Future Trainee Series: Work Experience

Future Trainee Panel Series - Making the Most of Work Experience in Applications Guests: - Ash Shetty, White & Case - Josh Kelly, Ropes & Gray - Caius Ramsden-Board, Gibson Dunn In this episode, three future trainees share practical advice on how to use work experience to strengthen training contract and vacation scheme applications, stand out in interviews and demonstrate the skills law firms are looking for. Key topics include: • Identifying transferable skills from non-legal roles and explaining how they apply to being a trainee solicitor. • Demonstrating your impact by describing what you did, how you contributed, what you learned and using tangible examples or metrics where possible. • Connecting work experience to the role of a trainee solicitor by drawing parallels between your responsibilities and the work lawyers do. • Gaining experience without relying solely on formal legal placements, including commercial awareness competitions, pro bono clinics and virtual work experience programmes. • Using firm-specific virtual work experience to understand trainee tasks, explore practice areas and prepare for interviews. • Making your experiences stand out by reflecting on what you learned, how it shaped your interests and what it taught you about working with clients. • Explaining why commercial law by drawing on a range of experiences, including those outside commercial practice, to develop a genuine and personal motivation for the career. • Communicating clearly with clients by showing how you can explain complicated information in accessible, practical terms. The key takeaway is that work experience is about more than where you worked. It is about what you contributed, the skills you developed and how convincingly you can explain their relevance to a legal career. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:30 How Work Experience Helps Secure a Training Contract 01:23 Transferable Skills From Non-Legal Roles 02:32 Demonstrating Your Impact 03:09 Using Tangible Examples and Metrics 04:05 Is Legal Work Experience Essential? 05:20 Commercial Awareness Competitions 06:27 Pro Bono Clinics & Virtual Work Experience 07:39 Making Hospitality Experience Relevant 08:22 Experiences That Stand Out in Interviews 09:56 Using Different Experiences to Explain Why Commercial Law 10:20 Learning Commercial Skills Through Business Experience 11:57 Finding Personal Motivation for a Legal Career 12:38 Key Takeaways & Final Advice