How to Get Called for a Training Contract Interview
The elusive TC. A prize to be seized amidst the competitive legal market. Follow this helpful guide (and avoid the common pitfalls) to maximize your chances of getting called up for an interview:
1. The Why
Before you embark on any concrete steps, you need to be sure about your why. Know who you are, what you want and where you want to go.
Do ample research on the firms, speak to friends, seniors or a lawyer in practice about the different fields of practice, firm culture and conversion rates (how many trainees the firm takes in and how many they actually retain).
If you do not have any seniors you can speak to, you can drop us a note at info@successgogo.com and we will link you up with a lawyer from our network.
2. The Ask
If you have followed the first step above, you should have narrowed down the pool of firms that you wish to apply to. This is important. Firms can tell that you are just blindly applying to all firms, and that you are not genuinely interested (or have done sufficient research) about their firm. Which leads us to the next point, your Cover Letter and CV should be tailored to each individual firm.
Your CV is perhaps the most important document in the application process. It forms the bedrock of the firm’s decision-making process. As a general guide, law firms look primarily for (i) academic excellence; (ii) prior legal experience (internships, mooting, pro-bono etc); and to a lesser extent (iii) leadership and/or volunteering activities. As a general guide, your CV should not be more than one page long (if you really have to, 2 pages is fine), and there should be NO formatting, grammatical or spelling errors. Attention to detail is a prerequisite of any successful lawyer, and you need to demonstrate that you have such basic skill-sets from the get-go.
Ensure that your CV is tailored to the firm and the department you are applying to. Corporate and Litigation are different and the skill-sets and relevant experience that you wish to highlight for each are different. For instance, mooting experience is important for future litigators but less so for corporate lawyers.
Your cover letter should be concise, and tailored to the firm in question. Give a brief introduction about yourself and your motivations for wanting to be a lawyer, and write about why you want to join the firm and that department. It's okay to add a personal touch, maybe you want to join WongP's ECM practice because of your hobby in stock trading, or maybe you want to join R&T's Commercial Litigation team because of your love of substantive law. Whatever you write, do know that you will be asked about it at the interview, so please paint a consistent picture.
Write your Cover Letter and CV for the partner who will be your future boss, and not for the HR department. It is the practitioner who ultimately decides whether to call you up for the interview, and whether to offer you the elusive training contract.
Lastly, a shameless bump, please do submit your Cover Letter and CV to us. We are a social enterprise that includes a large panel of volunteer lawyers from Big 4 and international firms. An appropriate practitioner will review your Cover Letter/CV and provide comments to improve. Submit your application and take a look at more resources tailored for law students at www.sucessgogo.com.
3. The Result
Law firms take anywhere between 3 days to 3 months to get back to you. If you are extremely eager for a response, you may call HR to politely enquire if they have received your application or in your cover email, include the line “kindly acknowledge receipt of this email”. Be optimistic, don’t stress and let the process take care of itself. Try not to pester or demand a response from HR, as that usually elicits a negative response.
HR will schedule an interview likely within a week from the date that you are contacted. In this regard, we strong recommend preparing for the interview in advance. You may access our list of commonly asked interview questions for a training contract here.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions on the above or if you have any queries on the practice of law in Singapore generally. Best of luck with applications!
Download a PDF copy of this guide below:
1. The Why
Before you embark on any concrete steps, you need to be sure about your why. Know who you are, what you want and where you want to go.
Do ample research on the firms, speak to friends, seniors or a lawyer in practice about the different fields of practice, firm culture and conversion rates (how many trainees the firm takes in and how many they actually retain).
If you do not have any seniors you can speak to, you can drop us a note at info@successgogo.com and we will link you up with a lawyer from our network.
2. The Ask
If you have followed the first step above, you should have narrowed down the pool of firms that you wish to apply to. This is important. Firms can tell that you are just blindly applying to all firms, and that you are not genuinely interested (or have done sufficient research) about their firm. Which leads us to the next point, your Cover Letter and CV should be tailored to each individual firm.
Your CV is perhaps the most important document in the application process. It forms the bedrock of the firm’s decision-making process. As a general guide, law firms look primarily for (i) academic excellence; (ii) prior legal experience (internships, mooting, pro-bono etc); and to a lesser extent (iii) leadership and/or volunteering activities. As a general guide, your CV should not be more than one page long (if you really have to, 2 pages is fine), and there should be NO formatting, grammatical or spelling errors. Attention to detail is a prerequisite of any successful lawyer, and you need to demonstrate that you have such basic skill-sets from the get-go.
Ensure that your CV is tailored to the firm and the department you are applying to. Corporate and Litigation are different and the skill-sets and relevant experience that you wish to highlight for each are different. For instance, mooting experience is important for future litigators but less so for corporate lawyers.
Your cover letter should be concise, and tailored to the firm in question. Give a brief introduction about yourself and your motivations for wanting to be a lawyer, and write about why you want to join the firm and that department. It's okay to add a personal touch, maybe you want to join WongP's ECM practice because of your hobby in stock trading, or maybe you want to join R&T's Commercial Litigation team because of your love of substantive law. Whatever you write, do know that you will be asked about it at the interview, so please paint a consistent picture.
Write your Cover Letter and CV for the partner who will be your future boss, and not for the HR department. It is the practitioner who ultimately decides whether to call you up for the interview, and whether to offer you the elusive training contract.
Lastly, a shameless bump, please do submit your Cover Letter and CV to us. We are a social enterprise that includes a large panel of volunteer lawyers from Big 4 and international firms. An appropriate practitioner will review your Cover Letter/CV and provide comments to improve. Submit your application and take a look at more resources tailored for law students at www.sucessgogo.com.
3. The Result
Law firms take anywhere between 3 days to 3 months to get back to you. If you are extremely eager for a response, you may call HR to politely enquire if they have received your application or in your cover email, include the line “kindly acknowledge receipt of this email”. Be optimistic, don’t stress and let the process take care of itself. Try not to pester or demand a response from HR, as that usually elicits a negative response.
HR will schedule an interview likely within a week from the date that you are contacted. In this regard, we strong recommend preparing for the interview in advance. You may access our list of commonly asked interview questions for a training contract here.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions on the above or if you have any queries on the practice of law in Singapore generally. Best of luck with applications!
Download a PDF copy of this guide below:
| how_to_get_a_training_contract.pdf |
Offered an interview? Prepare for your interview here.