TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[bollingdale]

Did it say you had som good responses but there were areas you could improve on? Surely if you excelled and did well in other areas you should be fine? I’m saying that because I got that response for organisation, adaptability and collaboration so I’m hoping it doesn’t ruin my chances

I think, as i said above, this is for recruiters to get a sense of which areas you lean into, im not sure if its possible to get a perfect score for the traits section. I would assume they look for the weaknesses suggested by this section and then see if they are shown as strengths elsewhere.

 

[bollingdale]

This is interesting. I mostly got “good level of potential” and “some good level of judgement”. They didn’t split mine up into strengths and areas for development like yours.

could you share what responses you got for yours, i want to get a picture of what range of responses it is possible to receive on the feedback.

 

[bollingdale]

how long after submitting an application for a+o shearman were people sent the SJT?

immediately after completing the videos, its automatically graded

 

[cleojwilliams]

This is interesting. I mostly got “good level of potential” and “some good level of judgement”. They didn’t split mine up into strengths and areas for development like yours.

Same here, but owell I need to stop torturing myself now there is nothing more I can do. On to the next application.

 

[bollingdale]

Same here, but owell I need to stop torturing myself now there is nothing more I can do. On to the next application.

could you post what range of responses you got, i want to see if i can reconstruct a grading scale and if any strengths in one area were mirrored by a weakness in a different area (indicating that the questions had more of a personality test sort of approach for these questions; which is my suspicion)

This is to anyone who has done the a&o, don't need to send your name, i just want to see the responses that its possible to get

 

[bollingdale]

This is interesting. I mostly got “good level of potential” and “some good level of judgement”. They didn’t split mine up into strengths and areas for development like yours.

they didn't for mine either, i did that by feeding it to chatgpt and asking it to give me my strengths and weaknesses with quotes from the feedback sheet

 

[Gday33]

BCLP and I are having a falling out. 500 words? Not even I can prattle about a time I showed courage for that long, come on 😭

Yes I think some of their questions are pushing it 😂

 

[lawyersum]

Describe a time when you had to drop everything and really 'raise your game' in order to keep a promise you had made to someone else. How did you manage both this and your other commitments?

This is for Hogan Lovell’s application. What sort of example are recruiters looking for @Jessica Booker? The way the question is phrased it seems like they are looking for a quite impressive situation…I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to manage competing deadlines, come in last minute to make amendments to documents - is this along the right track?

 

[bangarangbass39]

I’d write in full prose rather than bullet points, but the descriptions don’t need to be more extensive than your CV in terms of what you are highlighting, it just needs to be joined up a little more.

I wouldn’t expect many work experience entries to be 600 words. I’d say an average is 250-300 but some short placements or roles with limited responsibilities would probably need less than 150.

I applied for a paralegal position very recently. I did a mixture, of 2-3 bullet points outlining some tasks I completed in the work experience and then a few sentences underneath explaining what I learnt and relevant skills. Would you advise going into full prose for my vac schemes/tc applications or does my structure work fine?

 

[3000to1shoteverytime]

BCLP and I are having a falling out. 500 words? Not even I can prattle about a time I showed courage for that long, come on 😭

How about "I have never experienced adversity and therefore I am showing courage by not giving an answer to this question."

Seriously it is such a terrible question, isn't it?

 

[Lola2025]

If we were to put open and insight days down in the work experience section and group them under 'various', how would we go about outline what we learned from there? Are we expected to talk about sessions we listened in on? Any examples and/or advice would be appreciated! @Jessica Booker

 

[AlegalA]

I've seen on a couple applications forms (I think, don't quote me on this!) that they want the experience written in full prose. However, I have never come close to 600 words per an entry, and mine are much closer to the 50-100 words. For bigger roles I think I have written up to 175 words-ish. Someone feel free to correct me though!

I’d write in full prose rather than bullet points, but the descriptions don’t need to be more extensive than your CV in terms of what you are highlighting, it just needs to be joined up a little more.

I wouldn’t expect many work experience entries to be 600 words. I’d say an average is 250-300 but some short placements or roles with limited responsibilities would probably need less than 150.

Amazing, thank you so much!

 

[AlegalA]

When a question asks you to discuss a topic you are passionate about, are we meant to cite our sources and does it count in the word count? Like if I don't want to say professor xxx said in their book xxxx, but simply get straight too the point (like you would in an essay by adding a footnote). Or do I have to do that?

 

[bibss]

First application of the cycle is off

 

[patternteddybear]

aim is to start with my applications from tomorrow 👍 first task is to update my CV and structure my mitigating circumstances section

 

[Solking456]

Just wanted to check- Re A&O deadline is that midnight 16th today (i.e. in a few hours time) or Midnight of the 17th? (I.e. Tomorrow evening).

 

[patternteddybear]

Just wanted to check- Re A&O deadline is that midnight 16th today (i.e. in a few hours time) or Midnight of the 17th? (I.e. Tomorrow evening).

it’s 5pm tomorrow, just had a look now. not too sure if this is the deadline for the SJT and video interview though

 

[Jessica Booker]

If we were to put open and insight days down in the work experience section and group them under 'various', how would we go about outline what we learned from there? Are we expected to talk about sessions we listened in on? Any examples and/or advice would be appreciated! @Jessica Booker

I personally don’t think you need to list out the talks attended (because the talks are not optional) or the general activities you completed.

Instead I would focus on what you learned from attending, even if this is across open days.

If you achieved anything on the open day (eg awarded some kind of prize for “best” input into an interactive exercise), then you could highlight that, but generally I would focus on what you took from attending rather than describing what the open day consisted of.

 

[Jessica Booker]

When a question asks you to discuss a topic you are passionate about, are we meant to cite our sources and does it count in the word count? Like if I don't want to say professor xxx said in their book xxxx, but simply get straight too the point (like you would in an essay by adding a footnote). Or do I have to do that?

It will include any references, but you don’t have to reference things like you do in academia.

 

[Jessica Booker]

could you post what range of responses you got, i want to see if i can reconstruct a grading scale and if any strengths in one area were mirrored by a weakness in a different area (indicating that the questions had more of a personality test sort of approach for these questions; which is my suspicion)

This is to anyone who has done the a&o, don't need to send your name, i just want to see the responses that its possible to get

I don’t think there is any value in doing this. Without understanding how the assessment is designed, you risk interpreting a limited number of results incorrectly.