Vacation Scheme Student Review

The Vacation Scheme was very enjoyable for a number of reasons. Firstly, I found that my supervisor's and trainee buddies were very supportive and encouraged me to get stuck into a lot of matters. I also appreciated that alumni from my university, that I hadn't met before, reached out to me asking if I'd want to meet them for coffee etc. Graduate Recruitment had also gone to a lot of effort to organise fun social events for us that weren't too formal so that we could really get to know the other vacation schemers and trainees.

I think it's difficult to feel valued at a vacation scheme at any firm, simply because there is a limit to how valuable your work will be to your supervisor given that you have limited time in each seat. That said, I felt valued at HSF because most of the tasks I was given were "real work", in the sense that they were actually of use to the team and that my supervisor wasn't just making up tasks for the sake of keeping me busy.

Both my supervisor and trainee buddy were very supportive. My trainee buddy even checked my work before I submitted it to the Partner I was working with to give me feedback on how that Partner usually likes similar documents to be done. I also felt supported by other members of the team. Various trainees and associates would pop in and see how I was going and ask whether I needed help with anything etc.

Being able to watch how lawyers interact with their clients was a great learning experience and at HSF I was lucky enough to attend many client meetings. The written documents I had to produce for clients also developed skills of being both concise and very clear because I learnt that clients want to be told all the issues in a way that's very easy to understand in the shortest way it can be explained.

The scheme was very well structures, with a 2 week timetable of all the commitments prepared in advance. There were presentations planned throughout the 2 weeks on all the departments in the firm, which meant you were able to get an insight in the areas you weren't able to sit in during the scheme.

FAB! The people that work at HSF are actually so lovely and don't meet the general stuck up corporate lawyer who has time for no one stereotype. The matters I was working on were super interesting and very engaging.

On the first day we had a short IT training session to show us the basics. I was lucky enough that the supervisor I was sitting in for my first sit was giving the trainees in the team a training session that I went along to. This gave me a good insight into some of the fundamental elements of practice area. Other than that, I mainly relied on the intranet to help, for example, with written work I was doing by looking up any precedents that may be relevant.

The fact you sit in a trainee seat and work so closely with your supervisor means you get a good understanding as to what exactly you'd do both as a trainee but also further on in your career at the firm.

Working so closely with members of a team gives you a good insight to the culture of the firm and how people work together and would respond to different matters. However, I only worked directly with few people and so it's difficult to know if I would have had a very different experience had I been sitting in a different team.

You're doing, or at least get to see what you would be doing, if this was your career. Pretty easy to tell if its for you or not.

The scheme paid £400 per week.

Everyone I spoke to and met was more than willing to answer any questions I had or catch up at any point during my scheme. There was only really one event a week that had people from across the firm. A drinks event in the first week and a quiz (which was incredibly entertaining) in the second.

They were very well organized and fun because the setting was informal enough. There was also no pressure to go to them.

Although I found out a lot about the pro bono work, I wasn't informed about anything else that employees could do.

Definitely. It's not a pressurized or nerve wracking scheme. Genuinely just lets you understand and decide whether you are a good fit for the firm and its where you want your career to start.