Getting a vacation scheme ("VS") is insanely hard nowadays. For those who have recently secured a VS, you should be proud of yourself: you successfully competed against over thousands of other job applicants, passed online tests / video interviews, survived assessment centres, and impressed lawyers you had never met. You finally earned your place at your dream firm…

When I graduated from my LLM and looked for a job in London as an international student, I had no connections and absolutely no idea how the UK legal market worked. I literally had to navigate the entire law firm application process on my own — and that was brutal…

If you've ever stared at a blank application form trying to answer "Why do you apply for this law firm?", you're not alone. To a lot of aspiring lawyers, most global law firms look the same on paper: they all have international offices, D&I initiatives, AI technology, cross-border deals, to name but a few.

Notably, this is one of the most common questions in law firm applications, and yet it is the one where 90% of candidates make the exact same mistake.

While many of you think CV and grades will impact whether or not you get past the application stage, your soft skills and personality actually matter a lot to help you land that final job offer.

Whenever the thought of you being "not good enough" pops up in your mind, you should immediately stop the negative talking.

I've spoken to so many aspiring lawyers over the past years, and I realise that a majority of them stop applying to law firms when they get about 4 to 5 consecutive rejections…

As I know, more and more aspiring lawyers start getting invites for a pre-recorded video interview. In this newsletter, I will completely change your perspective on how you should prepare for such interview, providing you the techniques and tricks to tick some of the key boxes Graduate Recruitment is looking for.

In this newsletter, I will consolidate the key strategies and techniques I used to secure a training contract in London as an International student (and I didn't complete one single vacation scheme!)

Many international law students are under the impression that they need to apply to smaller or less prestigious law firms, because the competition is insane and they stand no chance of competing against many other domestic candidates. Yet, speaking from personal experiences, I think you may be better off applying to bigger law firms.

At the beginning of my second year of law school, many of my classmates already got their first internship at big law firms or banks, but I couldn’t find any. I remember I got my first-ever internship by cold-emailing a local law firm I found on the internet. I was invited for an informal interview. The partner liked my passion, and he decided to hire me as a part-time legal intern.

Getting a training contract in places like London is easier said than done - yet, the good news is whether or not you are an international candidate, law firms are essentially looking for the same skills and competencies. Unfortunately, there is little support out there for foreigners entering the London legal market, and therefore I have seen many bright international students struggling with writing good applications.

My training contract journey was a rocky path of detours. I was hampered by my initial unfamiliarity with the interview, my limited visa conditions and a lack of understanding of the application process. As someone coming from a completely different country and background, I felt like I have to spend twice, if not triple, the effort of others. But what my story shows is that your starting point doesn’t matter, what matters is where you end up.