Allen and Overy

I sent my Allen and Overy vacation scheme application off today, when I clicked send it just said done but I received no conformation screen or email just wondering if other apllicants received an email and when. Also how long did it take for you to here back from the firm?

Reply 1

TommehR

I didn't receive any confirmation. Got rejected two days afterwards. This was a few weeks ago though. It might take a bit longer now.

Reply 2

Fa|ique

Didn't get a confirmation either... Rejected three days later...

Reply 3

jcb914

TommehR

I didn't receive any confirmation. Got rejected two days afterwards. This was a few weeks ago though. It might take a bit longer now.

Did they say why?

How competitive is the A&O vac scheme? I'm only a first year Law student at the moment (at Cambridge) and A&O is where I really want to be in a few years time!

Reply 4

Teebs

Hazarding a guess, very. :tongue:

Reply 5

TommehR

jcb914

Did they say why?

How competitive is the A&O vac scheme? I'm only a first year Law student at the moment (at Cambridge) and A&O is where I really want to be in a few years time!

Well, my dad knows some partners at A&O, and one of them got the Graduate Recruitment Manager to call my dad up and go through my application.

From what my dad told me, they put a lot of stock in a question that asks about a major challenge that you have faced and how you overcame it. They also make quite a lot of reference to this sort of thing on their Grad Recruitment website. My answer to this question was really very poor and was the main reason why I was rejected.

The other part that apparently let my application down was that my answer to the question 'why do you want to become a lawyer?' was a bit too philosophical and wasn't personal enough. You really need to put a lot of personality into your answers to these questions. "I want to become a lawyer because I have these motivations..."

My grades were just about the right side of okay. I only got a 61 average which they said was acceptable for first-year results, but they'd expect more in the second-year. Apparently they really look at Contract marks, and my 60 in that subject was at the lowest end of acceptable.

All in all, it was actually pretty useful getting rejected and getting that feedback. It's certainly helped me with all my other applications and made me rethink and rewrite some answers.

If you are really hoping to get to A&O, make sure you work hard in your exams and get at least a 2:1 average in the first year, and if you don't have anything that you could put for the major challenge question, you have a year to set yourself a challenge and attempt to overcome it. I can't emphasise that enough.