Road to a Vacation Scheme/Training Contract: Accurately Executing the Basics

Article written by Nemr Chaer, Future Trainee Solicitor at Clifford Chance and finalist Law student at the University of Warwick’.

In my previous article, titled ‘The Road to a Vacation Scheme: Laying the Groundwork’, I shared some tips one could take before vacation scheme/Training Contract applications. In this article, I will be sharing tips specifically for those who are ready to start applying to law firms (i.e., have already laid the groundwork!).

Tackling the ‘Routine Questions’

The ‘routine questions’ referred to are those located at the very beginning of all applications. They typically ask for your personal information (name, term time address, residential address etc.) and academic history.

My top tip: Take these questions very seriously.

• Make sure the spelling of addresses, school names, academic subjects are accurate and capitalised appropriately.
• Pay attention to which academic results the law firm is asking for. As well as your university grades, some firms require your GCSE grades AND A-level (or equivalent) results, whilst others require A-levels only.
• Repeatedly go over the details that you entered to ensure that there are no errors.

Law firms will not penalise an application with a singular spelling error. However, a trend of spelling errors indicates an applicant’s lack of attention to detail. Moreover, Graduate Recruitment teams read over thousands of applications so make their life easy! It is not costly to write ‘university of warwick’, but ‘University of Warwick’ (appropriately capitalised) shows slightly more care and professionalism.

Work Experience Section

The work experience section is often misunderstood. Some applicants bullet-point their experiences, others write lengthy stories, and others completely skip over it!

My Top Tip: Make sure that your work experience history is between 200 – 250 words and that you write it accurately, succinctly, and with reference to a law firm’s values.

• The work experience section is another opportunity for applicants to sell their skills to graduate recruitment. Instead of simply saying ‘I volunteered at a nursery helping to help students grow their skills’, an applicant could say ‘I volunteered every Friday at a local primary school to help struggling pupils with their reading. Whilst reading, I noted down any words they struggled with and taught them techniques such as using their finger as a guide to prevent missing words or sentences […].’ This allows the examiner to show your communication, problem solving and creativity all in one sentence!
• Say as much as possible using as little words as possible. Keep this in mind at all times. Given the word limit of 200 – 250 words, make sure that your writing is succinct and gives the reader a lot of information. Some applicants can fall into the trap of sacrificing important detail for the sake of the word count, but this does not need to be the case – you can be succinct and detailed! Make the words count!
• Excellent spelling and grammar are a must in the work experience section. Read over the work experience description and ask, ‘can I phrase this in a more grammatically friendly way?’ or ‘is my spelling correct?’.
• Refer to the law firm’s values in the work experience section. For example, if a law firm prioritises creativity, then it is highly recommended that an applicant mentions a time that they were creative in one of their work experience (and use the word ‘creative’ as a buzz word!).

Remember that ALL work experience is good experience because firms are looking for the transferability of an applicant’s skills. For example, if you work as Front of House in a restaurant or takeaway then be sure to describe experiences that show how you worked under pressure for sustained hours and communicated with customers. The latter and former are impressive skills that law firms will appreciate!

Conclusion

The above is a simple guide as to how one can execute the basics of a law firm application. In a nutshell, it is advised that you be accurate and pay attention to your writing.