Vac scheme or Direct TC?

[random6035]

Hello,

I was wondering how I should manage my application strategy regarding applying for vac schemes vs direct TCs (I am a recent graduate with a few months of legal work experience). I understand that most law firms recruit largely from vac schemes at first instance and so it would increase my chances of joining that specific firm if I applied for vac schemes. However, I would likely not be able to atttend more than one or two vac schemes due to the dates overlapping - and what if, for the vac schemes I choose to attend, I flunk the TC interview and end up with nothing?

Should I focus on applying for a mix of vac schemes and direct TCs ? How should I decide which one to apply for for each firm?

Thank you!

 

[Andrei Radu]

Hello,

I was wondering how I should manage my application strategy regarding applying for vac schemes vs direct TCs (I am a recent graduate with a few months of legal work experience). I understand that most law firms recruit largely from vac schemes at first instance and so it would increase my chances of joining that specific firm if I applied for vac schemes. However, I would likely not be able to atttend more than one or two vac schemes due to the dates overlapping - and what if, for the vac schemes I choose to attend, I flunk the TC interview and end up with nothing?

Should I focus on applying for a mix of vac schemes and direct TCs ? How should I decide which one to apply for for each firm?

Thank you!

My advice is to focus the majority of your time and efforts on vacation schemes. The majority of firms either exclusively recruits from the VS route or have a strong preference for that recruitment line and only consider direct TCs applications for leftover places - and this trend of increasing importance of the VS track has kept becoming more prevalent over the last few years.

Regarding your chances of success and the possibility of flunking a TC interview, I will say two things. Firstly, your performance for a direct TC interview will be held to much higher standards than your performance in a VS interview or a subsequent VS-track TC interview. This is because through the VS route, the firm gets to know you and assess you for a much longer period and thus has to place a lot less emphasis on interview performance. With the direct TC route however, the firm has to make a decision regarding a very substantial investment after knowing you for less than a day. As you will appreciate, your performance will consequently have to be substantially more impressive. Secondly, if you fail a TC interview after completing a VS, at least you will have a VS experience to add to your CV. This will be very helpful for any future applications. However, if you make applications via the direct TC route and then fail, you will not have anything to show for it.

As such, my advice is to on the most part only do VS applications. I would only consider diversifying for two or three applications, and even there only for firms that are known to recruit more heavily from the direct TC route.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hello,

I was wondering how I should manage my application strategy regarding applying for vac schemes vs direct TCs (I am a recent graduate with a few months of legal work experience). I understand that most law firms recruit largely from vac schemes at first instance and so it would increase my chances of joining that specific firm if I applied for vac schemes. However, I would likely not be able to atttend more than one or two vac schemes due to the dates overlapping - and what if, for the vac schemes I choose to attend, I flunk the TC interview and end up with nothing?

Should I focus on applying for a mix of vac schemes and direct TCs ? How should I decide which one to apply for for each firm?

Thank you!

I think applying to a mix of opportunities is the right idea, especially given your work commitments. You could spread your applications across this cycle, applying to winter, spring and summer vacation schemes and either some winter TC deadlines, or wait until the summer TC deadlines.

When working out which opportunity to apply to I would consider the following:

• Dates of the scheme - which will work best for you in terms of dates and length of programme (e.g. a three week scheme might not be appropriate for you to get the time of work).
• Vacation scheme to TC ratios. For firms with a high ratio of VS:TC places, you may want to prioritise their vacation schemes, while a low ratio means it might be better to apply for a TC

You should also check whether you will need to declare any other employment while working for your current employer. It is fairly common for employers to ask you to declare any other employment, and for some industries there may also be conflict checks needed to ensure there are no issues with you working for two organisations at the same time. If you have got these policies, it is trickier to get approval to attend vacation schemes. For some people, it means they will only make training contract applications as they know it is likely they won't get approval to attend a vacation scheme, especially with a competitor or if you work in something like the Civil Service/public sector or another closely connected regulated industry.