I am a practising barrister on my Chambers' pupillage committee - AMA

Do you enjoy your job?

I do. Like any job it has its difficult moments, and it is certainly a high pressure and high stress job, but I do enjoy it and find it to be very satisfying. I feel very lucky to be doing it and, for the moment at least, can't see myself doing anything else.

How did you find the competition when you were applying? Did it ever become too stressful?

Clearly you never see the applications of the people you're competing against when you apply, nor do you see them in interview, so from that perspective it's difficult to get any real reading on the competition, and when you're getting rejections it's difficult to know how close you are to getting interviews. In terms of the process itself, it is stressful. Getting constant rejections is hard, especially when you may have no or a very limited experience of failing before that. The most difficult period for me was directly after the Bar Course, when I found myself for the first time out of education and with no job. I was living at the time with a friend who was about to start his pupillage (we're now in the same Chambers) and with my then girlfriend, who was doing a postgraduate course of her own. So I was the only one who was stuck in a rut. I made countless applications for jobs and pupillage, and aside from some limited volunteer work with PSU it took me just over 3 months to find actual paid legal work. Those 3 months were really very tough, and it was not at all easy to stay motivated in the face of constant rejection.

Once I had a relevant job (a paralegal role as it happened) things became easier because I was suddenly working towards something again. The experience of being in that role was helping me to develop my skills, and allowed me to get back into the momentum of essentially doing what I could over time to improve my application. I was still getting rejections during this time from pupillage applications, but that was easier to deal with because I was confident that I was gradually improving my application and my skills. Still by no means an easy process, but easier to cope with due to me having a job, which was also in a way becoming my plan B.

So I don't think it ever necessarily became too stressful per se, but it is a very hard process, and as well as ensuring that you are working constructively towards improving your skills and your application, it is also important to manage yourself personally. It doesn't mean you're not cut out to be a barrister if you're struggling with it from time to time from a stress or mental health perspective. It just means you're human and need to take some time to take care of yourself, which everyone needs to do from time to time.

Are there any immediate factors when reading an application that would make you say no?

Thank you for that detailed response! The entire process seems so long and emotionally exhausting, so it's useful hearing a first-hand experience. Did you find that your paralegal role allowed you to improve your application in a sense, by talking about the extra skills and experience?

Also, is there anything else you wish you had done during university? Law-related (work experience, studying, etc) or not! I'm a first-year, and I'd feel like I'm not doing enough of much (though I'm using lockdown as an excuse!).

Bit late to the party so not sure if you're still running this AMA but I'll give it a shot:

One thing I'd like to know is what can someone do to really make their application stand out? To preface this, I feel I have a decent but very standard pupillage application: represented my uni in national moots, worked as a paralegal for a bit (albeit in an unrelated area to that which I'm applying to), I'm a FRU volunteer, ect.

Whilst all these things do indeed sound great and are worthy achievements/experiences in their own rights, I feel most other applicants will have all these things too. In that regard, what sort of other experiences have you seen on applications that's allowed applicants to hit that yardstick in terms being invited to an interview when everyone and their dog has done a bit of mooting/FRU/Paralegal-ing/ect?

I am. There didn't seem to be much demand for it but happy to help where I can.

This is one of, if not the most common question about pupillage applications, but it's the wrong question, for two reasons. First, if there was an answer to it everyone would do that thing and then it wouldn't make you stand out anymore. Over the years there have been new opportunities that have come along and initially they're not very well known, but eventually they are, and even then they're not some sort of silver bullet to getting an interview. And that's partly because of the second reason, which is the way applications are assessed.

Nowadays the vast majority of sets, if not all of them, will assess pupillage applications using a scoring matrix of some kind. They will ask barristers to score applications based on areas such as intellectual ability, advocacy experience, work ethic, understanding of the profession, and others besides. Each set will have different aspects they're scoring, and in different ways. Sets don't talk to each other about how they score applications. And even within individual sets, whilst efforts will be made to ensure that different barristers apply the scoring matrix consistently, there's always variations from individual to individual. So even every set had the same scoring matrix (which they don't), or you knew an individual scoring matrix (which you don't), you won't know how it's going to be applied by the barrister or barristers that sift your application.

So what can you do about that? Well, each set bases its scoring matrix on what it considers to be the best way to spot the best candidates. What that means will vary from set to set, but fundamentally the best candidate needs to be able to show they have the skills, experience, understanding and ability to become a pupil barrister, with potential to develop those skills through pupillage and tenancy. So don't see this as a quantitive assessment. Yes, you need to tick certain boxes, but beyond that see the assessment as qualitative. You've got a lot good individual elements on your application, but what have you learned from them? What skills have you developed? What do you understand now about the profession? Usually what stands out about applicants is not what they've done, but how they talk about those things, how they answer those questions about their skills and such, and the insight that comes across. Strong candidates are just that; strong candidates. They're candidates who can demonstrate on paper that they'll make good barristers, because they probably will make good barristers.

I know you wanted something more precise than that, but as I say, there's no magic answer. The pupillage application process, unless you're fortunate enough to get pupillage at the first time of asking, is a process where you will have to critically assess your own applications and skills, and work on improving them. I know it can be difficult to do that when there's limited opportunity for feedback at the application stage, but that is fundamentally what the process is. I look back on my early applications now, and they were not even close to good enough to get an interview. It was actually after I became a paralegal and then an in house advocate that I started to actually properly develop skills and understanding that I could then reflect in my application. That's when I got pupillage, and when you reach that stage you should also be able to naturally do better in interviews too, because instead of worrying about how to prepare or what the "right" answers might be, you can naturally deal with the questions that come at you because of the skills and experience you have. Again, it's not about having a silver bullet. It's just about actually being a good candidate who is actually demonstrably likely to make a good barrister.

There is already quite a lot of support on this forum for those aiming for pupillage; the main pupillage thread being the most prominent around this time of year. There are also quite a few barristers who drop into this forum now and again who reply to relevant threads. So it may be that things are already well covered and this thread isn't necessary, but I thought I'd make it anyway on the off chance that it proves useful to have questions about the actual application and interview process focused on one thread.

For context, I am a practising barrister around ten years call and, as the thread title says, I am on my Chambers' pupillage committee. That means that I sift applications, interview candidates who make it through that sift, and have a hand in choosing who will be offered pupillage. There is a lot of information on the internet already about this process, but if anyone has any questions about it (or for me generally as a practising barrister) then I will do my best to answer them. You can feel free to ask anything you want. I won't commit to answering everything, but if I choose not to answer a question I will explain why.

I will also say from the outset that I am happy for other practising barristers who come across this thread to answer questions before or instead of me. I know at least one or two are on pupillage committees themselves, so getting answers from more than one source should be useful.

In terms of other sources, do have a look at www.pupillageandhowtogetit.com. That contains a lot of information about the pupillage process, and indeed some of the content of that site has been taken from posts I have made on this forum. There are also a number of practising barristers on Reddit at r/uklaw if you want to ask questions there to get other views. As a final suggestion, you'll find no shortage of barristers on Twitter at this time of year offering individual tweets and threads with advice on the pupillage process, so it's worth having a scan through things on there as well.

If after having seen all of that you still have questions for me, fire away.

So I guess the way to go is that, once you've achieved most these things, the question of whether the application is successful turns to how well you can use those experiences to illustrate the various competencies required at the Bar.

Are you worried about job security?
What is your ethnic background?
Were you privately educated?
What university did you attend?

Are you worried about job security?
What is your ethnic background?
Were you privately educated?
What university did you attend?

Hi, thanks for your insightful comments thus far. This may sound a bit odd but how did you know you were 'ready' for pupillage?

From your experience in reviewing applications, do you find it comes across when applicants are less confident? If so, do you have any suggestions to overcome this?

Also, I note that you mentioned going through a difficult time after your call (which I can relate to!). Would you consider a bumpy road to pupillage an obstacle, or is it too universal to mention in applications?

And a final question if I may, what do you think is the best way to demonstrate interest in a particular Chambers? I've made lists of recent interesting cases, practice areas, the work of juniors and any recent news but it all seems so impersonal... Thanks in advance!