Insight scheme student 'Pathfinder' Review

It was exactly as expected. It was a great insight into commercial law as a future possible career and also a far more personal view of the company itself, how it differs from other commercial law firms, what kind of work it does on a more exacting scale and it gave you just a very slight taste of working for Linklaters as an employer

It was an insight day, so needless to day not particularly as all the insight students are there simply to learn and pick up every possible skill we can. We don't do any actual work for the company (though I feel like this is a little obvious), and obviously most of the time is spent prepping us for the vac scheme interviews and suchlike. They do their best to welcome us however and there was lots of opportunities to speak to trainees,

Lots of support, we were almost always surrounded by the HR team and they allowed us lots of time to ask whatever kind of question we wanted to the trainees and even partners at certain times. There was always someone on hand to answer all of our questions and explain what to do next.

I'm actually doing a non-degree subject (history) so although we did lots of case study games and pretend debates for me i didn't learn a huge a lot about history necessarily. However I did learn a lot about law and about commercial law and how it fits into the City. Naturally I also learnt a lot about Linklaters as an individual company and lots on how to apply and stand out in the all the different sectors of commerical law.

It was very well-structured with a number of speakers and also a number of hands-on activities. The HR team added some really fun elements into the two days as well - on the first evening they had organised for us a social evening where we made food and chatted to each other and trainees. I thought it wa sa very well-thought out scheme that did as much as it could in a short amount of time to help us learn as much as possible.

It's difficult to suggest it was incredibly fun the whole time as for me personally I felt some parts were more relevant than others. I think the team did as much as they could to help everyone get to know each other and there was absolutely no problems between anyone. There were some competitive elements to the pretend business discussions but it was only a game and noone took it too seriously.

They gave us a huge number of workshops to help us understand what the life of a commercial lawyer is like and how best to succeed in this world. It was all training and development as it was an insight scheme so we never actually performed any real duties for the company.

They wer ebrilliant for this. They managed to get speakers from across the Linklaters spectrum of employees to come and talk to us and do intervies on their everyday life and average kind of work for the firm. There was a number of netowrking opportunities where we could ask our own pressing questions and overall I think we got the best feel for the company that we possibly could over just two days. Obviously there is limitations in such a short space of time.

The entire insight day was spent at their London headquarters, eating in the staff canteen and working around or near to the whole company's workspace. We could look and judge for ourselves about many elements of the culture and soak up the atmosphere that all the LInllaters employees experience daily, as well as talking to many of them about their experiences.

It was very valuable. As a history, non-law degree student I needed to know more about commercial law and the sorts of companies that work in the industry so for me it was essential experience to help me decide my future. Obviously everything you are told is all rosy but I actually had a chat with a partner who was very straight with me and told me how hard I would need to work etc. It was a brilliant two days for learning.

I think they actually kept forgetting to reimburse me but they do have a reimbursment scheme, I think it requires persistent nagging, and that's not something I could be bothered to do for the price of a cheap train ticket andd i think possibly the HR team has changed so it may be a little more organised.

Yes lots of opportunities. Some of these were structured by the HR team, while others were just in the canteen at lunch or similar. We were often being helped by trainees to whom we could ask anything and everything anyway, so there was always employees and networking opportunities around. I do wish we'd been able to speak to more partners and higher though.

They were good, as explained earlier some were over fun socialising events, some were structured question time and others were during the work shadowing opportunities we were given. AS said before, we could ask anything we wanted and that was quite nice to be able to personalise and direct our questions to our own priorities.

yes, the facilities at the London office are fantastic, lots of sports and relaxation areas, places to sleep etc. it is a home within a home and all very cheap in terms of services and food. The canteen had a huge range of choice and gym for me which was very important as I believe it will be difficult tofit exercise into such a busy career.

Yes I would, for someone whose interested in commercial law and/or Linklaters