Vacation Scheme Placement Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my week's placement, it gave me a valuable insight both into the firm and into how a commercial law firm operates.

Although sometimes my team struggled to find me work, overall I felt valued by the company and colleagues in other ways such as being invited to team events and company wide events.

On some of the tasks within my team I received little or no guidance whilst I received more on other tasks. However, this is understandable given that one of the aims of the week was to assess my performance and skills - giving me tasks to complete on my own initiative would therefore fulfil this aim.

As I have now finished my degree the skills that I have developed will assist me in my career, I now have far more insight into a commercial firm and how it works, this is very difficult to experience without a placement like this.

The insight was very well structured, I had specific tasks to accomplish by specific times and the written guidance that was provided for these tasks was clear and easy to understand.

The atmosphere in the office and the friendliness were one of the highlights of my week.

The company invested in me to a great extent, all associates and partners were available to spend time with me and participated in my assignments.

Stting within one of the teams within the company gave an excellent insight into the day to day operations and their tasks along with experience of how the team worked together.

The company culture was evident throughout the week from the friendliness of the staff, the availability of the associates and partners and the number of staff events that were organised and attended.

Prior to this experience I was undecided between a career as a solicitor or a career as a barrister. This experience has made up my mind that a career as a solicitor is the path that I want to pursue.

It was good to be paid (over and above travel expenses) for such an invaluable work experience, many people would be happy to obtain this experience for free!

There were plenty of opportunities for networking from team meetings, lunches with the trainee solicitors and company wide events such as the summer bbq. The open plan office also made it really easy to meet colleagues in other teams.

They were fun! And there were lots of them. I've attended more social events this week as a result of this insight than I have for the last couple of months combined!

During one of the team meetings there was information about volunteering and pro bono opportunities. There were also emails about social events and leaflets around the office advertising things such as yoga.

Yes, definitely.