Vacation Scheme Placement Review

I spent two weeks with Pinsents, I think it gave me a great deal of insight in to the culture of the firm. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the staff are all very quirky and unique.

Quite a lot, a lot of staff will take time out from their busy schedules to talk with you if you're interested in an area, you just need to ask. They have an open place office which means people talk more freely and you don't have to worry about walking down the office and knocking on someone's door every time you're unsure of something.

Quite a lot, a lot of really valuable feedback, some good, some bad, overall it's very honest

I think its made me look at a lot of weaknesses that I have which never came to light before and made me realise a lot of the tricks I used to get through university don't work well in a law firm, last minute cramming is a terrible idea, structure has become a really important aspect for me to get through the work load

Half structured, you're given a time table for the week, with certain events, on a day to day basis you're helping staff with actually tasks that need to be completed and so it's unstructured in that respect, but its a transparent picture of how the workload actually operates in the firm

Really good, people are generally really happy, funny conversations, random topics, everyone gets on

I think individuals always want to take time out to help you, they're keen to provide feedback, I think its a case of "If you ask for investment, you'll get it" but if you hide away, you won't get a lot of input

I think it was fairly transparent of the role, sometimes there's more work, sometime there's less work. The degree in difficulty varies, the tasks vary from research to filling in forms, to drafting e-mails

A lot, I think Pinsent's employs people who are different, a lot of the staff seem to have a really good sense of humour

I think there's always the worry that you'll get into a VacScheme placement and suddenly realise you don't like Law. This was my first scheme and I found the complete opposite, I found it made me more certain I was on the right path

Yes, we were paid for 2 weeks work (I think it was something like £200 per week) but we also got paid for one holiday day. They also reimbursed us for our travel costs to London and back for the induction day, and the underground etc etc. The only downside is you need to pay for your transport up front and then get reimbursed which might be an issue if you're a broke student but the firm do state if you have any issues to contact them :)

Really good, They sent us to London on the first day for inductions, networking lunches, after work drinks. Tuesday we went for lunch with the firm, at the end of the week we had a meet and greet with staff in the office.

Social events were really good, I'm not a drinker as so initially I was really worried about going to the drinking events, but actually it was nothing like I though. I discovered I absolutely love playing table tennis and that I absolutely suck at beer pong!

I found out a few things, like there's an onsite yoga class, we had a talk about the firms charity work abroad helping to build communities. It seems to be the kind of place where if you suggest a good idea for an out of work activity, there will be people who want to join in

Yes, absolutely! I think it's really nervous going into the firm, especially knowing that only half of you will get through but I think once you're there day to day, you put that to the back of your mind and crack on! Join in with the social events, even if you think that its not something you'd enjoy, you might surprise yourself