly, I do not believe it is feasible to implement this approach with a high number of firms. The reason is that most firms with competitive open day application processes will host the event in late October/November/early December. Most firms also have VS application deadlines in December/early January. As such, if you try to attend open days at many firms before writing your applications, you might end up completely overloaded come December, with several deadlines every week. This will likely mean you will have to compromise on the time you spend on each application and therefore on the quality of your research and writing - and my view is that quality of writing and research is the one thing you should not compromise on if you want to maximize your success chances. To ensure you can submit a high number of high quality applications, I think it is better to try to space out your efforts throughout the next three months. Thus, it is only feasible to change your application writing schedule around maybe 4-5 open days. This is why I would only wait for the open day outcome if this is one of those 4-5 firms that you would like to prioritize.
Secondly, there are some firms that are outliers in terms of how seriously they take the timing at which you submit your application - anecdotally, firms like Jones Day and Gibson Dunn would be among them. Therefore, I think before you decide on whether to wait for the open day application deadline or not, it is worth having a look around this forum to see if the firm you are interested in is in this category. You should simply type the name of the firm in the TCLA Forum search bar, alongside some key terms like 'offer', and see if last year there were any people being progressed despite submitting the application later in the cycle. Alternatively, if you are comfortable sharing the name of the firm, you can post this question about it here. Someone who has had experience with applying for that firm might know more about the issue and get back to you directly.
Mayer Brown has no application questions, just VI.
How is best to approach CC's question. It is the only one so Im not sure how commercial law focused it has to be. I was going to talk mostly about my personal experiences and just relate it to skills for being a CC lawyer. So i wouldnt mention much about the firm at all really. Is this a good approach?
In no more than 500 words, please tell us about your extra-curricular activities, positions of responsibility and an achievement of importance which you are most proud of. How will these experiences help you excel as a Clifford Chance lawyer?
In no more than 500 words, please tell us about your extra-curricular activities, positions of responsibility and an achievement of importance which you are most proud of. How will these experiences help you excel as a Clifford Chance lawyer?
Jessica Booker
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2 pages is okay to use in the UK for law firms.
If it just falls over 1 page though, consider changing content or formatting to get it on to one page as it can look a little odd if it is just over one page.
Just my approach, but I did smth along the lines of "X skill will be particularly relevant at CC because of X training structure or X quality of the firm.
- Sep 9, 2024
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Hi there! My interview preparation approach, which led to a VS offer 4/4 times I implemented it, was essentially split in four phases:
Step 1 - Preparing ideas for answers
The first and most difficult step in preparing for interviews is learning how to respond to a wide variety of questions. Of course, you cannot prepare beforehand for all potential variations of all potential interview questions. Furthermore, you do not want to learn answers by heart and then just repeat them in front of the interviewers - they are likely to sound robotic. However, by investing a substantial amount of time thinking about how you would go about answering to as many different questions as possible, you start learning how to describe your motivations and experiences in a flexible manner. This decreases the chances that you will not be caught off-guard by any given question. It also increases the chances that, even if you have not prepared for a question you are being asked, you will find a somewhat sensible answer to it.
The first thing I would do when invited to an AC/interview (and for a video interview, but not in the same level of detail) would be to try to build a question bank to practice on. I would create a Word doc with a few big headings (like 'CV based/competency questions'; 'motivations/firm-specific questions', 'commercial awareness questions', situational judgement questions' etc) and firstly write down all the questions I could think of under each relevant heading. I would then look at my CV, and find try to think how I could leverage my experience to answer those questions. Finally, I would write 2-3 short bullet points under each questions to explain how I would answer it - I have found this helps with memorizing the ideas for your answers. Thus enabled me to both have the ideas ready to go in my mind for a high number of questions and to be able to go through the though process of formulating the answer in the actual interview. It is also worth mentioning that at this step I would prepare particularly well for the questions I thought were very likely to come up (such as Why the firm, Why me etc).
The second stage involved searching for interview question banks on the internet - such as the one offered by TCLA here. While reading them, I would spend around 30 seconds on each question thinking of potential ways of answering them. I would then copy the questions I was having particular difficulty with and add them under the relevant heading in my word document. After finalizing this process, I would once again look at my CV and spend a longer amount of time thinking how to best answer each of them. Then, I would note down my ideas in short bullet points.
The final stage was similar to the second, with the only difference being that I would search directly for examples of past questions asked by the firm I was interviewing at - resources that were useful were this TCLA forum and Glassdoor.
Step 2 - Practicing articulating your answers
Once I had found the right ideas as to how to answer most interview questions, the second step of preparation involved improving my ability to articulate them. Despite the initial awkwardness of this method, I have found it incredibly useful to simply turn my laptop's camera on, pick one question at random, give myself a few seconds to think, and then record my answer. Subsequently, I would watch the recording with as critical an attitude as possible to see the parts I was struggling with the most. Then I would repeat this process again and again until I was happy with the way I was answering any given question.
A point worth noting is that as I was deciding at random which question to respond to, I would try to tweak the specific phrasing of the question in my mind. Thus, instead of just learning how to answer 'Why do you want to pursue a career in commercial law?', I would learn to answer many variations of the same type of question, such as 'How did your interest in commercial law originate?', 'Why commercial law rather than another area of the law?', 'Why do you want to be a commercial solicitor rather than a commercial barrister?' and so on. Once again, by following this approach, I would learn how to be flexible in formulating my ideas to best suit the exact question the interviewer would be asking me.
Step 3 - Mock interviews
Especially for any AC/final stage interviews, mock interviews are a really useful preparation tool. After you have improved yourself as much as you could by firstly preparing your best ideas for answers, and then preparing the best way to articulate them, you would now be in the best position to further improve both your ideas and your capacity to communicate them by getting feedback from others. Hence, if you can find someone with VS/TC interview experience (or even just experience with commercial law/interviews in general), it would be really helpful to get them to do a mock interview for you. Moreover, getting more familiar with the 'interview experience' beforehand contributes a lot to your ability to calm your nerves and do your best on the big day. As such, I would advise you to reach out to people who could help you with this, even if they are not part of your immediate circle. You will be surprised how many people will be willing to help you out!
Step 4 - Getting into the right mindset
Finally, although this may sound a bit cliche, try to go into the interview with a positive attitude. Remind yourself that just by reaching this stage, you have demonstrated to be an exceptionally competitive candidate. Acknowledge the fact that since the firm chose to meet you out of so many other applicants, it means you have everything you need to succeed - whether that means success with this particular firm or another. Finally, although I appreciate how hard it may be, try to not put an excessive amount of pressure on yourself. Meditate on your journey and how far you've come and accept that as long as you do your best, you will have nothing to blame yourself for. Going through these thought processes the night and morning before the interviews helped me a lot with reducing my anxiety and my ability to show enthusiasm in my attitude.
I hope this is useful
and best of luck with your future interviews!Similar threads
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