How Your Part-Time Job Can Help You Succeed This Law Firm Application Cycle

When fellow law students discuss the prestigious legal work experience they have gained over the summer, it’s easy to feel discouraged if you have not secured similar experience in time for the law firm application cycle. You are not alone. In reality, this specific legal experience is not required to be successful, by utilising the skills you have acquired from your part-time job you can still secure those training contracts and vacation schemes.

Legal work experience is not the only way desired skills can be developed. When looking at the top UK law firm websites, many of the same qualities they are looking for come up. A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Freshfields and Slaughter and May all mention synonyms of the same skills. These are:

•  Teamwork
•  Communication skills
•  An innovative mindset
•  Flexibility

So, I will now discuss some easy ways you can prove that you have achieved these skills at your average part-time job.

Team Work

A majority of jobs will have required you to work in a team at some point throughout employment. For example, any server, receptionist or customer service assistant would have to communicate regularly with colleagues to ensure messages have been passed on correctly. It is unlikely that everything has always gone smoothly throughout your time working and this will usually be the best example of team work. Did you have to delegate tasks to different members of staff to ensure you were on time? Or was there a safety hazard which you had to see to whilst another colleague ensured customers were out of the area? Alternatively, teamwork can be demonstrated by taking on extra shifts or staying on late. All of these examples are signs of someone being a team player and working well with others. It is important to emphasise how your ability to work in a team meant you were successful.

Communication

Good communication skills can be shown through team work but it can also be shown through customer interaction. If your part-time job involved speaking to customers or clients then it would have been very important you had good communication skills. Regularly speaking to the public and answering their questions proves that you are confident in speaking to a range of different people. For example, has a customer ever been upset and you helped resolve their issue and calm them down? Or you may have been required to adapt your communication style to your audience or the setting, this is extremely likely as a server where people are at your place of work for many different events. All of these interactions demonstrate communication skills and prove to the firm that you will be confident in transferring this kind of positive and successful communication to their team.

An Innovative Mindset

Initially, innovation could be a quality that you struggle to equate to your part-time job. To have an innovative mindset you have a combination of curiosity, openness and creative problem-solving. This is a very important attribute but one that can still be demonstrated through your part-time job. For example, as a server, you may have upsold an item whilst taking an order, this not only demonstrates how you can make a business money but shows you going above what is expected. Some other examples to get you thinking of how you have been innovative are, coming up with ways to solve complaints or ways to improve productivity. Such as suggesting a checklist be added to the store so that everyone is aware of what job has been done at what time. Creating a group chat or a communication book with a work team so that messages get passed on efficiently. Finally, innovative thought can be as simple as showing your initiative. Not always having to be asked or told to do something different. Did you remove a hazard when it arose so no one got hurt? Did you re-organise when it was a quiet shift? An innovative mindset proves to a firm that you are an asset and will bring something new to their team.

Flexibility

Finally, law firms appreciate flexibility. This is a skill that can be demonstrated in many different ways. It could be that you have easily adapted to rota changes or you volunteer to cover shifts when needed. This kind of flexibility says that you will help ensure the operations of the firm go smoothly. Similarly, customers or clients may need help with something that you do not usually have to deal with. Being able to come up with practical solutions when thinking on your feet highlights that you can be flexible and adaptable to situations you were not expecting. Flexibility is not just reacting well to unpredictable events. It can also be shown if you are trained in multiple departments or roles. The different procedures and responsibilities that you must be knowledgeable about show that you have the ability to learn and succeed in any position you are needed in.

Importantly, when discussing these skills in an application ensure you are specific. Link the skills with real-life examples using the S.T.A.R method (Situation, task, action and result). Overall, legal work experience is not required to successfully break into the legal profession. These are only a few examples of skills you will need to demonstrate in your law firm applications, all of which can be shown through an average part-time job. After you have mastered how to discuss transferable skills, you will see your success rate in law firm applications increase. So, do not be disheartened if you have not secured legal work experience in advance of the upcoming application cycle. Your part-time job is all you need!

Article written by Caity Kelly, University of Bristol Undergraduate LLB