Pathfinder Placement scheme Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my Pathfinder at Linklaters. I found the experience provided a valuable insight into how the firm worked and the structure of the scheme was designed such that I gained two days experience shadowing a trainee as well as attending really useful workshops on commercial awareness and personal branding.

I felt that all of the graduate recruitment team made me feel welcome and this enabled me to get over my initial nerves. I felt that whilst I didn't provide value to my trainee during shadowing, this was to be expected and I thought that my trainee answered all my questions with patience and with the air that he was happy to answer as many questions as I had.

I received a lot of support in terms of getting from place to place and after every workshop there was ample chance to ask questions. I also found the recruitment team really open to our questions and we were given a detailed timetable for our two days, which made it easy to feel comfortable in knowing exactly how the scheme would run.

We had a personal branding workshop, which was extremely useful in providing us with skills that we could transfer to any circumstance. In this respect I developed skills in how to conduct myself in confrontational situations, as well as skills in learning how to make a good first impression. I believe that I gained skills in understanding commercial awareness as a concept and I feel more confident now at reading articles in the FT and BBC business and using them in an interview to demonstrate commercial awareness.

The insight was well structured in that every moment was planned down to a T. There was very little time for rest (which reflects the fast paced nature of a career in law!) and this enabled us to experience a lot of the firm in only two days. There was a lot of time allocated to shadowing the trainee which was really good as it gave us one-on-one time to ask questions.

The atmosphere was extremely friendly both from the side of Linklaters and from the other people attending the scheme. Often during schemes such as this one, the other applicants feel the need to be very competitive, however during this scheme this was not the case. The recruiters made it very clear that we were free to ask questions, and it did not feel as though we were being 'caught-out' by some of their questions in return. The other lawyers at the firm were friendly and open and asked questions that helped me to feel involved in Linklaters.

I was surprised by the amount of workshops that were put on by the scheme. It really felt like the team at Linklaters wanted us to get the most out of the experience and wanted us to each take something away from the scheme. I found the personal branding workshop a great opportunity to gain life skills that weren't specific to law and so in that sense it felt like the company were really interested in our personal development.

The insight scheme perhaps lacked in work to do whilst shadowing. I think perhaps our scheme came at a time where my practice area was possibly not very busy and so it gave a great opportunity to ask questions, however it would've been good to do some work that a trainee would do to get a real flavour of the type of work that lawyers at Linklaters do. Saying this however, the opportunity to ask the trainee questions was greater due to this lack of work and so I gained an understanding of firm life through that.

The insight was really useful in helping us to understand the culture of teamwork at Linklaters. Everybody on the scheme was really friendly and open about what they do in the firm and I really got the sense that the employees were being genuine and weren't just telling me what they thought I wanted to hear. We had a talk from a partner who gave us here experience of the firm - all the way through from trainee to partner and in this sense it was good to gain an insight into the company culture at all levels.

The content of the day was extremely valuable and I would highly recommend it. It further strengthened the reasons for which I want to do law and really made me consider Linklaters as a strong candidate for a future employer. The scheme was also great in to re-motivate me to do as much law work experience as I can and in this way it was really useful in reminding me what I need to do if I want to be a lawyer at a magic circle firm/ at Linklaters.

I did not have expenses, however my colleagues on the scheme were given a hotel for the night (if they lived further than a certain distance) and their travel was reimbursed.

There were a few opportunities to network during the shadowing, however I did not meet as many members of the firm I was expecting. Perhaps this is due to the department that I was shadowing which was apparently much quieter than usual.

The social event was fun and gave us a chance to feel more comfortable with each other and the graduate recruitment team so that the second day people were more at ease. The event was fun as we made pizza and cocktails, as well as pasta and cupcakes. It was nice to experience a different side of the firm and to spend some time in their really huge canteen!

Yes, my trainee told me a lot about activities in the firm - including the different sports teams as well as his pro-bono work. It seemed that there was a lot to do in the firm and we event went on a tour to see the gym and the shop, as well as the doctor and dentist!

Yes I really would recommend this insight. I feel like i gained not only a sense of what Linklaters is like as a firm, however I also gained knowledge about commercial awareness and personal branding that is useful in other applications. there was also a really great interview workshop that gave us the opportunity to ask questions about arguably the most daunting part of application.