Summer Vacation Placement Student Review

The vacation placement with PM was very interesting and enjoyable. Inevitably, as a vacation student, you may be given some tasks which are tedious (such as printing). However, at PM I felt that the majority of tasks I was assigned were interesting and challenging.

During my time at the firm I really got to experience the approachable PM culture that I had heard so much about before starting my PM vacation scheme. Everyone that I came across was very friendly and made me feel comfortable in the office.

During the vacation scheme you are assigned a trainee buddy, as well as a supervisor. This was very helpful as if I had a question I had two point of calls. In addition the graduate recruitment team are always just an email away if I had any questions.

I think the skills I developed have set me up really well for, hopefully, beginning a traineeship when I have finished my studies. Working in an actual law firm is nothing like university and so I would recommend everyone to try to get some experience before leaving uni.

The induction was very well structure, as well as lots of social events for the vacation students to get involved in.

The team was very friendly and could have a laugh but could equally get down to work when needs be. So overall, a good mix.

We were given lots of presentation during the indication as well as IT training, facilities training etc. We also were introduced to lots of people within the firm, including the head of office which helped us to feel more integrated. There were also lots of social opportunities, including an external social activity which was funded by the firm, making it accessible for everyone.

Although you may not be able to experience the breadth of the firm, spending the whole three weeks in the one team gives you the opportunity to really feel what it would be like to work there full time. Not only are you given interesting work, the team I was in also explained a lot of the context behind the work and so by the end of the three weeks I had a good understanding of exactly what kind of work the team were involved in.

Due to the number of networking events, as well as meeting people around the office in general, it was easy to get a real feel for the culture of the firm. The approachability of everyone working in the firm made it easy to ask anyone about their experience at PM. The external social event also gave us a feel for the types of things that employees do outside work.

The vacation scheme was very helpful in deciding my future career path. I think it is the best way to experience what life is really like as a lawyer. Working in the one team for the full three weeks gives you a great insight and I think it would reaffirm anyone's decision whether or not to pursue a future career in a commercial law firm.

The pay is above minimum wage and comes during the month that you finish your placement, which is very helpful.

There was a good balance of networking events within the office and external social events. All of these were organised very well and were a good opportunity to meet more people in the firm.

We were told about opportunities during our induction, but I never actually got the opportunity to experience any of these.