Time
Online
An awareness of the pressures of time is crucial if you are to succeed; you must give the requisite amount of time to your future career. You must spend time researching firms/chambers you like; planning how to get work experience; and filling out, refining, checking (and having someone else check) your application forms. Start early, have a schedule and be strict with yourself. Last-
Your online presence may currently be dominated by photos of debauched holiday antics and lewd comments, and you need to be aware that recruiters may be Googling your name! So it can be beneficial to build up a more ‘professional’ social media profile than your Facebook account offers. LinkedIn is great for maintaining a line of contact with the legal professionals you will be meeting, while Twitter can also be useful to follow the legal world’s big influencers and stay up to the minute with the latest news and issues.
minute, rushed efforts are almost worse than no effort at all.
15
Experience
Commerciality
You need a combination of work experience (both
The legal world is part of the business world. If you harbour any ambitions to work for a commercial law firm, it is essential to develop a good understanding of the issues and events affecting businesses. Read the Financial Times and The Economist from time to time, and try
legal and otherwise) and extracurricular activities to become the all-rounder that firms/chambers want to hire. One without the other isn’t enough; having both strings to your bow is what will help you demonstrate, in a quantifiable way, that you are a complete human being and worth the organisation investing in you as a future employee.
to appreciate the appropriate legal issues thrown up by your studies from a commercial perspective.
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