Should I do a vacation scheme?

Many firms recruit either predominantly or exclusively from their vacation schemes. From a firm’s perspective, it’s their way of seeing what you’re actually like working in an office environment, in their firm and with your potential future colleagues.

It’s also useful for you to see whether you’d actually like to work at that particular firm, practising that type of law.

Vacation schemes are, however, anything but a vacation!

They are essentially a one or two week long interview, where you’re being assessed through formal assessments, by your supervisors and from feedback from any other firm staff you interact with.

There’s also the time commitment. If you’re a full time student, you may be wanting to use your time off from university as a well deserved break from your studies. As a mature candidate or a career changer, you’ll probably need to either use your annual leave or request unpaid leave from your employer.

So I’d recommend undertaking a vacation scheme only if the firm you are wanting to train at predominantly or exclusively recruits from their vacation schemes. If not and the firm has a viable direct training contract application route, I’d only then apply for the vacation scheme if I had not previously completed a formal vacation scheme at firm’s competitor.

Firms respect and value vacation schemes on an applicant’s CV. Everyone knows how competitive it is to get a place on a vacation scheme and undertaking a vacation scheme demonstrates your commitment and interest in a legal career.

The previous vacation scheme though probably needs to have been completed at a competitor - e.g. if you’re doing a direct tc app to a City firm, you probably need to have completed a vacation scheme at another City firm. That’s because you’ll have experienced a similar office environment and been exposed to broadly similar practice areas. It may be harder, for example, to convince a recruiter on a direct tc app that you’re interested in training at their regional firm if you’re only formal legal work experience was at a US firm.

I know however that there a number of success stories of applicants being offered training contracts without having undertaken a vacation scheme or not having undertaking a scheme at the same type of firm they ultimately applied to directly for a training contract. A vacation scheme will stand you out on a direct training contract application but not having completed one shouldn’t be an issue if you can demonstrate through your work experience your interest and comittment to a legal career, practising the type of law your target firm specialises in.