Work Experience Letter

Hey, basically applying for work experience in the summer at various local law firms, writing a letter to them, require a bit of help:

I am a year twelve student at XXX School, studying for my AS level exams in June. I aim to achieve 5 A grades in Maths, English Literature, Business and Economics, Psychology and General Studies. In 2007 I am interested in going to university to study law and will be applying to Cambridge, Durham and Warwick amongst others.

I will make my applications in October of this year, and feel that it may be extremely beneficial to experience law in a working environment. I am therefore writing to request that your firm might take me on for a two-week period of work experience during the summer holidays.

thats is what i have so far, i now need to state the incentive for them to let me come...as i dont have a great deal to offer them apart from my intelligence, and will probably be made to do the jobs they wont want to do, but need to phrase this correctly, so they wont be able to easily use me as a slave...

any help on the above and what else i need to include? i know i must add available dates etc bt will do that. If you could also point out anything that doesnt read too well in the letter, or is phrased badly it would be appreciated

Reply 1

~Bex~

It's good, but IMO you don't need to mention where you're going to apply - it has no real relevance, especially since you haven't even started applying yet, never mind received offers, so it could look like you're trying to show off. If it was me, I would write the letter like this (but everyone prefers different things so if you think mines crap thats fine lol)

Dear xxxx,

My name is Ninja32 and I am currently a year 12 student at XXX school, studying for AS levels in Maths, English Literature, Business and Economics, Psychology and General Studies. I hope to achieve 'A' grades in all of these subjects, and plan to continue them all/xxx to A2 level. After completion of my A levels, I hope to study a law degree at university, with the intention of becoming a solicitor/barrister.

Before applying to university later this year, I feel it would be invaluable for me to gain experience and further knowledge of the legal world by carrying out a two week work placement at some point between x-x, and was wondering if it would be possible to carry out such a placement at your firm.

I would be extremely grateful if you could get back to me as soon as possible,
Yours,
xxxxx

I would also maybe consider sticking an extra paragraph in each individual letter about the particular firm it is for, saying why you want to go there. For example, if it is a firm which specialises particularly in criminal law, say you have a great interest in criminal law or whatever. I would also advise you concentrate more on applying to smaller firms, because larger ones will probably have work experience opportunities specifically for uni students, and will be unable to accommodate you as well.

Hope some of that helped!!