Upcoming support

[Jaysen]

Hi there,

With vacation scheme season coming up soon I'll be posting a lot more material in this section. In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions if you need help preparing for your schemes.

Best,

Jaysen

 

[kaveesha]

Hi Jaysen,

I was wondering, apart from the general advice, if you had any specific advice for the OC VS?

Thanks!

 

[Jaysen]

Hi Jaysen,

I was wondering, apart from the general advice, if you had any specific advice for the OC VS?

Thanks!

Hey Kavi.

Sure thing, my memory of the Osborne Clarke vacation scheme is a little hazy, but I'll try to go into as many specifics as I can. Nicole also mentioned it's your first, so I'll try to give you an idea of what the schedule is like (but it may have changed since).

Induction

• On the first day, you'll get an induction, an office tour, and then health & safety and IT training. In the welcome lunch, you'll meet your supervisor and trainee for your first department. After lunch, you'll be introduced to the rest of your team by your trainee buddy and you'll be at your desk for a few hours.
• Not too much to note here, just remember that anyone you meet could give feedback on your performance, so just be polite and enthusiastic. They'll know you're nervous, so it's likely that most of the people in your team will make an effort to speak to you over the course of the week. The office layout at Osborne Clarke is open plan, which was different to most of the other firms I did, but it's great for being able to reach people.

Networking lunch

• This was around mid-week: all of the vac schemers will be joined by associates from different departments. Try to ask some department-specific questions here as it's a good opportunity to get noticed. You may want to prepare a couple of questions in advance just in case, just try not to sound too rehearsed.

Trainee buddy

• My trainee buddy in banking had just recently started and he kept the workload light. He was fantastic - very approachable, always willing to explain things and offer advice.
• I learned later that he had a fairly big say in my training contract offer, so it's worth putting in the effort to get to know your trainee buddy, and keeping in touch even in your second week when you move departments.

Socials

• We had a summer party at the end of our first week. The main thing I would say here is to remember where you are. (A few of the other vac schemers decided to loudly play a game of 'would you rather' on the coach there and back, and this was overheard by a few senior people!). The lawyers at the summer party also tend to get very drunk. I would just say as a vac schemer be careful - it's quite easy to get carried away at these events when everyone has their guard down.
• The event is a great opportunity to get to know lawyers on a more informal basis, and

Assessments

• We had a written exercise in the first week and a pitch exercise in the second week. If I remember correctly, the written exercise was based on an intellectual property issue, and it was reasonably difficult because of the amount of information you had to wade through. Still, no prior knowledge is expected. Just remember to plan, focus on what the question is asking, use a clear structure - headings and subheadings - if appropriate, and keep an eye on your time.
• We also had a meeting with HR in our second week. This was an informal chat about how you were finding the week, although I'm sure there was some level of assessment to it. I imagine they're also checking to see whether you have other vacation schemes/interviews coming up and whether you'd be likely to accept Osborne Clarke, so have a think of the answers to those questions beforehand.
• Osborne Clarke's training contract interview is a review of your week rather than a repeat of your vacation scheme interview, although there will be some overlap. I remember being asked about any challenges I had during the scheme, how I'd improve, how I felt the week went, what kind of work I did during the scheme and my opinion on Osborne Clarke. They drilled down to the work I did a fair bit, so again, when you're completing a task, try to keep in mind what the purpose is, who the client is and ask questions if there's anything you're not sure about.

Turning the Osborne Clarke vacation scheme into a training contract

• Osborne Clarke like friendly, enthusiastic people who are willing to get involved. So be keen but don't be competitive (one or two of the vac schemers were). You won't need to stay too late though, most days I was out by 6/7.
• Keep a work log to update at the end of each day - this will come in handy for your training contract interview.
• Ask lots of (informed) questions.
• Use a to-do list or some kind of planner to keep your work/tasks organised.
• Always ask when someone needs a task by (unless it's obvious). This is especially useful if you've got a lot of work to do and someone comes and tries to give you work. This happened to me and I could have saved a lot of stress by finding out whether it was pressing or not.
• If you get stuck on a task set by someone more senior, see if you can ask your trainee buddy first. You can also rely on your trainee to tell you who to get work.
• Try to reflect on your scheme before your training contract interview (many of the questions will be based on it). I think there were a few commercial questions, so keep an eye out on the business news in the run up to the scheme and try to have at least one story that you know very well.

 

[kaveesha]

Thank you Jaysen, that was very helpful!

 

[Jaysen]

No problem! If you have any questions while you're on the scheme, feel free to ask.

I plan to put together a more detailed guide on converting vacation schemes to training contracts soon.

 

[Nicole]

Good luck to everyone starting their schemes today!