THE LONDON LAW STUDENT JOURNEY: WORK EXPERIENCE
- Before Law School
- During Law School
- After Law School (to be posted)
Each post discusses my work experience and examples of how I wrote about them on my successful applications.
Through the London Law Student Journey so far, I have discussed my educational background and the extra curricular activities that I had in order to give a little bit of detail on how I went from being a law student to working in tech, to finally receiving an offer from Clifford Chance on their new tech training contract, IGNITE.
In the last part, I thought I would address in separate posts my work experience journey from before law school, during law school and after graduating. Each period represents a different stage and I thought it would be more relevant to address each separately.
Rome was not built in a day
The key message that I want to convey through this part is that yes it is a daunting process and when you are first starting out it seems insurmountable. Looking back, I wish I had appreciated sooner that Rome was not built in a day.
It can sometimes take a little bit of time to get to where you want to be, and that’s ok and more common than you might realise. If anything, the process forced me to really reflect on whether or not my applications were strong, or if I needed to work on other aspects of my profile and better understand my reasons for wanting to pursue a career in law. As some of my readers may know, in my second year, I decided to hold off on actively submitting applications and instead focused on discovering whether I actually wanted to be a lawyer and if so what that meant for me. I believe taking the time to do this helped me to make a well informed decision in the end, as well as presenting a strong application.
Lastly, rather than comparing and doubting if I was worthy, I wish I had also gained sooner the appreciation of being able to embrace the journey and the need to start where you are with what you have. No piece of experience is “not good enough”, rather it’s a building block towards what you are ultimately aiming for.
Start where you are with what you have
You don’t have to have been on 20 vacation schemes to demonstrate your suitability to a career in the law. Don’t write off any part of your story or journey as not good enough, but instead reflect and assess where you are, and areas you need to improve on, then work from there.
It all matters and I would encourage that you don’t do yourself a disservice by thinking that you don’t have enough experiences when you might do! Bringing all these things together comes then, the ability to be able to tell your story compellingly on the application by bringing all these elements together.
I hope the following posts help you on your own journey by providing insight.