Is applying for vac schemes a necessity?

I'm a law student, gonna go into my final year in September so I should be applying for vac schemes now ready to do them over summer. I'm fairly certain I don't want to be a lawyer (solicitor or barrister) and the concept of vac schemes and the interview process for them really doesn't sound applying to me. But I don't have any clue what I actually want to do after uni and may end up "wanting" to become a solicitor as a fallback plan. So should I be applying to vac schemes in case I do decide to become a solicitor? or would it be possible to decide on that route later without having done a vac scheme in the summer of this year? My uni kinda makes it seem like they are the be all and end all but people from my college who have interviewed for them said other candidates were mid-late 20s graduates who had been working for a few years before deciding to do the vac scheme. At the minute I'm putting off researching/applying for them because the thought of it just fills me with dread and I know how much I really won't enjoy it.

Reply 1

chalks

The original intention of vac schemes was to give students like you a real, tangible insight into life as a commercial/corporate lawyer. Those schemes have slightly morphed now into becoming an extended interview and are rightly prized by students as a stepping stone to training contracts. As such, they are hugely competitive to secure.

I would be surprised if there are many "career changers" on those schemes who are already working in other roles: they are very much targeted at undergrads. So, if you decide to change tack in a few years time then I don't think that avenue is necessarily for you.

What is it about the profession that doesn't appeal?

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Realistically you're going to need relevant work experience from internships or vacation schemes to get any graduate job. It doesn't really matter whether that's a vac scheme or some other internship - the point is you need to be able to show you did something other than just turn up to lectures and sit exams while you were at uni.

Not getting any relevant work experience during your summers at uni is a surefire way to make finding a grad job even harder than it already is.

Reply 3

Stiffy Byng

I suggest that applying for vacation placements would be pointless, because you aren't aiming to be a lawyer. The competition for entry level positions in the legal profession is so intense that becoming a lawyer because you can't think of anything else you want to do is not a realistic option.

It might be better to figure out what you do want to do than to go through the motions of preparing to do something which you don't want to do. Society pushes us all to be in a hurry, but you could resist that pressure and spend some time after university doing various things, including short terms jobs to fund ordinary living and perhaps some travelling, whilst working out what you would like to do in the medium to long term.

Several of my friends at university did that for several years, and they all eventually found something which made them happy and brought them success.

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 4

chalks

I couldn't agree more.

Even when I was at Uni (squillions of years ago), there was a real sense of being on a conveyor belt for the legal profession. Trying to get some lame work experience in first year holidays, applying for vac schemes early in your second year, then training contract applications, dashing off to law school and then (if you were lucky) starting a training contract in London. At no point did you really feel you had an opportunity to pause, take stock and make an active decision. That was particularly the case coming (as many of you might) from a family where I was the first to go to Uni and we had little understanding of what options were out there.

The irony of this is that many applications and interviews ask (i) why do you want to be a lawyer, (ii) why do you want to work in "City Law" and (iii) why do you want to work for us? When you're 20, not long out of school, these are ridiculously difficult questions and answers inevitably seem naive. Far better, perhaps, to build some life experience and make a proactive decision to join the profession when you can justify and evidence that decision.

I would also echo Stiffy's point about trying to work out what YOU want to do. If you mull over this and use phrases such as "I should do X" then you may be looking down the wrong path. Are you feeling pressured by external factors (friends, family, society) to pursue a particular route? Is it just the "done thing" to follow this path? Or can you actually use the phrase "I want to do X"?

Reply 5

Stiffy Byng

Hippy-philosopher Alan Watts is a bit hackneyed, these days, but his talk on "What would you do if money was no object?" still makes the valid point that it is better to do something that you like, become good at that thing, and thereby make a living from doing it, than to do something that you don't like just for money, family approval, or some other notion of status.

Reply 6

ane332

Original post

by chalks

The original intention of vac schemes was to give students like you a real, tangible insight into life as a commercial/corporate lawyer. Those schemes have slightly morphed now into becoming an extended interview and are rightly prized by students as a stepping stone to training contracts. As such, they are hugely competitive to secure.
I would be surprised if there are many "career changers" on those schemes who are already working in other roles: they are very much targeted at undergrads. So, if you decide to change tack in a few years time then I don't think that avenue is necessarily for you.
What is it about the profession that doesn't appeal?

For most vacation schemes you can apply if your an undergrad, graduated or career changer.