Hello!
Can I ask when you received your VI invite after WG?
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TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25
- Thread starter Jessica Booker
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Can I ask when you received your VI invite after WG?
I used Assessment Day. JobTestprep also has a free test I think and there are lots of resources on Youtube too!
They don't give out the results unfortunately
I was actually having a conversation about this with 2 trainees at Latham's open day yesterday. One of them recommend doing about 20 applications - I think that's close to the number of apps he actually submitted - the other one did only 2 apps but also recommended doing close to 20. They were both working full time jobs when they were applying. The first guy said that once you've done 7 really high quality applications which have made it to the next stage, then you would've covered about 90% of the application questions that come up for all the firms.
Interestingly, just before the trainees came down for the networking, a partner had finished giving a talk and she mentioned that she was appalled whenever she would hear people say that they've submitted 3 or 4 applications in a day. When she was applying about 15 years ago, she would spend about 5 days researching a firm before applying. She treated it like a full time job and said that she submitted lots of applications, but didn't give a specific number.
If you can invest your time and energy in writing 30 well-researched and high quality applications, then fair play to you. However, the point of diminishing returns would probably be after 10-12 applications.
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they sent the invite yesterday evening for the one on the 18th
So I was accepted onto Linklaters OD but they didn’t receive my 3(!) emails confirming details - and now have rejected me as they’re full! I’ve sent them proof I responded but they say they have no spaces left so can’t do anything which is disappointing. Pretty annoyed rn..!
Sidley PFO 😂😂 Don't even know why I wasted time applying to that satellite firm.
- Sep 9, 2024
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Hi @AS24! I think the starting point when answering this type of question is the same kind of structure and line of reasoning you would use for a general skills and experience answer. However, instead of merely linking the identified skill/attribute with what would make you a great commercial solicitor generally, you should also try to show why it will specifically enable you to excel more at Katten than at other firms. To do that, you have to first find some Katten-specific firm features you can connect your points to. I can think of four main aspects of a firm you can pick out:
- Practice areas: research the firm's work and find out what are its main practice areas. Then, show that the identified skills/experiences will be particularly relevant for the specific type of work trainees/junior associates do in those practices. You can even name the particular typical tasks that your experiences will be helpful for, like due diligence and process management in corporate M&A. You could then link that with skills like commercial acumen that you may have gained from experiences like a negotiations competition. However, if you were going for a disputes-focused firm for instance, it would be better to discuss experiences such as debating or mooting, and corollary skills like researching and advocacy. Finally, for an advisory-focused firm, you could prioritize experiences that show your interest into a particular advisory field or which demonstrate an excellent capacity to deal with black letter law analysis.
- Sector based: if the practice areas approach does not suffice and/or if the firm has a strong sector focus, you could follow a similar approach in terms of identifying skills/experiences that can be linked with one of the industries the firm concentrates on.
- Training-structure: identify the firm's training philosophy and any more specific features which individuate it and then explain how your experiences/skills will allow you to thrive in that environment.
- Keywords: as you mentioned, you can also look for keywords and see if there are any particular skills, values or qualities that the firm emphasizes. However, one thing to keep in mind is that firms often formulate these ideas about their identity in rather broad language - the specific terms they use to communicate their core values/skills/qualities, or very similar related ones, are often used by other firms as well. As such I would only go for this approach if: (i) the keywords you find significantly differ from ones at other firms; (ii) the firm emphasizes a particular keyword a lot more than other firms do for for similar keywords; or (iii) if you cannot write better points based on one of the three previous approaches.
Linklater open day rejection.
End of my open day applications.
End of my open day applications.
Is Mayer Brown’a test automatic if so how long are you supposed to wait to get it? I submitted on the 4th November and I haven’t received anything.
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