Vacation Placement Student Review

Greatly. The experience with the firm gave a huge insight into the work done, the culture and the people who make up the firm. The insight was extremely valuable and I felt welcomed by every person at the firm. I was highly involved in work with my team and given the chance to work on a range of tasks.

Extremely. I felt that my team were really inclusive and grateful for any work I was able to help them out with. I felt I was given genuinely interesting work and the team were conscious of involving me and helping me learn about the wider context of any matters I was involved in.

A great deal. My trainee buddy and supervisor were both fantastic. They were extremely welcoming and made sure I knew I could approach them with any issues or questions I had. I also feel that graduate recruitment were extremely helpful throughout and gave excellent guidance over what our placement would involve and how we could contact them if necessary.

As I pursue a career in law, the work I have been doing the past two weeks seems to be extremely reflective of the types of matters a trainee would be invovled with. Therefore, having a chance at this stage to develop these skills will be an extremely valuable outcome of the placement.

Extremely. The structured induction day at the beginning of the two weeks was incredibly useful in giving us a well-rounded picture of the firm and helping us prepare for our time with the firm. I knew from the outset what was planned outside my team each day and the organisation was very effective.

I felt the general atmosphere was excellent. I felt very comfortable during my time with the firm. Every face was a friendly one and I got the impression that everyone was happy to give up some of their time in order to meet with me or answer any questions I had. This made the whole experience very positive.

I was encouraged to speak often with my trainee buddy or supervisor about how I was getting on in my seat. This was done by setting personal objectives and keeping track of my progress. By being able to openly discuss my development I was able to identify key areas for improvement.

Hugely. The insight to the firm was unparalleled to anything I could gain from researched alone. I gained a great insight into both the professional and social sides of the firm. This gave me a well-rounded idea of the culture at the firm and what day-to-day life might be like in a full time role.

I got multiple opportunities to learn more about the culture of the firm. I was able to attend a conference of one of the firm's biggest networks and learn about the ways in which they were developing their presence and reach within the firm. I also learnt about the initiatives being run by the firm and how involved people were with many of them.

Although I already felt fully comitted to my chosen career path, the experience definitely cemented my choice. I was able to get a really good insight into what a career at the firm would be like and it was something that was hugely appealing to me and certainly confirmed what I already thought.

I was paid for the two weeks I was at the firm. I found this was a big positive, particularly with the placement being in London, where it can be very expensive to get temporary accommodation and cover transport costs. I think that for many of the placement students who didn't live in London this was extremely important.

Yes. We were actively encouraged to attend social networking opportunities, from a lunch and drinks on the induction day, to social events for the placement students. Further, we were encouraged to reach out to people within the firm and find out about areas other than our teams we were working in.

Very good. The opportunities catered to us as placement students as we were able to network with a wide range of people across the firm, therefore gaining a broad experience. The opportunity to do this in a more relaxed environment was very useful and meant that we were able to ask questions that we may not have had the chance to ask otherwise.

I wanted to find out more about the social side of the firm, specifically the sports you can get involved in. I had to do this independently and it was quite difficult to find the right person to contact as many of the appropriate intranet pages were not completely up to date.

Definitely. As I have previously said, the insight gave me the opportunity to experience the firm in a unique way that could not be matched. It is certainly the case that the firm want you to see if you are the right match for them, not simply just the other way round.