Vacation Scheme Student Review

Really informative, engaging and well-thought-out. Great group of smart and enthusiastic people.

A&O made us feel excited and valued before the experience by sending us gifts and chocolates. During the scheme the graduate recruitment team were constantly on call to answer queries, set up calls with other employees and forward on any questions to the relevant people. We also had talks from the Managing Partner and many employees, which made us feel like the Vacation Scheme students were well valued.

The graduate recruitment team were on the line of every meeting and talk to ensure that we could all ask the questions that we wanted to or voice our concerns before and after calls. Throughout the week they kept in touch over email, and we had drinks over Webex at the beginning and end of the week to informally get to know everyone. For our presentations, the graduate recruitment team also offered us slots to practice with them first and make sure that all technical issues had been solved prior to presenting.

The scheme was really focused on the skills of the lawyer of the future, and most sessions tried to address this from different angles, which was really useful.

Given that it had to move to a virtual vacation scheme, the week was structured really well - we had to just log in and out of sessions and had been given the schedule prior to the week commencing.

The online aspect made the atmosphere difficult to gage, but graduate recruitment made a real effort to make sure we all got to know each other as best we could, and make sure everyone felt included even if you couldn't always see everyone on the screen.

A&O invested a lot of time fleshing out what the lawyer of the future could look like, encouraging us to look at the kind of skills they might need, as well as going through what a training contract would look like at the firm more specifically.

We were given access to many A&O employees to contact or hear their stories, both through talks and a contact sheet that encouraged us to get in touch with trainees in different practice areas.

We had several talks that addressed the company culture, including their diversity initiatives, advanced delivery programmes, and a talk from the managing partner.

Very valuable. I already knew this was the industry and sector that I wanted to go into, but the week really sold the firm itself to me.

We were paid a set amount for the week, despite it being online.

Yes, we were given a contact sheet of people to call, as well as many talks from many different people across the firm. I also wanted to talk to a partner in a specific field, and graduate recruitment very kindly set this up for me, despite how high up the partner was.

Online makes this difficult, but we had two online socials at the beginning and end of the week.

We had a talk on the firms diversity and inclusion groups, and graduate recruitment facilitated any questions for those that wanted to know more.

Yes, it was an extremely rewarding and informative week, and graduate recruitment made a real effort to give us the best experience possible despite moving online because of Covid.