Hi Dominika! Thank you for your message, I am also in a position where the LPC is not financially viable for me.Hi Sharaf! Thanks for sharing.
You have plenty of valuable legal experience already, I am sure we will soon hear from you with good news re TC applications!
Just one more thing I'd want to address: you mentioned that you are looking for paralegal job, but "realistically" more for legal assistant role.
While this is true that some employers will require LPC for paralegal roles, this is not necessarily a universal rule. As an example, I haven't done LPC (yet) due to financial reasons (really don't have that kind of money!) but managed to find a good in-house role in the City two weeks before graduation. When I was moving on to another job a few months ago, I was rather flooded with offers and that was despite the fact that I *still* don't have LPC under my belt.
So, do not get discouraged and apply for paralegal roles, there is plenty of them for fresh grads!
Good luck!
PS I envy your WG scores.. This is one hell of a beast I still cannot tame.
For my first paralegal role, I started the search just after I finished my exams, which I think gave me a slight advantage. Admittedly, I did not make any TC applications that early summer, because it was essential for me to find a job.
I was looking for a job by myself, mostly by setting up alerts for jobs posted on LinkedIn, TotalJobs, etc. For many paralegal positions all you need is a well-crafted resume and (sometimes, but not often) a short cover letter so whenever I found something interesting, I would apply straightaway.
Another thing that I found extremely helpful was making my CV to look distinct - I invested £4 in a nicely looking (but still professional!) CV template on etsy. That was when I started receiving responses to almost every application I made because, by admission of many recruiters, my resume was eye-catching.
In the end it took me three weeks to find a paralegal position and I was lucky enough to actually secure three different offers from which I could choose what suited me best. Anecdotally, my chosen role was with a company that required LPC in the job description, yet I got it anyway
It was different when I was looking for a new job nearly a year later - I decided to use agencies at that time, mostly because I was preoccupied with work and TC applications so it was easier to delegate this task to a number of agencies (a word of warning: while there are some recruiters who will definitely go above and beyond to help you and will stay in touch with you, sadly I also met some that could not care less on updating me on the process, or failed to send my resume somewhere, or - my absolutely favourite - forwarded my CV to one firm without my prior approval, allegedly by an unfortunate error, which in turn put me in a very uncomfortable situation).
The upside of living in London is that there is plenty of roles available at all times - of course, the competition is fierce, but it is still possible to find something rather quickly.
Really excited to meet you Saturday and please reach out when you choose to make your Shearman app- I will try to help you as best as possible
also very best of luck for Jones Day I don't think it's a low score per se. I think we got 32/40 correct so even just one more point may have boosted our percentage up by more than 5%?
I know! I’m guessing it is definitely over though but no formal rejection yet-have you heard anything?
Nothing yet, I know people have had replies so just waiting to see what comes of it this week. Good luck!
Well done and thanks for the motivational post. Good luck !Third Post
So I am updating this thread a little early but I got the Jones Day Spring scheme! This will be my first commercial law vacation scheme so I'm excited to apply what I've learnt in practice on the vac scheme. This has given me such a boost of confidence and I can not thank TCLA enough for everything they've done for me. They reviewed my application and I also had a mock interview with Jaysen which was so helpful in talking through questions that I was unsure about. I am really grateful for all the help and support I've received from everyone in the forums too. I am now going to be focusing on applications for Summer schemes so that I can keep myself disciplined and focused.
I left my previous job but was offered a position where I will have more responsibility and develop my skills further. As for other applications, I was rejected by Linklaters but wasn't too shocked. I have applied to Shearman's and Reed Smith's but annoyingly spotted minor errors in my work experience sections after reviewing them. Moving forward, I am going to review every detail of my applications so that they are error-free. Still, I am feeling more motivated and happier than I have done at any other point in these last three years.
I hope this gives some people hope in the application process, if I could offer any advice, I would say be true to yourself and don't be afraid to talk about the deeper issues in your application or at interview. I think they appreciate the fact that you don't shy away from topics of a sensitive nature. As well, just keep going because it shows that determination does pay off as long as you remember from your mistakes and continually seek to improve
Sharaf
Third Post
So I am updating this thread a little early but I got the Jones Day Spring scheme! This will be my first commercial law vacation scheme so I'm excited to apply what I've learnt in practice on the vac scheme. This has given me such a boost of confidence and I can not thank TCLA enough for everything they've done for me. They reviewed my application and I also had a mock interview with Jaysen which was so helpful in talking through questions that I was unsure about. I am really grateful for all the help and support I've received from everyone in the forums too. I am now going to be focusing on applications for Summer schemes so that I can keep myself disciplined and focused.
I left my previous job but was offered a position where I will have more responsibility and develop my skills further. As for other applications, I was rejected by Linklaters but wasn't too shocked. I have applied to Shearman's and Reed Smith's but annoyingly spotted minor errors in my work experience sections after reviewing them. Moving forward, I am going to review every detail of my applications so that they are error-free. Still, I am feeling more motivated and happier than I have done at any other point in these last three years.
I hope this gives some people hope in the application process, if I could offer any advice, I would say be true to yourself and don't be afraid to talk about the deeper issues in your application or at interview. I think they appreciate the fact that you don't shy away from topics of a sensitive nature. As well, just keep going because it shows that determination does pay off as long as you remember from your mistakes and continually seek to improve
Sharaf
