All About Law | Training Contracts | Vacation Schemes | Law School | Law Careers

A constantly re-occurring theme for me is the ‘if only I had known this then’ issue. Considering so many things can only be truly understood once you have gone through them, it is very difficult to make a reasoned judgement in the beginning. Much can be said of this at pre-uni.

Looking back, I really did have no clue. Seriously. At the time I thought I had everything covered and nicely planned out but the reality of it is I was completely naive to so many things. This was most obvious in my understand of each career and what was involved.

Consider this a brief attempt for me to speak to the 17/18 year old Paul!

I recently had quite a prolonged discussion with a graduate recruiter on the secrets of application success.  The conclusion? There are no none unfortunately. She remarked that she is constantly asked by students, careers advisors and even careers information sites such as ourselves about any secret tips or guides to getting through to the next round.

Tricky one this…well lets lay down the facts.

So how to we feel about the prospects for the job market this year? Most indicators seem to be pointing towards an increase in graduate places this year and from the discussions we’ve been having with recruiters over the last few weeks that certainly seems to be the case. One issue that could prove particularly tricky however is the amount of graduates from last year that missed out.

There can be no doubt about this. Universities are not in a good financial situation right now. Having spoken to various law lecturers around the country over the last two months the common theme has been about the ‘big squeeze’. One law admissions tutor who had been in the same position during the last recession said cutbacks will be deep and wide ranging.

Having gone through the process myself a few years ago, that nagging feeling in the back of my mind screaming, ‘what’s the point, they’re not going to read it anyway,’ was hard to ignore. We all know the statistics. Rarely will you apply for a training contract, vacation scheme or pupillage with any less than 20 to 30 candidates per place (and that is being conservative). With all this considered though, I still think if you put in the necessary effort, you have every chance of success.

This is going to be the first in a long list of rants, ramblings and (hopefully) a few little gems on the way to helping you all get a career in law! We've been quietly preparing this site over the last few months following the masses of feedback that we had received over the last 12 months.