Vacation Scheme Attendee Review

During the scheme, I sat in Private Equity. I had two trainers in my desk, a Senior Associate and Trainee. They set me a variety of tasks over my four days with them. This included drafting share transfer documents, director resignation letters, and board minutes. Outside of my desk, we had a team task to prepare a presentation. My mentors were really good about giving my time to work on this and made sure to encourage me to make the most of my week. The trainee I sat with took me to a talk that was being held and also contacted other trainees in desks that I was interested in to arrange chats. I had a Trainee Buddy who I would meet with for coffee to discuss more general aspects of life at the firm and they answered any questions I had. Overall, it was a great experience.

I definitely improved my legal drafting skills. After every task, one of them would go through my work with me, giving feedback and advice. They made sure to try and set a variety of different tasks so that I could see different types of work that a trainee in Private Equity would do.

My Trainee Buddy was really helpful in explaining how the seat allocation process works during your training contract, which helped me to understand the next steps. On top of this, Graduate Recruitment were very open about the process following the Vacation Scheme. During the week, we had a call to discuss the process from the Vacation Scheme to Qualification. Following the scheme, once we were offered the training contracts, we were given more information about our specific timelines and the available opportunities. We also attended a talk from the Managing Partner during the week, who gave a wider insight into the business and the direction that it would be taking in the next few years.

The atmosphere was really welcoming. Everyone in my desk made an effort to talk to the two of us who were placed there. We were taken for lunch by our trainers so that we could get to know them more and ask any questions. My Trainee Buddy was amazing, I saw him 4/5 of the days during the scheme and he was always available to ask questions. The same was true of the Trainee that helped train me, she was always happy to help and gave me a good overview of her experience at the firm. Even trainees that weren't allocated to help me were very generous, I arranged a chat with one of the DE&I trainee representatives and she kindly took time out of her day to meet with me. The Graduate Recruitment team were wonderfully supportive throughout the whole week and there for any issues.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it was definitely a motivating factor in my decision to accept a training contract with the firm.

Yes

The main thing is to research the firm a lot before your online interviews. For assessment centres, it is essential to have as much wider market knowledge as you can before going into it.