Pupillage - if at first you don't succeed, try and try again?

Really random question but would appreciate anyone's help on this: how important do you think your hobbies are to an application form. I managed to get 6 first rounds without having terribly adventurous or unusual hobbies.

But ive been advised on a couple of ocasions by mentors to find "intellectually challenging hobbies", - does anyone have a view on this kind of stuff?

Would really appreciate any one's examples or thoughts on hobbies in relation to the bar!

6 First round interviews is good going. I wouldn't be too concerned about hobbies. Things like sport/music/travel are common but honest. If you have got 6 1st round interviews but no/few 2nd rounds I would say that the thing you need to work on before the next round is interview technique; not taking up TT racing! I also think that sets are more likely to be interested in your legal experience so I'd do minis at the sets that you intend to apply to (if you haven't already) and try to gain some advocacy experience with FRU/LPC etc.

I have another question Luckypupil - you say that you approached the interviews on the basis that you didn't care anymore. That sounds like a really good approach, it can even work in exams. But in a pupillage interview - I'm assuming that you still managed to show your enthusiasm and formulate structured answers. I find that I struggle to give good, structured answers. Any tips on this? I know the answers probably obvious, but what is your view?

Wow Luckypupil, that is quite inspiring and I'm really grateful that you shared it! It's a shame that it's a lot of luck, i think that next year, I am going to apply to even more places. What kind of experience did you do overseas, like what did it relate to, before you then undertook some legal experience. Was it volunteering? I would really like to do an overseas internship, helping out in human rights activities. At the moment I am applying to be an adjudicator at the FOS, whilst keeping my eye out for other opportunities...

Just commercial/civil stuff like P.I/contractual disputes. Unless you are doing a human right pupillage (do they even exist?) - i can't see the point in doing a HR internship. (This is just my humble opinion. I'm sure many others found it helpful.) However, I was once asked a ethical question linked to misrep and I only managed to recall the necessary info because I handled a misrep claim while abroad. If you want to do civil work, look for civil placements/internships.

Just commercial/civil stuff like P.I/contractual disputes. Unless you are doing a human right pupillage (do they even exist?) - i can't see the point in doing a HR internship. (This is just my humble opinion. I'm sure many others found it helpful.) However, I was once asked a ethical question linked to misrep and I only managed to recall the necessary info because I handled a misrep claim while abroad. If you want to do civil work, look for civil placements/internships.

Just commercial/civil stuff like P.I/contractual disputes. Unless you are doing a human right pupillage (do they even exist?) - i can't see the point in doing a HR internship. (This is just my humble opinion. I'm sure many others found it helpful.) However, I was once asked a ethical question linked to misrep and I only managed to recall the necessary info because I handled a misrep claim while abroad. If you want to do civil work, look for civil placements/internships.

Human Rights internships do work wonders IMO at family and criminal sets which are progressive and flashy. Coram, 36BR etc. I've been asked about my civil liberties work at all the more left wing family sets.

I really hope that you don't mind me asking - to get a placement abroad, did you use a recruitment company? I've been looking everywhere for these, they all seem to want experience or the recruitment companies only recruit the top lawyers to do these things.

Sent off speculative CVs direct to firms across the commonwealth promising to work for free. Got lucky with one. Saved money during BPTC year to fund travel. They offered me a full time job afterwards which was very tempting....

Hi All,

I got pupillage on my fourth year of applying. I can't remember exactly but I had around 25-30 interviews in total, but very very few second rounders. I eventually got pupillage at a tier one chambers (that had rejected me without interview for each of the previous three years!!!).

A lot of the advice above is brilliant, so I'm not going to add anything, except to really emphasise just how important luck is. I know a small number of people who got loads of offers, and loads and loads of people who got one offer through the reserve system. That's normal. I also know A LOT of people who got pupillage third time around, and a fair few who did on their fourth. And mostly at really good sets too (like one of the other posters I found that not very good sets rejected me without interview all the time!).

The only advice I would give is that if you are getting interviews then the problem is not your form/experience/lack of a shooting starred first from Cambridge, but with how you do interviews.

Also, have a back up plan. Definitely keep on trying, but don't let your cv look too much like you would absolutely hate to be a solicitor. You might need to apply there eventually and it's not quite the piece of cake those hunting for pupillage might think. Particularly when your cv and all your experience makes it obvious you want to be a barrister!!

Good luck! x

Hello, this is quite incredible. Congratulations on all your hard work paying off Can I ask you -

- How did you manage to improve your CV every year? What type of work did you do?

- I always wondered - when applying to the same sets again the next year, where you did get interviewed, how did you change your forms? Did you change everything or leave some things the same?

Hello, this is quite incredible. Congratulations on all your hard work paying off Can I ask you -

- How did you manage to improve your CV every year? What type of work did you do?

- I always wondered - when applying to the same sets again the next year, where you did get interviewed, how did you change your forms? Did you change everything or leave some things the same?

Sorry, important typo in my original response: should be "i'm not sure my cv did improve every year". Perhaps between 1st and 2nd and a bit between 2nd and 3rd, but I don't really think that was my problem. Interviews seemed to let me down quite a bit.

Also, I didn't fundamentally change my form year on year, because, essentially I'm not anything was really wrong.

One thing I did do, when I got fed up with people not so good as I getting interviews and offers, was to ask people to see their forms to see where I'd gone wrong. Generally, when people have pupillage in the bag, they are happy to share. I'd defo recommend that.

hmm first I tried to apply to different places every year, but it was difficult. I wanted to do employment and PI in London and unfortunately that involved a fair bit of repetition in applications. I'm sure my CV improved every year, particularly between the 3rd and the 4th I was a bit stuck for extra things to do. However I did:
* a part time LLM at LSE
* loads of pro bono (seriously loads - quite a few appellate employment cases before high court judges, and advocacy for different charities spanning employment, social security, and different types of education law)
* carried on with mooting, mini-pupillages etc
* managed to get jobs which involved advocacy throughout

As I said luck plays such a huge role. I do feel I was very very unlucky not to get it sooner. It was galling watching people getting interviews and offers every year thinking "I just know I'm better than they are"! And I was right!

Hi ProBonoQueen,

Congrats on not giving up and finally getting that deserved pupillage. Would you mind me asking how you much sway you think the LLM had? I have a first but from the OU which, although I would argue it should be, I know it is not very highly regarded.

Did you get your advocacy employment experience via FRU?

Thanks