Vacation Scheme Review

I was looking forward to the placement before I came but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. At no point was I dragging myself in the morning nor clockwatching in the afternoon, it was absolutely brilliant!

Those I did work for thanked me for what I'd done and I felt I had in some small way contributed to the work of the firm. I certainly didn't feel I was a nuisance to be tolerated, as I had feared beforehand.

My supervisors, particularly in my first week, were clearly very busy and not always immediately available, but they made sure to find time to go over what I'd done, explain new tasks and to answer any questions I had about the firm or the law in general. My buddies were also brilliant, checking up on me every so often and taking me to lunch a few times during the two weeks.

I always had something to do but was never swamped, and was encouraged to find more if necessary or to speak up if it was getting too much.

Obviously, you're not going to be advising clients firsthand, but nothing I was doing was menial (my supervisors even bought me coffee, occasionally!). Much of what I did was used directly by the person who asked me to research points of law or to draft letters to clients, and I felt they trusted me enough not to go back and redo it all.

I learnt loads, not just about the law and how to do particular procedures, but also about working in a professional environment.

I was worried it might be really stuffy and serious, but while everyone was professional and the work is clearly of a high quality, there's a really friendly and supportive atmosphere and people aren't afraid to stop and have a chat every so often. Everyone made the effort to welcome me on my first day, and even those I didn't do any work for came in to check how I was getting on. One afternoon my department met for cake and drinks to celebrate a member of the team having been at the firm for 40 years.

We knew at the beginning of the scheme what the plan was for the next two weeks, and any changes were clearly communicated in advance, with HR adding events and alerts to our Outlook calendars so there was no excuse to miss anything.

Someone sat down with me to discuss every piece of work I'd done, both what was good about it and how I could improve. We had an appraisal at the end of each week so we were aware how we were doing and what we needed to work on, and where I worked for someone other than my supervisors they fed back to them so that everything we'd done could be taken into consideration. I was really impressed by how much time and effort was invested into us in this respect.

I was offered a training contract, which I have absolutely no reservations about accepting.

Those of us on the scheme didn't really socialise together outside of our organised events as we were all pretty shattered, but everyone was really friendly and good fun. Where we did have scheduled events the trainees were happy to keep the night going on as long as we were, especially on the last night. In my first week I was also invited out with my department for someone's leaving drinks, which was good fun.

It's Central London and dominated by the offices of high profile law and accountancy firms, so obviously not cheap, but the firm paid for everything on our scheduled socials.

There are a few bars right by the office, and it was easy to get to places further afield for our afterwork socials.

There wasn't much going on during our placement in the way of sports, but we were invited to the pro-bono legal advice clinic the firm is involved in, which was really interesting and a totally different side to life as a trainee.